Q&A with Yael
Born in Israel, Yael grew up in Boston and New York and graduated from Yale with a degree in biological psychology. As a partner at McKinsey with a focus on digital marketing and media & entertainment, she’s found a way to fuse her love of the arts with her work in some unexpected and rewarding ways.
Interviewer: Is it true that when you graduated from Yale you were primed to work at McKinsey?
Yael: Well, no, not really. I have a background as a pianist. I studied English. Then I changed my major and wrote my thesis on functional neuroimaging of schizophrenia. I definitely didn't know exactly what McKinsey did, and I was sort of amazed they were interested in talking to me in the first place!
Interviewer: So you started as a business analyst, transitioned to an associate role and then you were leading engagement teams before deciding to go to Harvard Business School. Yet you also took time to pursue other projects that were your passion–tell us a bit about that.
Yael: I took 9 months to produce a documentary for Showtime about an HIV-positive woman engaged to be married. It won at the Los Angeles Film Festival! I happened to be in Paris for work when I got that news, and the film’s director was somewhere else on location. Turns out Samuel L. Jackson presented the award, and we weren’t there to receive it! Talk about bad planning.
Interviewer: Sounds like that experience was a valuable detour.
Yael: It actually turned out not to be a detour at all. I ended up learning a lot that I use here at McKinsey.
Interviewer: Tell us more.
Yael: In any documentary, you’re constructing the narrative real-time, as it unfolds before you. And at McKinsey, I’m actually I'm in the business of finding the story all the time. What is going to happen? How can we shape what happens? I love that I can keep a hand in the creative side of media while also serving our clients at a time of radical business-model shifts. It's a special vantage point to have.
Interviewer: How has your own career and story developed at McKinsey?
Yael: Because of my creative background, I steered my work at McKinsey to media-related engagements from the start. I focus a lot on helping both marketers and content companies develop digital strategies, and on refining the processes for creating content and product. So I marry my passion for the creative parts with a deep understanding of how these industries work from a very senior management point of view. And in parallel with my work at McKinsey, I have pursued some outside creative projects. McKinsey has been extremely flexible in letting me put all these pieces together.
Interviewer: You also pursue this passion for film in pro bono work.
Yael: A few years back I was talking to some of my McKinsey colleagues about my passion for film, and they introduced me to Dan Stern, the president of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and Ann Tenenbaum, the chairman. I joined the board because their mission aligns so well with my interests. They’re investing in the future of cinema at a moment of massive uncertainty regarding how consumer media consumption will shake out. They’re making big and bold bets, and it’s exciting to help shape that.
Interviewer: You have three small children and serve on a major nonprofit board along with managing a challenging career—and teaching a spin class in your spare time!
Yael: Well, the spinning class is a point of contention in my marriage. I teach on Saturday and Sunday mornings, which as any parent knows are crazy, all-hands-on-deck moments with the kids. I leave my husband to fend solo on those mornings and he’s rolled his eyes more than once!
In general though, we work together to balance out our commitments as best we can to make sure we're not letting outside responsibilities invade our family time.
Interviewer: Can you give us three words that describe McKinsey to you?
Yael: How about, anything is possible. Three words exactly. And I have to tell you, it’s true–we’re pretty much only limited by our imagination in what we can do together here.
Education
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Harvard Business School
MBA
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Yale University
BA