Founded in 1969 as the Inner City Fund, ICF got its start as a venture capital firm with a mission to finance inner-city businesses in the Washington, D.C area of the United States. C.D. Lester, a former Tuskegee Airman, was our first president and was joined in the firm by three U.S. Department of … read moreDefense analysts. Our consulting business proved more successful than our investments and in 1972 the firm was reorganized as a consulting firm and renamed ICF Incorporated.