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Marco

Expert Associate PartnerLondon

Marco arrived to McKinsey's QuantumBlack team after spending more than six years in the analytics field, first on the trading floor of an investment bank and later as a deployment strategist at a software company. He worked in a variety of sectors, including energy, engineering, finance, and manufacturing, and is now a leader of advanced-analytics work at the QuantumBlack office in London.

Sometimes there is a misconception that in order to be successful, you need to give up your personal life and well-being. My experience could not be further from that.

Coming to McKinsey from a tech start-up in Silicon Valley was not an easy decision. I had a lot of unknowns and unanswered questions around whether someone with my background could integrate well into companies like McKinsey. I wondered whether I would become a second-class citizen, but those questions did not last long. After the first couple of months, it became apparent there would be a lot of flexibility in my professional development. When it comes to matching personal and work interests, everybody is encouraged to pursue the career path that best fits their own aspirations. During my first year, I explored as many sectors as possible, working in energy, finance, holiday rentals, private equity, and telecommunications. It was almost like changing jobs every couple of months, and it was great!

These days, I am mainly focused on delivering advanced-analytics capabilities in the financial sector as well as within technology, media, and telecommunications. The work is highly diverse and gives me endless learning and development opportunities. After one year at McKinsey, I am absolutely amazed by the amount of freedom, time, and resources that the organization invests in the personal and professional development of each of us.

If you are passionate about something, McKinsey supports you in that journey and equips you with the tools needed to deliver a great impact. For me, that materialized when, last July, senior leadership gave me the opportunity to fully lead something I am deeply passionate about: the Tech4Good initiative. I was given the freedom to scope out what I think is the most impactful project in the Tech4Good space and was then given resources to make it happen. It is wonderful to know that my company supports me to purse not-for-profit opportunities and that I can leverage the knowledge and network that comes from being part of such an amazing organization to deliver great social impact.

Sometimes there is a misconception that in order to be successful, you need to give up your personal life and well-being. My experience could not be further from that. The reality is, there are trade-offs to be made. But transparency is paramount, and you can be clear about what you can and cannot sacrifice. Since I am obsessed with fitness and going to the gym, I usually train every single day. Everybody on my teams knows I am completely unreachable from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., which is the time I usually dedicate for my gym session or run, and I have managed to keep that routine going for more than ten years now. When kicking off a new client project, I let my team know how important exercising is for me, and together we design a working rhythm that fits with all our interests and life commitments. I even managed to combine sport with traveling for client work, which led to some amazing experiences, such as having early-morning runs with my teammates in beautiful Copenhagen.

As a senior principal in analytics, my role is to lead highly specialized teams of analytics engagement managers, data engineers, data scientists, designers, and technical architects to scope, build, deliver on, and hand over highly analytical and technical solutions to our clients. In this role, I build stakeholder relationships with the McKinsey client-service team at the most senior levels and, at the same time, manage client relationships, especially with dedicated analytics leaders within client organizations.

Additionally, being part of a McKinsey leadership team means part of my job is to make sure people with diverse and technical backgrounds have fulfilling professional development. Seeing the development journeys of my teammates, with some of them switching from highly technical roles to purely consulting ones, has been one of the most enriching experiences I have ever had.

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Education

University of Oxford
DPhil, Computer Science

Polytechnic of Milan
MA, Computer Engineering

 

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