I learned about McKinsey from a friend of a friend who worked at the firm. I was drawn to the idea of working on a range of tricky problems, alongside colleagues from all kinds of backgrounds. It sounded fascinating, so I joined the firm in 2017 as a business analyst. I’ve since become an associate partner.
Deciding to focus on sustainability
When I was a newly designated engagement manager, I took a three-month break before I started a secondment to our London office. During that time, I read An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power by Al Gore. I had always known climate change was an issue, but for whatever reason, it was at that point that the scale of the problem gripped me.
When I returned to McKinsey, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in sustainability, so I started cold calling and emailing colleagues in the practice. I was introduced to Dickon Pinner, the head of our Sustainability practice, who needed an engagement manager to scale up the new climate risk service line. Thus, this chapter of my career began.
The work I do at the firm
The Sustainability practice is wide-ranging. We cover all industries from financial services to mining to the public sector, and all functions from strategy to operations. I work alongside colleagues with great depth of knowledge in different industries and functions, and I bring the green expertise. I typically play the role of engagement director, which means I am responsible for the delivery of the project. Day-to-day this can mean a variety of things, including meeting with clients to work through the big issues on their minds, problem-solving with our McKinsey teams, and taking quiet time to read, write, and review materials.
What I love most is working with clients. There is something energizing about spending quality time with the team and the client to work through the key problems and figure out how we are going to solve them.
Change on a global scale
One of my most exciting projects so far was helping a large bank set its net zero strategy. This involved defining what it meant for the company to achieve net zero emissions, given its critical role in providing capital to the real economy. We also worked with the client to refine its climate risk management practices, to understand specific green opportunities, and to set up a practical governance structure to provide oversight across all the ongoing climate-related work. As a result, our client has made huge strides in its climate commitments and strategy.
To achieve net zero, we are going to need everyone—governments, private sector companies, and financial institutions—to act in concert. With this project, I helped a leading global bank define its role in the transition to a net zero economy and play a significant leadership role in sustainability efforts.
What sets McKinsey apart in this space
The firm’s goal is to be the largest private sector catalyst for decarbonization. This is a global-scale transformation we are going through, and it touches every sector of the economy. There is so much we can do to help our clients rapidly transform to align with a low carbon economy—and in doing so we can have outsized impact on the climate and the energy transition.
We get to stay at the cutting edge of a field which is evolving on a day-by-day basis. We’re constantly learning from colleagues across the globe in different industries, and we have the time to invest in research and analysis on different facets of the climate challenge. Lastly, we have an incredible community of passionate, inspiring, and intelligent colleagues, who are great at their jobs and care about the work they do.
We’re helping companies and governments around the world figure out how to play a role in solving one of the biggest challenges of our time: climate change. It’s exciting to be a part of it.
More about me
I am originally from a rural Queensland town called Goondiwindi. My husband is from the Gold Coast, so we are a true Queensland couple. We have a gorgeous and mischievous eight-month-old son, who has made solving the climate crisis even more important to me.