As COVID-19 has swept around the world, heroes have emerged to care for the sick and their families, research treatments and vaccines, share information, and boost morale. Today, we want to thank everyone fighting this disease, including some of our own colleagues who have temporarily stepped away from their day jobs at McKinsey to lend their time and talent to relief efforts. We’d like to introduce you to a few of them (featured alphabetically) here. We couldn’t be prouder of them or more inspired:
Alain, engagement manager, Montreal
With the support of his McKinsey team and his family, Alain rejoined his Canadian Army unit to help with the COVID-19 response. He commands a high-readiness battalion of 650+ people with specialized capabilities. Alain shares that things have been “a wee bit busy” as his wife is also involved as an emergency physician in Montreal’s lead COVID-19 hospital. After several days of preparing and training around the clock, Alain’s battalion is now providing hundreds of medics and soldiers to help save lives in the most severely affected long-term care facilities.
Ashita, associate, New York
Ashita is an infectious disease specialist who has practiced medicine for 10+ years. She’s an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cornell and an Attending Physician at Lawrence Hospital-NYP Columbia, in addition to working as an associate at McKinsey. When COVID-19 hit her community particularly hard – she lives two miles away from the containment zone in New Rochelle – she knew she had to act. She shared two posts on social media to start educating others, received 100s of questions and penned this article to answer some of the more common inquiries.
She worked with her McKinsey client service team to restructure the last two weeks of the engagement she was managing so she could work at Lawrence Hospital. At Lawrence, the patient volumes and levels of acuity are unlike anything she has seen before. The days are long and emotionally raw, but through relentless care and determination, she and her frontline colleagues are seeing fewer patients and are optimistic that the worst is behind us.
Dou Dou, Senior BA, San Francisco
Dou Dou grew up in Guangzhou, where both her parents are doctors. When COVID-19 first hit China, she and her family were closely involved. For a Chinese audience, she wrote a widely publicized song, “Love Knows No Distance (for people fighting coronavirus) 爱的零距离:献给抗击新冠病毒的人们,” to encourage the healthcare workers and hosted a public mental health podcast. As the US became the new epicenter for the virus, Dou Dou shifted her efforts to help mobilize PPE distribution from China to New York City, shared leadership stories at the Harvard China Education Symposium, and organized a fundraising concert on Zoom for Havenly Treats, a non-profit food venture co-founded by another McKinsey business analyst that partners with local refugee chefs to develop and sell bakery goods. She recently released a second song in English honoring all those fighting courageously against COVID-19 here on YouTube
Maiko, engagement manager, Tokyo
Maiko worked as an epidemiologist with several international organizations before coming to McKinsey. Now she is joining forces with fellow global health experts to conduct research on the impact of COVID-19 on the vulnerable populations (e.g., HIV, TB patients) in low-to-middle income countries.
Marie-Renée, engagement manager, Boston
Marie-Renee knew from the moment COVID-19 started that she would be back caring for patients at Jewish General Hospital in Montreal as she had been a practicing ER doctor for four years before joining McKinsey. She worked with her ER team to build their escalation plan; 40% of the initial cases were in their catchment area. From the young patient asking, “Will I wake up, doctor?” when being put on a ventilator to families making decisions about their loved ones’ end of life care and essential workers coming in every day to make a difference, she describes a sense of community and courage that is stronger than ever.
Rob, associate, New York
Rob is an emergency physician caring for patients at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. When he walked into the ER for his first shift, he was shocked to see half the patients on ventilators. Rob is pulling 12-hour shifts while he wears two different masks and cares for patients suffering from the severe effects of COVID-19. With few treatment options, Rob and his colleagues are doing everything they can to provide support for patients, from providing oxygen or mechanical ventilation to treating secondary bacterial infections.
