House Strategies Group was co-founded in 2015 by Maurice House and his son Jelani — a family-led consulting firm grounded in excellence, integrity, and public service. We are senior practitioners who have spent careers inside government programs, capital markets, federal financial advisory, and public-sector treasury and investment advisory — and we bring that depth to every client we serve.
The story of House Strategies Group begins not with a business plan, but with a career spent in service — and a vision for what that service could become.
House Strategies Group was co-founded in 2015 by Maurice House and his son, Jelani — the expression of a long-held aspiration to build a family-led consulting firm grounded in excellence, integrity, and public service. Maurice had risen through the ranks of the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service to the level of Minister Counselor, representing the United States in critical international trade and food-security negotiations across four continents over more than three decades.
For years he held a quiet ambition — to channel a lifetime of leadership into an institution that could carry those standards into the private sector and grow alongside the next generation. It was his son, Jelani — by then building his own career in federal finance and housing — who recognized that ambition and gave it form, conceiving House Strategies Group as the vehicle to realize it. Together, father and son founded the firm in 2015.
The founding vision was never simply to build a profitable consultancy. It was to build an institution — one that stewards public programs with care, delivers lasting value to its clients, and supports a new generation of professionals in doing meaningful work.
For its first years HSG grew alongside the family’s federal careers. In 2024, Jelani committed to the firm full-time as Principal Consultant — building the operational infrastructure to match that founding ambition, including a DCAA-approved accounting system and federal-grade quality assurance, and scaling HSG into the AI-enabled, multi-practice advisory it is today — one that now reaches beyond its federal roots to evaluate public investment pools and treasury portfolios under California Government Code §53601.
Every HSG engagement is led by senior practitioners who are personally invested in your outcomes — not handed off to junior staff once the contract is signed.
Maurice built one of the most distinguished careers in U.S. agricultural diplomacy — a Foreign Agricultural Service officer spanning four decades, four continents, and some of the most consequential bilateral trade relationships in U.S. history. Together with his son Jelani, he co-founded HSG to channel that lifetime of leadership into something that would outlast any single engagement.
Jelani conceived House Strategies Group in 2015 and co-founded it with his father, committing to the firm full-time in 2024. He is a management consultant and federal program advisor with 20+ years of cross-sector experience. His career spans capital markets analytics, housing finance, federal credit programs, pandemic relief administration, and enterprise program management — at firms including Guidehouse, Novad Management Consulting, and Emax Partners, as well as through HSG's own direct engagements.
Our experience runs broad and deep — across disciplines, agencies, and program types. These are the areas where we bring the most direct, senior-level expertise.
Federal financial advisory, portfolio modeling, budget analysis, and credit risk assessment — across HUD, VA, USDA, Ginnie Mae, and the Federal Reserve.
Treasury and investment-pool evaluation, fixed-income portfolio analysis, public-funds investing, and total-return benchmarking — including California Government Code §53601 compliance and board-ready reporting for public treasurers and oversight committees.
Federal lease administration, EUL and PPV program support, public-private transactions, and real property compliance across VA, HUD, and Navy portfolios.
Workforce strategy, organizational design, PMO operations, business process reengineering, and expert witness support — results-driven engagements from assessment through execution.
State & local classification and compensation studies — position description rewrites, factor evaluation, comparator benchmarking, bargaining-unit coordination, and Board / Council presentations. Active pursuits in Alameda County, Jefferson City, and Las Virgenes (Calabasas) — not yet awarded.
Regulatory analysis, legislative research, litigation support, and strategic communications — helping clients navigate the policy landscape with clarity and confidence.
Building production AI products — our GovCert.ai certification platform and a suite of engagement portals — and advising agencies on Responsible AI: governance frameworks, risk management, and assurance for agentic and generative systems. We write the code and the guardrails.
We are not a transactional firm. We are partners who care deeply about your program, your outcomes, and the people your work ultimately serves.
We are emotionally tied to client outcomes. Every deliverable, every engagement, every relationship is approached with the conviction that your success is our success — and we will do whatever it takes to make sure your experience with us is exceptional.
Our analysis is honest, even when it's inconvenient. We don't tell clients what they want to hear — we tell them what they need to know, backed by evidence, experience, and structured reasoning that can withstand scrutiny.
We are building an institution, not managing a portfolio of contracts. Every engagement is an opportunity to strengthen a program, develop a professional, and leave something better than we found it — for our clients and for the people they serve.
We are a focused firm with a deliberate model. What sets us apart isn't a sales pitch — it's how we show up for every client, every engagement.
We don't aim to replicate the large consulting firms — we aim to do something they structurally cannot: show up fully, every time, with senior practitioners who are personally accountable for your outcomes. Our clients don't get handed off. They get us — and we take that seriously.
Our team has spent careers inside federal agencies, capital markets teams, and public program offices. We understand how decisions get made, how compliance works in practice, and how to deliver work that actually moves programs forward — not just satisfies a deliverable checklist.
SBA 8(a) certification enables direct award and set-aside contracting for qualifying federal clients. Our pending GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) will expand access further — making it easier for agencies and public sector organizations to engage HSG quickly and compliantly.
We are actively building AI capabilities — bringing in new talent and tools to enhance how we research, analyze, and deliver. We are not claiming transformation we haven't earned. We are making deliberate, measured investments to lead where it matters most for the clients we serve.
Whether you're a federal agency, a public sector organization, or a private client looking for a partner who will genuinely invest in your success — we'd welcome the chance to connect.