Dr. Mekala Krishnan is a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey’s business and economics research arm.
Her research focuses on topics related to sustainable and inclusive growth, including climate risk and the net-zero transition, globalization, productivity growth, and gender economics. Her most recent research focuses on the net-zero transition, adaptation and physical climate risk across sectors and geographies, including its implications for companies and countries. She is an author of the recent MGI reports, The net-zero transition: What it would cost, what it would bring, From poverty to empowerment: Raising the bar for sustainable and inclusive growth, and Climate risk and response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impacts. Her past research has focused on the risks facing global value chains and the future of globalization.
Mekala is a frequent speaker on these topics at global conferences as well as with executives at Fortune 500 companies. She has authored numerous articles and her work has been cited in leading business publications, including The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Harvard Business Review.
Mekala serves on a Bretton Woods Committee working group on climate finance and on advisory boards for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and for the Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University. She is also on the board of the Global Fund for Women, a leading public foundation dedicated to improving global gender equality. She was previously a member of a task force at the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings focused on improving productivity measurement.
Mekala received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University in 2011. Prior to Cornell, she received a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2006 from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
Published work
“A net-zero reality check,” McKinsey & Company, September 2024
The hard stuff: Navigating the physical realities of the energy transition, McKinsey Global Institute, August 2024
An affordable, reliable, competitive path to net zero, McKinsey & Company, November 2023
The role of public–private–philanthropic partnerships in driving climate and nature transitions, McKinsey & Company, November 2023
“A sector progress tracker for the net-zero transition,” McKinsey & Company, November 2023
“Ten key requirements for a systemic approach to climate adaptation,” McKinsey & Company, November 2023
“From poverty to empowerment: Raising the bar for sustainable and inclusive growth,” McKinsey Global Institute, August 2023
“Mobility’s net-zero transition: A look at opportunities and risks,” McKinsey & Company, April 2022
“Climate change: What we will need to spend, and what we will need to change, to reach net zero,” Fortune, March 2022
“Taking the first steps toward net-zero emissions,” McKinsey Global Institute, March 2022
“The net-zero transition: What it would cost, what it could bring,” McKinsey & Company, January 2022
“Protecting people from a changing climate: The case for resilience,” McKinsey & Company, November 2021
“Solving the net-zero equation: Nine requirements for a more orderly transition,” McKinsey & Company, October 2021
“Getting tangible about intangibles: The future of growth and productivity,” McKinsey Global Institute, June 2021
“Climate change hits the poor hardest. Here's how to protect them,” World Economic Forum, October 2020
“Climate risk and response in Asia,” McKinsey Global Institute, November 2020
“Ten things to know about gender equality,” McKinsey Global Institute, September 2020
“Don't let the pandemic set back gender equality,” Harvard Business Review, September 2020
“Will infrastructure bend or break under climate stress?,” McKinsey Global Institute, August 2020
“Risk, resilience, and rebalancing in global value chains,” McKinsey Global Institute, August 2020
“Banking system resilience in the time of COVID-19,” McKinsey & Company, August 2020
“COVID-19 and gender equality: Countering the regressive effects,” McKinsey & Company, July 2020
“Reduced dividends on natural capital?,” McKinsey Global Institute, June 2020
“Leading the battle against climate change: Actions for China,” McKinsey Global Institute, June 2020
“A Mediterranean basin without a Mediterranean climate?,” McKinsey Global Institute, May 2020
“How will African farmers adjust to changing patterns of precipitation?,” McKinsey Global Institute, May 2020
“Will the world's breadbaskets become less reliable?,” McKinsey Global Institute, May 2020
“Confronting climate risk,” McKinsey Quarterly, May 2020
“Will mortgages and markets stay afloat in Florida?,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2020
“Can coastal cities turn the tide on rising flood risk?,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2020
“Climate risk and response: Physical Hazards and socioeconomic impacts,” McKinsey Global Institute, January 2020
“The power of parity: Advancing women's equality in Africa,” McKinsey Global Institute, November 2019
“Will automation improve work for women or make it worse?,” Harvard Business Review, July 2019
“What automation means for the gender gap,” Project Syndicate, June 2019
“The future of women at work: Transitions in the age of automation,” McKinsey Global Institute, June 2019
“A new look at the declining labor share of income in the United States,” McKinsey Global Institute, May 2019
“Accelerating gender parity: What can governments do?,” McKinsey & Company, January 2019
“Globalization in transition: The future of trade and value chains,” McKinsey Global Institute, January 2019
“Solving the United Kingdom’s productivity puzzle in a digital age,” McKinsey Global Institute, September 2018
“How can digital technology speed up gender equality?,” Equals, July 2018
“The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in Asia Pacific,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2018
“Solving the productivity puzzle: The role of demand and the promise of digitization,” McKinsey Global Institute, February 2018
“The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in Canada,” McKinsey Global Institute, June 2017
“The productivity puzzle: A closer look at the United States,” McKinsey Global Institute, March 2017
“Urban world: Meeting the demographic challenge,” McKinsey Global Institute, October 2016
“The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in the United Kingdom,” McKinsey Global Institute, September 2016
“Bracing for a new era of lower investment returns,” McKinsey on Finance, July 2016
“Delivering the power of parity: Toward a more gender-equal society,” McKinsey Global Institute, May 2016
“Diminishing returns: Why investors may need to lower their expectations,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2016
“The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in the United States,” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2016
“The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in India,” McKinsey Global Institute, November 2015
“The power of parity: How advancing women’s equality can add $12 trillion to global growth,” McKinsey Global Institute, September 2015
“From poverty to empowerment: India’s imperative for jobs, growth, and effective basic services,” McKinsey Global Institute, February 2014
Videos
“Women business owners were hit hardest by COVID-19,” Thomas Reuters Foundation, February 2021
Education
Cornell University
PhD, MS, mechanical engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
BS, mechanical engineering
