Ernie Spence is a Managing Director at Innosight, Huron’s strategy and innovation business. He joined Innosight in September 2025 following Huron’s acquisition of Wilson Perumal & Company. Ernie works with senior leaders to improve and transform human and organizational performance, particularly in complex, high-risk operating environments. He is widely recognized for his ability to gain rapid traction and deliver measurable results against long-standing operational and cultural challenges.
Ernie has led large-scale organizational and operational transformations across government, industrial, energy, and technology-enabled organizations. His work spans organizational culture and operating model transformation, supply chain and operations transformation, leadership and supervisor development, workforce performance improvement, and change management. He has deep experience designing and implementing enterprise-wide transformation programs in large, complex organizations to align strategy, governance, processes, and decision-making to drive sustained performance improvement.
Prior to joining Innosight, Ernie was a Partner at Wilson Perumal & Company, where he co-designed the firm’s proprietary leadership development programs, supervisor behavior models, and human capital strategy frameworks. His client work includes leading enterprise transformations for U.S. Department of Defense organizations and in the energy industry, developing operational excellence management systems for energy and industrial companies, rescuing underperforming joint ventures, and implementing Agile methodologies in high-technology systems integration environments.
Before his consulting career, Ernie served 22 years in the U.S. Navy as a fighter pilot, test pilot, and commanding officer. He commanded and successfully turned around multiple F/A-18 squadrons, including the Navy’s largest and most challenged squadron, leading a workforce of approximately 1,300 personnel and overseeing more than $8 billion in mission-critical assets. In this role, he significantly improved readiness and productivity while reducing operating and maintenance costs.