Decision Partners

What Decision Partners does

Decision Partners is a privately held, Canada-based behavioral decision research consulting firm founded in 1994 and headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario. The firm helps leaders in public, private, and not-for-profit organizations make better decisions by systematically understanding influences on stakeholder judgment, decision making, and behavior. Its work spans energy, infrastructure, environment, health care, public health, occupational health and safety, emergency preparedness, organizational transformation, and, more recently, operational resilience and climate change adaptation.

The firm's core intellectual asset is its proprietary Mental Modeling Insight™ (MMI) methodology — an evidence-based, science-informed management process and integrated suite of methods and tools for policy, strategy, and communication design. MMI is grounded in cognitive psychology, decision science, risk management, risk perception, and risk communication research, and is codified through publications including the 2017 Springer book 'Mental Modeling Approach: Risk Management Application Case Studies.' The research capability is anchored by Chief Scientist Baruch Fischhoff (National Academy of Sciences member and Howard Heinz University Professor at Carnegie Mellon) and Senior Scientist Daniel Kovacs (PhD, Carnegie Mellon), with delivery supported by a distributed team across Ontario, Canada and the US.

Revenue is generated through project-based professional consulting engagements acquired via direct, relationship-driven sales. Primary customer segments are public organizations (notably a 14-year partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers supporting the Engineering With Nature Program and co-producing the EWN Podcast initiated in 2020), private sector firms in energy and infrastructure, and not-for-profit organizations. Marketing relies on thought leadership, scientific publications, organic social media, and podcast co-production rather than paid acquisition, with no disclosed funding rounds, acquisitions, or material leadership changes.

Name

Decision Partners

Legal name

Decision Partners

Website

https://decisionpartners.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Decision Partners is a privately held behavioral decision research consulting firm, founded in 1994, that applies its proprietary Mental Modeling Insight™ methodology to help public, private, and not-for-sector leaders address stakeholder judgment and risk communication challenges across energy, environment, public health, and infrastructure.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Mississauga

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Professional Consulting Services: Project-based consulting engagements with public, private and not-for-profit organizations addressing risk management, risk communications and stakeholder engagement challenges. Revenue generated through client engagements focused on applying the Mental Modeling Insight methodology.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Decision Partners provides behavioral decision research consulting built around its proprietary Mental Modeling Insight™ (MMI) methodology, an evidence-based management process for systematically understanding influences on people's judgment, decision making and behaviour. The firm delivers advisory services in risk management, risk communications, stakeholder engagement, organizational transformation, and operational resilience to public, private, and not-for-profit organizations across sectors including energy, infrastructure, environment, public health, and climate change adaptation.

Product overview

Decision Partners is a behavioral decision research consulting firm offering the Mental Modeling Insight™ (MMI) methodology as its core approach. The company provides advisory services including risk management consulting, stakeholder engagement, and organizational change support across sectors such as energy, environment, public health, and operational resilience. Additionally, Decision Partners co-produces the Engineering With Nature Podcast for the US Army Corps of Engineers. The company has also authored publications including the book Mental Modeling Approach: Risk Management Application Case Studies. Decision Partners is not a software product company but rather a science-based consulting practice.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Mental Modeling Insight™ (MMI) Consulting Engagements Evidence-based, science-informed consulting engagements built on the Mental Modeling Insight™ (MMI) methodology, systematically addressing stakeholder judgment, decision making, and behaviour for client organizations across public, private, and not-for-profit sectors.
• Risk Management and Stakeholder Engagement Consulting Advisory services helping clients address challenges related to organizational change and transformation, public health and safety, energy, environment, operational resilience, climate change adaptation, healthcare, occupational health and safety, emergency preparedness, and organizational sustainability.

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• US Army Corps of EngineerscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2010Decision Partners has been supporting the US Army Corps of Engineers' Engineering With Nature Program since its inception in 2010. The partnership involves advancing natural and nature-based solutions through behavioral decision research. Decision Partners co-produces and hosts the Engineering With Nature Podcast for USACE, which promotes stories of scientists, engineers, planners, policy-makers and others supporting nature-based solutions.
• Carnegie Mellon UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey team member Baruch Fischhoff serves as Howard Heinz University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Institute for Politics and Strategy and Department of Engineering and Public Policy. The company maintains academic partnerships through faculty connections for research methodology development, particularly in the mental models research approach applied to public understanding of technical and social issues.
• Springer (Publishing)minorOthersPublication partnership for the book 'Mental Modeling Approach: Risk Management Application Case Studies' published by Springer in 2017. Authors include Sarah Thorne and Daniel Kovacs from Decision Partners.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Tetra Tech: Engineering and environmental consulting firm with extensive USACE and federal water infrastructure work. Comparable on the client overlap (USACE, nature-based solutions, infrastructure) but operates as a much larger engineering-led firm rather than a behavioral-research specialist.
• ICF International: Large publicly traded consulting firm with deep federal and energy clients, including multi-disciplinary stakeholder engagement and behavioral research capabilities. Overlaps with Decision Partners in energy and public-sector stakeholder engagement work but at much larger scale and broader portfolio.
• Charles River Associates: Global consulting firm with a behavioral and decision sciences practice serving regulated industries and government. Comparable in offering specialized research-based advisory, though framed more around economics and litigation support than environmental stakeholder engagement.
• RAND Corporation: Nonprofit research institution with deep expertise in behavioral and decision sciences applied to public policy and federal clients. Comparable in delivering behavioral decision research to government clients, though at a much larger institutional scale.
• Ipsos Public Affairs: Global market research and public opinion firm with extensive public-sector and energy stakeholder engagement work. Comparable in delivering stakeholder research at scale, though as a generalist rather than a behavioral-decision-research specialist.
• ERM (Environmental Resources Management): Global environmental, health, safety, and sustainability consultancy with a stakeholder engagement practice. Competes with Decision Partners in energy, infrastructure, and environment projects where stakeholder judgment is a key delivery risk.

Emerging players

• Edge Research: US-based research and strategy firm focused on message research, public engagement, and stakeholder insights for nonprofits, foundations, and advocacy organizations. Comparable in applying behavioral research to stakeholder communication, with overlapping focus on public-interest missions.

Direct peers

• Decision Research: Eugene, Oregon-based nonprofit research organization founded on decision sciences research by the late Paul Slovic. Directly comparable to Decision Partners in applying behavioral decision research to real-world risk and policy problems, and shares intellectual lineage with the mental models tradition.
• Risk Sciences International: Ottawa-based consulting firm spun out of Risk Analytics and Decision Sciences at the University of Ottawa, providing risk analysis, risk communication, and decision-support services. Closest North American peer in scale, geography, and methodology footprint to Decision Partners.
• Strategic Decisions Group: Management consulting firm specializing in decision strategy, risk analysis, and portfolio decision-making for energy and infrastructure clients. Comparable to Decision Partners in applying decision science to complex infrastructure and energy engagements, with a similar professional services model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/decisionpartner
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/517651

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Decision Partners