As part of McKinsey & Company’s Centennial celebrations, we are connecting with alumni who are making a significant impact in the world. Senior Partner Tarek Elmasry recently sat down with alumna Rania Succar (Dubai, Chicago, 03-11), CEO of $1B+ AI company Kaseya. They discussed her leadership journey, the calculated risks that have defined her career, and her vision for a future powered by technology and human potential.
Tarek Elmasry: Rania, thank you for joining us. To start, could you reflect on your professional journey and characterize your leadership style?
Rania Succar: I have an ambition to do things that are industry-leading and stack up at the very top of other companies when it comes to innovation. I'm motivated by innovation, but also by impact that leaves a positive mark on the world, both on the end stakeholders using the technology, and on the employees inside a company.
I'm comfortable with risk in a way that even surprises me sometimes, and that's coupled with a deep optimism that we can achieve really ambitious things when we dare to think bigger than what's comfortable. That didn't come naturally, it was something I had to grow into. Early in my career, I felt I had to rely on myself a lot. It was so empowering when I realized all I had to do was know how to ask great questions and surround myself with exceptional leaders. The last thing I’ll say is I’ve learned to be balanced. At the end of the day, nothing matters more than my family. By being able to create space for those things and just have boundaries, it allows me to keep things in perspective.
How did your early experiences at places like McKinsey, Google, and Intuit shape you as a leader?
McKinsey taught me to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. I remember my second project at the Firm, working with an aluminum smelter in Dubai, and I had to go sit with the CEO and engage him. It was very intimidating as a young person to be put in a situation with very senior executives where you were expected to have an opinion.
The Google chapter taught me to be bold; small thinking simply wasn't an option. Everything had to be 10x; it had to be big to be worth it. We were always looking at moonshots. If it wasn't going to be a moonshot, if it wasn't that meaningful, why work on it?
Intuit was where I became a general manager, really accountable for the first time. I was shocked by the weight of the decisions that were on my shoulders. Suddenly, I was accountable for these very big decisions, and that was daunting. But I learned everything from how you handle a PR crisis to how you deliver your growth number.
You mentioned risk. Your move to become CEO of Kaseya seems like a significant one. How did you make the decision to take on that degree of personal and professional risk?
Every significant career move carries risk, that's what makes them meaningful. Taking on the CEO role at Kaseya was no different. We moved the family to Miami, the compensation structure changed entirely, and when you step into a CEO role, your reputation is on the line. But the more I looked at the opportunity, the more the risk felt small compared to the upside.
I was passionate about what Kaseya could achieve. I could see the potential for tremendous innovation, and I could see that the company had what it takes to become one of the most important technology companies serving small businesses globally. Small businesses are the backbone of economies everywhere, and they are chronically underserved by technology. That felt like a problem worth solving, and a once-in-a-career opportunity.
For me, it also has to be fun. At this stage, I don't want to compromise; I want to feel energized every single day, and this opportunity does exactly that.
You've mentioned learning from others. What is some of the most powerful advice you have received during your career?
A mentor at McKinsey once told me I should do a Master's degree in fashion design. I was offended at the time, but the advice was invaluable. What they meant was that the more diverse your perspective, the more effective you will be as a leader. The ability to look at the world differently, to draw on unexpected references and experiences, is a genuine competitive advantage. It's advice I now give to everyone.
The most impactful advice came from a leader at Intuit, at a moment when I thought I was ready for my next role. They pushed back and told me that I hadn’t really disrupted the industry yet, and that I needed to go back and treat it like day one. They said, “When you've really disrupted the industry, come back and tell me you're ready for more." That has stayed with me. It's a reminder to never get complacent, to always be looking for the big swing rather than settling into comfort.
Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your younger self?
Number one is to look for purpose and meaning. You have to constantly be searching for what makes you tick. When I was younger, I was constantly looking for that resume polish. But it's really important that you're constantly searching within yourself to understand where your energy comes from, because you'll burn out otherwise.
Second is to get the hard skills early. You want to train in the most challenging, difficult environments early on to make you resilient. Go work for the best managers; it really matters who you work for and who you learn from.
Finally, I always watched great leaders. I would identify the top 10 leaders in a company or in the industry and watch their steps as they would launch big, bold bets. You want to have a deep experience library.
As our Firm celebrates its 100th anniversary, what advice would you offer for our next chapter?
The thing that is so inspiring about McKinsey is how deeply committed individuals and the Firm are to driving positive change. I felt that so strongly in our work in the Middle East and in the U.S. That is inspiring. It attracts great talent, it keeps great talent, and it keeps people so loyal. For a young person, there's no training that's better than that. I grew so much, and it is absolutely what made me who I am today.
My advice would be to continue to evolve the model in very meaningful ways, given what the companies of the future will need and want. It’s the same advice for every industry, which is that tremendous change is required. The imperative is the same: disrupt yourself first and never stop reimagining what the next version of impact looks like.
Looking ahead, what do you see as your next bold, brilliant move? What drives you personally?
I am personally very interested—and this came 100% from my time at McKinsey—in helping people around the world realize their potential. I have a particular interest in people in the Arab world. You see people where conditions exist where they don't realize their potential, and you just want to unlock and unleash them. It would be meaningful to apply all the lessons learned over time, especially from some of the toughest environments in the private sector, to take a different approach to economic development.
And what is your vision for Kaseya? What do you dream it could look like 15 years from now?
Today, Kaseya is the leading global provider of IT and cybersecurity software for Managed Service Providers and the businesses they serve, with more than 40,000 customers across more than 170 countries.
What excites me most is the opportunity ahead. SMB IT and security remains an overwhelmingly manual problem — one that's prone to costly errors and unsustainable expense, and that can threaten business survival when it goes wrong. We are leading the industry in changing that equation with AI, building a next-generation platform that transforms how small businesses manage IT and security. Kaseya is uniquely positioned to do this, given our data and platform advantages. And over time, our deep relationships with MSPs and our role in the infrastructure layer of small businesses position us to help SMBs harness AI far more broadly — not just for IT, but for how they run their entire business.
To drive an unparalleled pace of innovation, we are building a culture that is deeply customer-centric — organizing everything we do around customer outcomes, and making platform investments that compound into durable, long-term competitive advantage.
