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Thomas Meakin

Senior PartnerLondon

Serves technology, media, and telecoms companies on their most challenging strategic, commercial, and operational issues.

Tom serves as the global co-leader of McKinsey’s Consumer Technology & Media Practice, where he coordinates our client service to companies in this industry and the investors that own them.

Since joining McKinsey, he has supported companies in television, filmed entertainment, video gaming, news, and sports as well as online marketplaces, social media, and other technology-enabled businesses. He works with teams of partners who create change with these institutions, bringing the best of McKinsey’s expertise in transformation, data and analytics and functional areas like marketing, sales, procurement, and operations.

Tom has a passion for analytics. He led the scale-up of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, following its acquisition by McKinsey in 2015. In this role, he was responsible for growing QuantumBlack around the world to keep pace with client demands, defining its strategy with McKinsey, and sustaining its performance and health as the company scaled. He brings this expertise to help his clients in technology, media, telecoms, and beyond.

Tom stepped away from McKinsey between 2015 and 2017 to launch a direct-to-consumer TV business and grew it to more than one million customers as COO. He serves on the development trust at Magdalen College, Oxford, and on the corporate advisory board at the Natural History Museum in London.

Published Work

The arts in the UK: Seeing the big picture,” McKinsey & Company, November 2023

Winning with AI is a state of mind,” McKinsey & Company, April 2021

Short-term pain for long-term gain: The new CEO’s dilemma,” McKinsey Quarterly, April 2019

Closing the gender gap: A missed opportunity for new CEOs,” McKinsey Quarterly, October 2018

What makes a CEO ‘exceptional’?,” McKinsey Quarterly, April 2017

How functional leaders become CEOs,” McKinsey Quarterly, April 2017

A deal-making strategy for new CEOs,” McKinsey Quarterly, April 2017

How new CEOs can boost their odds of success,” McKinsey Quarterly, May 2016

Past Experience

freenet TV
COO

United States Senate
Legislative assistant

Education

Magdalen College, Oxford
BA, history