In today’s episode, I chat with Katy George, McKinsey’s chief people officer and a leader in the firm’s Operations Practice. In her role, Katy is responsible for McKinsey’s global people functions, including professional development and learning, recruiting, human resources, performance evaluation, and people analytics. She is also a member of the Shareholders Council, the firm’s equivalent of the board of directors, and their 15-person global leadership team.

In recent years, Katy has focused on advanced technology development, adoption and the workforce development necessary to capitalize on innovation. And that was the starting point for a wide-ranging discussion that covered, among other topics, labor economics, global workforce demographics, and the shift to skills. 

As organizations and their leaders reevaluate talent strategies that got them this far, Katy’s unique vantage point advances a discussion that puts the employee at the centre and delivers outpaced growth for those who deploy it.

This was another bucket-list conversation and I hope you enjoy as much as I did recording it.

Katy George

Since joining the firm, Katy has partnered with clients on their transformations, including operational performance improvement, operations strategy linked to business strategy, and operating model design.

She has led programs around product launch, manufacturing network configuration and plant performance, end-to-end sourcing and supply chain optimization, and quality system effectiveness. Katy has also worked with companies on digitizing their sales and marketing approaches, as well as their operations, making technology platform decisions, and transforming organization structures.

In recent years, Katy has focused on advanced technology development and adoption, and the workforce development required to capture the value from these new technologies. She coleads McKinsey’s partnership with MxD, a 250-member consortium of leading government academic and corporate organizations. Her industry experience includes work in the pharmaceutical, medical-device, consumer-goods, and aerospace industries. All her work includes a focus on capability building to support sustained performance improvement.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Katy worked as an associate analyst at an economic consulting firm. Her doctoral work focused on production system design and supply chain improvements in assembly industries. Katy works actively with Episcopal Relief & Development, an international relief and development agency.


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Matt Burns

Matt Burns is an award-winning executive, social entrepreneur and speaker. He believes in the power of community, simplicity & technology.

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