About Emily
Emily Lawson is a principal in McKinsey’s London office. Her work focuses on achieving long-term shifts in business performance by improving the engagement, productivity, accountability, skills and motivation of staff in large, complex institutions, particularly in the healthcare and financial services sectors.
Emily’s recent client projects have tackled challenges including risk culture and compliance, mergers and demergers, organisation structure, performance transformation, behavioural change, talent strategy, leadership development and capability building.
As the global leader of our work on human capital, Emily leads McKinsey’s thinking on issues of people management, diversity, motivation and productivity. She was one of the main authors of the most recent report in our Women Matter research series, which explores the progression of women into senior executive positions and their impact on organisational performance. Emily is also a leader of our Women as Leaders network.
Before joining McKinsey, Emily was a technology and business development manager for a biotechnology company, and a NATO postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a first-class degree with distinction in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge, a PhD in molecular genetics from the University of East Anglia and an MBA with distinction from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.
Published work
The State of Human Capital 2012: False summit, The Conference Board/McKinsey & Company, October 2012 (PDF–1.2 MB)
“Women Matter 2012: Making the breakthrough,” McKinsey & Company, March 2012 (PDF–479 KB)
“Retaining key employees in times of change,” McKinsey Quarterly, August 2010
“The talent management challenge,” in The eye of the storm: Perspectives and recommendations for European pharmaceutical companies, McKinsey & Company, 2008 (PDF–3.15 MB)
“The psychology of change management,” McKinsey Quarterly, June 2003
“When reorganization works,” McKinsey Quarterly, June 2003
Past experience
| Avitech Diagnostics |
Technology and business development manager |
1996-1997 |
| University of Pennsylvania |
Postdoctoral fellow |
1993-1995
|
Education
Saïd Business School, Oxford
|
MBA in business administration |
| University of East Anglia |
PhD in molecular biology |
| University of Cambridge |
MA in natural sciences |