This is a profile image of Matt Watters

Matt Watters

PartnerNew Jersey

Works with governments, investors, and large organizations on strategy, innovation, negotiations, and geopolitical resilience in a dynamic global environment

Matt is a leader in McKinsey’s Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice, as well as our geopolitical and government divisions. His work focuses on growth and innovation in strategic industries (e.g., defense, space, semiconductors, high tech, cyber) with evolving global dynamics. Matt coleads McKinsey’s geopolitics unit, which helps companies, investors, and governments strategically plan, accelerate growth, and bolster resilience amidst geopolitical tensions. Prior to that, Matt coled McKinsey’s negotiation initiatives, which focus on helping clients navigate high-stakes negotiations, and McKinsey USG’s innovation services, which focus on advancing R&D in emerging technologies (e.g., biotech, quantum, hypersonic, next-generation semiconductors, autonomy).

Outside of McKinsey, Matt is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations and on the Board of Directors for No One Left Behind (NOLB), a nonprofit focused on advocating for interpreters who worked with US Armed Forces. His work has led him to appear on The Problem with Jon Stewart and PBS: Story in the Public Square, and his op-eds have been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Hill. In 2017, he was recognized by Forbes as 30 under 30 in Law and Policy for his work on Ebola recovery in Sierra Leone.

Matt is also a Green Beret with the US Army Reserves and was previously seconded to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations as a deputy military advisor for the Peacekeeping Mission.

Matt received a master’s in global governance and diplomacy as well as a master’s in business administration from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He also studied at Columbia University’s School of International Affairs for the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative and majored in neuroscience at the University of Delaware.

Published work

A proactive approach to navigating geopolitics is essential to thrive,” McKinsey & Company, November 2024

Operating at the edge: Harnessing ‘as a service’ in the US government,” McKinsey & Company, May 2024

Evolving federal R&D to meet the challenges of tomorrow,” McKinsey & Company, April 2024

Software bill of materials: Managing software cybersecurity risks,” McKinsey & Company, September 2022

How an Afghan refugee’s experience can inform our support for Ukrainian refugees,” The Hill, August 2022

Cybersecurity legislation: Preparing for increased reporting and transparency,” McKinsey & Company, June 2022

The debt the U.S. owes to my Afghan interpreter—and others,” Wall Street Journal, June 2021

Building the tech-enabled government of the future—a ‘Day 1’ list of common pitfalls,” McKinsey & Company, October 2020

Education

Oxford University
MBA (Rhodes Scholarship)

Oxford University
Master’s of global governance and diplomacy (Rhodes Scholarship)

Columbia University School of International Affairs
Hertog Global Strategy Initiative

University of Delaware
BS, neuroscience