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Virginia Simmons

Senior PartnerLondon

Virginia brings deep experience in supporting retailers, banks, and other customer-facing firms to drive growth, harness new technologies, and transform marketing and service operations

Virginia is a senior partner of the firm and has previously led our offices both in the United Kingdom and Ireland and in the Midwestern United States. Originally from Manchester, she joined our London office in 1997, before moving to Chicago in 2005. She returned to London in 2020, bringing nearly 20 years’ experience serving a broad variety of clients on topics ranging from strategy and corporate finance to marketing and sales. Her particular focus today is on helping retailers and financial services companies drive growth and transform operations.

Examples of Virginia's client work include supporting a major retailer through a multiyear transformation program to turn around its performance. This included a complete overhaul of the company's strategy, pricing, and merchandising as well as harnessing new technology to modernize operations. She has also helped several clients rethink their business models and reconfigure their organizations in response to technology-driven shifts in the retail landscape.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Virginia worked with PepsiCo as a brand manager and Shell International Petroleum Company in Canada and the United Kingdom as a marketing and retail operations manager.

 

Published work

Helping unemployed women find work in uncertain times,’” McKinsey & Company, August 2021

Why your COVID-19 exit needs ‘strategy inserts,’” McKinsey & Company, June 2021

Will brick-and-mortar supermarkets survive in Europe?,” McKinsey & Company, June 2021

Facing the future: How UK businesses can thrive in the next normal,” McKinsey & Company, March 2021

Reopening safely: Sample practices from essential businesses,” McKinsey & Company, May 2020

Reviving grocery retail: Six imperatives,” McKinsey & Company, November 2018

Education

Cambridge University
MS, chemical engineering