Where I am today
I went to Harvard to get my MBA and found myself secretly watching films on my laptop during finance class. My first feature film, “Red Doors”, was released theatrically in 2006 and I am currently developing a television pilot for CBS/Paramount as well as developing new film projects.
You never really leave McKinsey
Both personally and professionally, I made some of the most meaningful connections of my life at McKinsey. My mentors at the firm guided me through career decisions during my time at McKinsey and then have continued to help me with professional opportunities and advise me about life many years afterwards. One of my closest friends from McKinsey is a partner in our movie production company, Blanc de Chine Entertainment. You never really leave McKinsey.
Having choices to find my passion
One of the best things I did at the firm was find great peers and mentors who truly understood what my issues and concerns were in career and life. In my years at McKinsey, I was able to move from first working primarily in the health care field to doing more work in media and entertainment, and then eventually working on creating multi-media video presentations. My great peers and mentors played a key role in helping me realize the nature of my passion, which ultimately was producing, writing, and directing films.
McKinsey training to be a film maker
It may seem that being a filmmaker is worlds away from being a consultant at McKinsey. But in fact, I have found that my experience in business has been so critical to my new career. McKinsey gives you a real-world grounding in how businesses across a wide variety of industries work, how to think strategically about problems, how to prioritize and be most effective, how to work with people from disparate backgrounds, and how to rally everyone to reaching a shared goal.
Giving me the flexibility to pursue making films
I have McKinsey to thank for encouraging me to take advantage of opportunities to explore my passion for filmmaking. The firm was very flexible in allowing me to take some time off each of my summers as a business analyst to enroll in intensive filmmaking courses at New York University. I was able to make two short films during my spare time – “The Big Dish: Tiananmen ’89” (1998), and “Bloom” (1999), were shown at numerous film festivals. These led to my being able to apprentice on "Gangs of New York". Again, my mentors at the firm were very supportive and helped me take a leave of absence to spend time on the set in Rome working with Martin Scorsese.