“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” —Arthur C. Clarke
Wasim believes that advancing technology (cloud in particular, and now generative AI) is key to helping organizations unlock the full potential of their data and build new capabilities—and therefore enabling them to create magic experiences for their stakeholders, whether it be developing seamless customer journey experiences when ordering a new phone or using cloud computing to improve the accuracy and speed of health insurance claim approvals and reimbursements. He is hugely passionate about supporting organizations to move and mature through these horizons at pace and in a cost-effective way.
As part of his advisory work, Wasim has worked with multiple technology and business leaders to support them in standing up their technology-enabled business transformations. Wasim brings together both the strategic perspective and a strong focus on rigorous execution to ensure organizations achieve their desired results quickly. Another priority area for Wasim is change management and capability building—ensuring that the people who are the foundation of these organizations truly buy into the transformation plans and building their capabilities.
Wasim leads the cloud in federal and IT cloud FinOps work at McKinsey. He is also the convener of an annual forum that brings together federal leaders to discuss their technology transformation thoughts, share advice, and debate approaches with private-sector leaders. Wasim also has extensive experience in IT procurement, value assurance, mergers, and divestitures.
Examples of his client work include:
- helping an agency accelerate their transition to cloud to enable them to take advantage of cloud-based analytical tools
- designing a new data strategy for an agency to enable them to simplify their data flows and move to insights more rapidly
- supporting a state accelerate their broadband deployment and close the digital divide by bringing the internet to one million state residents who did not previously have access
- leading a major spin-off and merger for an IT services organization (sales of more than $4 billion). Completed the organizational change on time with flawless day one operations
- helping a state and its agencies develop a cloud transformation technical execution plan, including application dispositions, interdependencies, and agency technical capabilities. Led the design and set up the governance required to oversee and prioritize migration activities; additionally framed architecture and security standards for the migration
- leading the technology strategy for a merger of two large private US universities, including designing and successfully executing a value capture plan
- designing an IT sourcing strategy for a technology, media, and telecommunications organization and leading successful subsequent implementation phases
Before joining McKinsey, Wasim focused on operations at a multinational oil and gas company. He has over a decade of experience in consulting and has worked across the MENA region, Europe, Latin America, and North America. Wasim leads the Muslims@McKinsey affinity group in North America and convenes the Muslim Executive Forum, an annual event designed to bring senior Muslim executives together (see An Eid al-Fitr celebration and a call for change).
Outside of work, Wasim is passionate about his family, math jokes, Star Wars, and tennis (please be warned he is a Federer fan).