Alexis leads McKinsey’s Bay Area office and our financial technology work in North America.
She serves financial services and technology companies as they seek to align their organizations for growth and productivity and has led high-profile efforts to drive change at scale, including enhancing customer experience journeys, innovating products and services, and redesigning operating models for agility.
Examples of her work include:
- helping a leading North American financial institution on architecting a large-scale performance-improvement initiative to enhance the end-to-end customer experience
- advising on a sales and marketing transformation for a global technology company to accelerate implementation of a new go-to-market strategy across a 10,000-person sales force
- helping to design an 18-month field-and-forum capability-building program for the senior-executive team of a leading financial institution to enhance decision making in support of a multiyear performance improvement effort
- enhancing operational risk effectiveness for a leading bank, addressing organizational responsibilities, decision rights, process improvement, risk culture, and regulatory relations
- leading a cost and productivity enhancement initiative to capture substantial back-office savings, including identifying leadership and frontline behavioral shifts required to support improved efficiency and effectiveness
Passionate about leadership development, Alexis contributes heavily to efforts that accelerate career growth for executives. She is the co-founding author of McKinsey & Company’s annual report “Women in the Workplace” – this groundbreaking research is the benchmark for progress for women in corporate America and used by many organizations across the globe. She also serves as faculty at McKinsey’s Executive Transitions Master Class and Change Leaders Forum and is a regular speaker on financial innovation, change management, and top team effectiveness.
Before joining McKinsey, Alexis earned an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Podcast
“Busting myths about women in the workplace,” McKinsey & Company, January 2024
“Women in the workplace: Breaking up to break through,” McKinsey & Company, February 2023
“The state of burnout for women in the workplace,” McKinsey & Company, January 2022
“100 Years to Gender Parity: Dismantling the Perception Gap of Equal Opportunity,” www.jenniferbrownspeaks.com, August 2017
Published work
“Women in the Workplace 2024: The 10th-anniversary report,” McKinsey & Company, September 2024
“Fintechs: A new paradigm of growth,” McKinsey & Company, October 2023
“The ongoing crisis of homelessness in the Bay Area: What’s working, what’s not,” McKinsey & Company, March 2023
“Women in the Workplace 2022,” McKinsey & Company, October 2022
“The childcare conundrum: How can companies ease working parents’ return to the office?,” McKinsey & Company, May 2022
“Closing the gender and race gaps in North American financial services,” McKinsey & Company, October 2021
“Women in the Workplace 2021,” McKinsey & Company, September 2021
“For mothers in the workplace, a year (and counting) like no other,” McKinsey & Company, May 2021
“Women in the Workplace 2020,” McKinsey & Company, September 2020
“Shaping and safeguarding the banking workforce after COVID-19,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020
“Shattering the glass screen,” McKinsey & Company, February 2020
“Women in the Workplace 2019,” McKinsey & Company, October 2019
“Closing the gap: Leadership perspectives on promoting women in financial services,” McKinsey & Company, September 2018
“10 ways to become flatter, faster, smarter in banking,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, June 2018
“Women in the workplace 2016,” McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org, September 2016
“Breaking down the gender challenge,” McKinsey Quarterly, March 2016
“Women in the workplace 2015,” McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org, September 2015
“How CMOs and CROs can be allies,” Harvard Business Review, March 26, 2015
“Managing the people side of risk,” McKinsey & Company, May 2013
Past experience
California Environmental Associates
Associate
Education
Stanford University Graduate School of Business
MBA
Stanford University
BA, economics