Public Sector

About Andrew

Drew is a leader in our Public Sector Practice in the Americas, with a focus on defense and security. Based in Washington, DC, he advises government entities on national-security challenges and economic development. Recently, much of his work has involved the intelligence community and stabilization in postconflict and fragile states.

Drew specializes in advising clients on strategy, operations, and organizational design. He is a leader in our Strategy Practice and an expert in bringing insights on global forces and geopolitical risk into clients’ strategy-formulation efforts. He also has experience serving companies in the private sector, including in the aerospace and defense industries. Examples of his recent projects include the following:

• helping a defense organization’s leadership team design and implement a new performance-management process to support its strategy
• assisting an intelligence organization to develop scenarios of long-term international developments and their underlying economics for a major unclassified global-trends report
• working with an international financial institution to develop an economic-transition strategy and build capabilities in key ministries in a postconflict country
• helping a government agency identify priority economic sectors and specific investment opportunities to encourage local economic growth and support broader stabilization efforts at the provincial and national levels
• supporting an administrator in developing a strategy and operating model for a newly established defense organization
• helping a client develop and model a series of economic scenarios—at the country, regional, and global levels—and identify their potential national-security implications for a particular government
• helping a defense organization to identify and record best practices for stabilizing the economy of a fragile state; specific efforts included analyzing and codifying lessons learned from other economic-stabilization efforts, honing tools used to prioritize economic investment, and developing training materials
• advising a high-tech company on a global supply-chain-management strategy that identified $350 million in annual savings and altered the client’s manufacturing footprint

Prior to joining McKinsey in 2005, Drew was the National Security Council’s director for Iran, Iraq, and strategic planning. In 2003, he served as senior ministry adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. From 2001 to 2003, he was a member of the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff at the US Department of State.

Drew is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and he has published extensively on the topics of national security, economic development, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He earned a BA in history and political science from Williams College and a BA in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University. He also holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in history from Harvard University.

Published work

“Private sector development in Afghanistan: The doubly missing middle” (PDF–422 KB), American interests in South Asia: Building a grand strategy in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, Aspen Strategy Group, 2011

“Foreign policy planning through a private sector lens,” Avoiding trivia: The role of strategic planning in American foreign policy, Brookings Institution Press, 2009

“Global sourcing in a world less flat” (PDF–107 KB), What Matters, McKinsey & Company, April 2009

“A political education for business: An interview with the head of the Council on Foreign Relations,” Mckinsey Quarterly, February 2008

“After withdrawal, engagement,” New York Times, December 27, 2005

Experience

Education