Robert Sternfels is an American businessman who will be managing partner of McKinsey & Company from July 2021.[1]
Bob leads McKinsey’s client capabilities globally, which includes our industry practices, our functional areas, and our innovation priorities. He focuses on connecting McKinsey clients worldwide with the best, most relevant expertise in the firm. He also focuses on shaping the firm’s future capabilities to better meet the needs of our clients.
Bob is a member of McKinsey’s Shareholders Council (our board of directors) and our executive team. Previously, he led our new innovations, growing these capabilities to approximately half of the firm’s revenues today. Before that, Bob led the Operations Practice in the Americas and the Private Equity & Principal Investors Practice globally. He has been with McKinsey for 25 years and has worked with colleagues in nearly every office around the world, including a 6-year stint living in Johannesburg.
Bob serves on the board of QuestBridge, on the advisory board of USA Water Polo, and as a trustee of the Rhodes Trust. He is also an enthusiastic private pilot.
McKinsey & Company is an American worldwide management consulting firm, founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that advises on strategic management to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and largest of the "Big Three" management consultancies (MBB), the world's three largest strategy consulting firms by revenue. It has consistently been recognized by Vault as the most prestigious consulting firm in the world.[3]
Under the leadership of Marvin Bower, McKinsey expanded into Europe during the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s, McKinsey's Fred Gluck—along with Boston Consulting Group's Bruce Henderson, Bill Bain at Bain & Company, and Harvard Business School's Michael Porter—transformed corporate culture.[4][5] A 1975 publication by McKinsey's John L. Neuman introduced the business practice of "overhead value analysis" that contributed to a downsizing trend that eliminated many jobs in middle management.[6][7]
