Resilience, Reimagined: Building What’s Next at West Yost

By Abigail Madrone, Business Development Director, and Andy Bochman, Resilience Strategic Lead 

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When we talk about resilience at West Yost, we recognize that resilience is not something new. At West Yost, we are building on decades of experience, extensive technical expertise, and a shared commitment to helping communities navigate uncertainty. 

What is new is how we are bringing it all together to increase value to our clients and the communities we serve. 

Since joining West Yost in December 2025 as the firm’s Resilience Strategic Lead, Andy Bochman has been guiding how we shape, define, and think about resilience across climate, cyber, infrastructure, and emerging technologies like AI. His perspective is grounded in more than a decade as an all-hazards infrastructure defender at a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory, including his time as Senior Grid Strategist at Idaho National Laboratory, where he helped pioneer approaches to system resilience and risk reduction. He is also the co-author of Countering Cyber Sabotage, a foundational resource for understanding how to design infrastructure that can withstand evolving digital threats through the application of first-principles engineering. 

At the same time, through conversations with teams and clients, it has become clear that this work is already embedded in much of what we do. 

“There’s been so much to learn, but I’m with the best teachers,” Andy shared. “Every conversation with a colleague leaves me with at least one gem. The back and forth with smart, curious, dedicated professionals is incredibly energizing.” 

That exchange of ideas is where this next chapter of resilience is taking shape. 

From Concept to Conversation 

Resilience is no longer a future-focused concept. It is becoming a central part of how we frame challenges, guide decisions, and support our clients. 

From a business development perspective, we are seeing a shift in how clients are talking about risk, reliability, and long-term planning. Questions around climate impacts, cybersecurity, and system vulnerabilities are becoming more frequent and more urgent. 

Andy sees this shift accelerating. 

“In recent months, there’s been a noticeable increase in awareness around cyber risks, climate impacts, and uncertainty around AI,” he said. “If we’re successful in launching our Resilience Services, it will be as much about timing as anything. The need is becoming very clear.” 

At the same time, Andy brings a perspective that challenges how the industry often responds to that growing complexity. 

“One of the risks we have to be mindful of,” Andy noted, “is assuming that more complexity leads to better outcomes. In many cases, it does the opposite. It introduces new vulnerabilities, new interdependencies, and makes systems harder to understand and operate.” 

This perspective is something Andy has explored more deeply in his recent piece, A Future Worth Fighting For: Simplicity vs. Complexity, where he challenges the idea that adding layers inherently improves system performance and reliability. In fact, as he highlights, complexity can actively work against resilience, creating unintended risks and cascading consequences.  

Instead, resilience calls for clarity. Thoughtful design. And in many cases, simplification. 

Connecting Across Sectors 

One of the most exciting aspects of this work is how naturally it connects across the firm. 

Resilience does not sit within a single discipline or service area. It strengthens and amplifies the work already happening across sectors, creating new pathways for collaboration and new ways to serve our clients. 

“What we’re seeing is that resilience can be both a service and a connector,” Andy explained. “Our messaging around digital, physical, and energy resilience is attracting interest. And once we understand what a client is facing, we can connect them to the right expertise across West Yost.” 

From a business development standpoint, this creates new opportunities to engage earlier, think more holistically, and position West Yost in a way that reflects the full breadth of our capabilities. 

It also reinforces something fundamental about how we approach our work. The goal is not to layer on more solutions, but to design systems that are inherently stronger, clearer, and more adaptable from the start. 

A Strength We Already Have 

One of the most important realizations in this process is that resilience is already part of our DNA. 

Across sectors, our team members have been delivering solutions that strengthen systems, reduce risk, and improve long-term performance for years. 

“One of the things that gives me confidence is the depth of experience our team members already have,” Andy shared. “We’ve been delivering resilience-enhancing solutions again and again. We just didn’t always call it that.” 

By naming it, aligning it, and communicating it more clearly, we have an opportunity to elevate that work and bring it forward in a more intentional way. 

“We’ve been delivering resilience-enhancing solutions again and again. We just didn’t always call it that.” 

Looking Ahead 

Looking forward, our focus is on integration, clarity, and impact. 

We are working toward embedding resilience into how we plan, design, and communicate our work. That includes adding resilience considerations into master plans, developing ways to measure and communicate value, and continuing to evolve how we support clients facing complex and changing risks. 

“If all goes as we intend, we’ll be embedding resilience into everything we do,” Andy said. “From resilience chapters in master plans to clearly communicating the benefits and outcomes of our work.” 

At its core, this work is about helping clients move toward systems that are not just protected by layers of defense, but strengthened through intentional design. 

For both of us, this is about more than a new service area. It is about helping our clients and communities prepare for what is ahead with confidence. 

Resilience is not a single solution. It is a way of thinking, a way of connecting ideas, and a way of delivering lasting impact. 

And at West Yost, that work is already underway.