About David
David Chinn is a director in McKinsey’s London office. He leads our services to defence ministries and armed forces globally, as well as leading our work in aerospace and defence in the UK. His work focuses on the transformation of defence forces and their relationships with their supply base.
David works with ministries of defence and armed forces around the world to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. His projects have included multi-year transformations in aerospace and defence manufacturing, the application of lean management techniques to maintenance in land, air and naval equipment and the optimisation of organisation design and personnel management. He has supported a number of substantial transformations related to indirect and direct purchasing and supply-chain design and manufacturing.
David also aids McKinsey’s pro bono efforts, applying his experience in military logistics to support disaster-recovery teams. He led our aid efforts following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, working with the Haitian government and leading NGOs and others in the international community to manage disaster recovery and reconstruction operations.
Published work
“Enlisting productivity to reinforce European defense,” McKinsey & Company, August 2013
“Preserving combat power when defense budgets are falling,” McKinsey & Government, April 2013
“Supply chain transformation under fire,” McKinsey on Government, Spring 2010 (PDF–280 KB)
“An expert view on defense procurement,” McKinsey on Government, Spring 2010 (PDF–272 KB)
“Supply chain lessons from Haiti,” Supply Chain Management Review, September/October 2010
Past experience
| Credit Suisse |
Head of products; head of portal and marketing |
1999-2001 |
| National Institute for Testing and Selection, Israel |
Researcher |
1992-1993 |
Education
| INSEAD |
MBA in business administration |
| Carnegie Mellon University |
MSc in cognitive psychology |
| Cambridge University |
BA in natural sciences |