Last year, I was awarded an McKinsey Global institute (MGI) fellowship and managed the team of analysts, associates, and industry experts who produced the MGI report on risk and resilience in global value chains. While our findings were shaped by the pandemic, its beginnings predate COVID-19 – a testament to the firm’s foresight.
Working with MGI and practice industry leaders such as Susan Lund, Mekala Krishnan, and Ed Barriball, I saw McKinsey at its most global. We tapped into colleagues across geographies, industries, and disciplines to forge a clearer understanding of how supply chain risk has evolved, how organizations should understand their exposure, and what they can do to achieve greater resilience.
Unifying passion topics
The effort unified many of my intellectual passions: international economics, the intersection between public and private sectors, and China’s importance to global value chains. Our team problem-solving was rigorous and energizing – a constant dance between the theoretical and the practical. In fact, we found the traditional notion that resilience and efficiency are tradeoffs did not necessarily hold. Instead, certain investments and emerging technologies could advance both aims.
In putting pen to paper and then engaging corporate and government leaders on our findings, I appreciated working at an organization willing to invest in understanding a topic of such importance. To be entrusted with shepherding this work and supported in my own growth by colleagues and partners was deeply fulfilling from start to end. The report marked a turning point for me at McKinsey from which I emerged more confident as a team leader and ready to take on new challenges.
My MGI opportunity
Contributing to an MGI project had been one of my aspirations since I joined McKinsey. In fact, it was MGI’s work that first brought McKinsey onto my radar as an undergraduate. I remember it from news coverage and the fact that MGI reports were on the syllabi of many of my classes. My professional development manager who guides me in what engagements I’m staffed on knew the topic of global supply chains was in my sweet spot and that my prior experience at the US International Trade Commission’s Office of Economics made me a strong fit. Within days of first learning of the opportunity, our work was underway.
About me
My McKinsey journey started when I was a sophomore in college and I joined the firm as a summer business analyst in New York. After I graduated, I joined full-time in the Washington, DC office to be close to family and the heart of the public sector practice. Supporting states seeking to strengthen their Medicaid programs was just one of my many inspiring opportunities. I then took time away to earn my master’s at Tsinghua University in Beijing and my MBA from Stanford. I rejoined the firm in 2019.
Outside of work, when not helping plan my wedding, you’ll find me enjoying the crabs that are my birthright as a southern Marylander or ever so tentatively reembracing the world of live music. At other times, I’ll be studying Chinese or debating whether to transition my passion for Flight Simulator into the real world.