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Jukka Maksimainen

Senior PartnerHelsinki

Leads the firm’s work in global energy and materials using experience in serving natural-resources companies, advanced-industries companies, and financial institutions

Jukka is a senior partner at McKinsey’s Helsinki office and the global co-leader of McKinsey’s Global Energy & Materials practice. His work includes several large-scale transformational projects for power-generation, multicommodity-mining, oil and gas, agriculture, and chemical companies. He has led more than 300 client engagements on six continents.

Recent examples of Jukka’s client projects include the following:

  • leading a technology assessment and business-case development for a large, 100 percent renewable-energy system and developing a plan to establish a new greenfield city for one million people
  • guiding the turnaround of a major global oil-and-gas company
  • designing the green economy strategy with concrete action plans for a large CO2 emitter
  • supporting the development of a bio-based fuel company’s expansion strategy
  • acting as a project director and ramp-up manager for nine months for a large mine
  • developing the agricultural strategy for a country, which included key inputs, target product mix and regulation, as well as incentives to encourage development and lead flagship projects in dairy and wheat-based value chains
  • supporting several energy-transition engagements, such as the construction of a 40-gigawatt solar and wind energy system and the necessary supply chain from the outset
  • developing the end-to-end digital transformation from diagnostic phase to building, operating, transferring, and implementation phases across four business units
  • supporting large-scale capital projects in designing a value-maximizing setup, including the prefeasibility, feasibility, and execution phases, helping turn around two problematic projects in the execution phase

Before joining McKinsey, Jukka worked as part of the commodity-trading team for a leading Nordic bank and part of the strategy team of a global engineering company. Jukka’s roots are in Northeast Finland, and he loves the wilderness with forests, swamps, and lakes where he gets to relax and can connect with the land and his family.

Published work

Beyond the hype: New opportunities for gen AI in energy and materials,” McKinsey & Company, February 2024

From trials to triumphs in building materials circularity: Takeaways from Davos,” McKinsey & Company, February 2024

Building circular: Maximizing CO2 abatement and business opportunities,” McKinsey & Company, January 2024

The Scope 3 challenge: Solutions across the materials value chain,” McKinsey & Company, May 2023

The circular cement value chain: Sustainable and profitable,” McKinsey & Company, March 2023

Decarbonizing cement and concrete value chains: Takeaways from Davos,” McKinsey & Company, February 2023

An experiment to inform universal basic income,” McKinsey & Company, September 2020

Here’s how the mining industry can respond to climate change,” McKinsey & Company, August 2020

Education

Helsinki University of Technology
MS, engineering

Finnish Air Force
Aeronautical engineering