I spent 20+ years working with McKinsey & Company - externally from 2000, in-house from 2010 - not as a consultant, but on the internal operations side: programme delivery, governance and executive enablement, working directly with Partners, Senior Partners and global leadership.
My work sits at the point where strategy has been agreed and someone has to make it actually happen: designing operating models, building governance and reporting that leaders trust, running leadership operating rhythms, and delivering complex cross-functional programmes at global scale.
Operational lead for McKinsey's flagship global leadership programme - around 1,100 participants and 2,500+ attendees a year, a core team of 10 plus up to 15 external partners, and a multi-million-euro budget. Held full vendor authority, including a single event contract agreed by all eight host Cambridge colleges. Built an operating model so repeatable the role was split into three positions after I moved on.
Co-designed and implemented a Salesforce-based pipeline and delivery tracking system for two specialist portfolios, part of a wider delivery pool of around 50 - pipeline stages, dashboards, reporting and operating processes - then embedded it into the leadership operating rhythm so decisions ran on real data.
Owned and evolved McKinsey's global Cyber Awareness Programme, reaching 30,000+ colleagues worldwide, and served as Product Owner for a mandatory global data-risk digital training - requirements, design decisions, stakeholder alignment and worldwide launch.
Ran governance and operating rhythms for practice leadership across Europe and EEMA - 150-person forums, budgets, briefing materials, decision support and follow-through. Created a monthly update format that the Practice later adopted globally as its standard.
Partnered with Partners, Senior Partners and Co-Global Leadership on governance, operating rhythms and strategic execution across Europe and EEMA, owning operational budgets in the hundreds of thousands of euros.
Led resource planning and delivery governance across Data & Analytics and Operations portfolios - capacity management within a wider specialist delivery pool of around 50.
Strengthened programme delivery, governance and adoption at scale across the firm's cyber risk portfolio; provided functional leadership to a multidisciplinary team of 4-6.
End-to-end operational lead for the firm's flagship leadership programme - around 1,100 participants and 2,500+ attendees a year - on behalf of Firm Leadership and Senior Partners.
Managed UK office space strategy and workplace operations through a period of business growth, with direct line management of a team of 6.
