In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey Global Publishing’s Emily Adeyanju chats with Cheryl McKissack Daniel, president and CEO of McKissack & McKissack, about The Black Family Who Built America: The McKissacks, Two Centuries of Daring Pioneers (Atria/Simon & Schuster, August 2025), coauthored with Nick Chiles. McKissack Daniel chronicles the evolution of her family’s construction management business across five generations, beginning with the arrival of her great-great-grandfather—an enslaved man who was brought to America in 1790—to her current role as the leader of McKissack & McKissack. She shares how her family created the nation’s oldest woman- and minority-owned design and construction firm and built their legacy on a foundation of perseverance and purpose. An edited version of the conversation follows.
It is quite an accomplishment to be the oldest woman- and minority-owned professional design firm in the nation. How did you determine the title of your book?
I spoke with Nick Chiles, who helped me write the book, and Chandra McQueen, my publicist. We were commenting about how this book, how our story, is similar to Hidden Figures [the story of three Black women, mathematicians and scientists, whose behind-the-scenes contributions were instrumental in NASA’s efforts to send astronauts to space]. It’s a story that people don’t really know anything about, but it made a significant contribution.
We wanted a title that would say it all. First, people don’t even think about who built the structures they see. We wanted to make sure we brought awareness to the built environment, but also to share that Black people contributed to building many of these structures in America.
We like to think that, because we have worked at so many historically Black colleges and built over 6,000 churches, we have really documented the Black experience through our building. And that’s how we came up with the title.
How did the shift from construction management to business development shape your career arc?
First, I had to determine what we do well. I also had to decide whether I wanted to continue with the architectural and engineering business. Unless I could actually do the work myself, I did not want to offer those services, and I didn’t want to provide design services. My professional career is in construction, and I know how to build. That’s what I decided would be the most important area for our company to focus on. Construction management was the best way to enter into that market. As you can imagine, building in New York takes serious money and serious investors. Most of the projects now are hundreds of millions and billions of dollars. Providing professional staff to manage the actual process is the area that I felt would provide a soft and easy start.
As we began to progress with our construction management services, I began to add general contracting. That’s the stage at which we actually begin to build, bringing on subcontractors and completing turnkey projects.
A natural progression for developers is to have their own construction staff to manage and maintain their structures, their buildings. The progression for contractors is to become developers so they can create their own projects. So we began to shift into the development market, roughly 15 years ago, as a passive investor.
As company president, your mother advised you, ‘You should run up and tell everybody who you are and what you do.’ How important is the role of networking in building and growing a business?
Networking is extremely important if you are in business development and if you run a business. In a business, you have many types of networks. You have an internal network, which consists of your employees. They are the front-runners, the ambassadors of your company. I can’t be with them everywhere. We have to depend on our employees to implement our values and our culture everywhere they go. We have to depend on them to do a job, and building that network takes time and investment.
Having a network of strategic partners is important in our business because the projects are large. As a result, you often spread the risk by engaging in joint venture partnerships or prime and sub roles, depending on your desired outcome.
Building strategic partnerships with my competitors is very important. As we’re building, we must depend on our subcontractors. That’s another network, before the network of owners to whom we are trying to sell our services. Owners include developers, agencies, and the political people behind them.
Building networks is the bloodline, next to having great financing. Ideally, you will already have established a relationship with someone before you plan to ask them for something. So you must think ahead.
As a CEO, you have navigated multiple challenges, including power dynamics. How important is resilience to leadership and growth?
Resilience is very important. People depend on you to show up all the time, whether you feel like it or not. I gain my resilience from looking at my family’s history—five generations—thinking about our legacy and how I’m carrying that baton right now. I consider what I want to accomplish during the time that I’m honored to do this.
I think back to my forefathers, [grandfather] Moses McKissack III and [great-uncle] Calvin McKissack, going to get their license [a requirement of the state of Tennessee for practicing architects and engineers] in the Deep South where there was segregation and much racism, including the Ku Klux Klan and various other threats. Yet, they were undaunted. They continued to persevere.
I do take a page from their book, which is persistence and perseverance. I always add prayer, because I need that, too. Resilience is what kept the McKissacks going for five generations—overcoming these obstacles and making sure that every day they got up and showed up for the mission. That’s how I do it.
I think about what’s happened in the past and where we’re going now, and the opportunity I have to show other women and women of color the value of having your own business and charting your own course. I get fired up around that.
What are the most important character traits of successful leaders?
It’s about defining who you are and not letting others define you. Create your own narrative, do it early, and be comfortable in it. We’re all bringing different perspectives to the table. Everyone’s perspective does matter and can help create something that’s better and more innovative. I believe strongly in integrity. Whatever you say you will do, keep your word. Underpromise, overdeliver. As a leader, I know that if people feel they can depend on you, they will support you. They will say positive things if your integrity is intact, so I am a big proponent of that.
Create your own narrative, do it early, and be comfortable in it.
If you could create a playbook for an entrepreneur looking to pursue business development, what action steps would it entail?
There are many moving parts in construction, and as an owner, you need to understand them, as well as the changing technology. Also, you would have to work in a construction management company in different capacities. To build a structure on paper, you’d have to come up with the cost of that structure—whether through the estimating department, where you develop budgets for buildings, or from subcontractors from whom you would obtain estimates on their portion of the work. Working in the field is a necessary component. Ultimately, you would manage the entire process of construction, including overseeing a massive number of documents, workers, and more.
Venturing into business development means being able to drive revenue and secure projects to start a construction business, as well as understanding accounting, particularly profit and loss.
Having a fresh start as the only employee at McKissack in New York, I made sure I understood client needs and was ready to solve any problems that arose. I developed strategic alliances and entered projects as a subconsultant, not as a prime contractor. From there, I grew.
As a subconsultant, you’re not 100 percent responsible, but you’re able to get 100 percent of the information and access to the client. My goal was to become a prime contractor, and I eventually moved from that role to a lead joint venture partner to a prime contractor.
Each of these steps was a defining moment for McKissack & McKissack, because I had a clear strategy about how to build my business in New York City.
You have a lifetime of experience that involves maneuvering deftly in professional circles where you are the ‘only.’ How can others overcome similar barriers to establish themselves as major industry players?
From my childhood, I trained with my father, going to construction sites and being the only woman there. My father normalized my attendance at these events. Being in those rooms, I knew I was the only woman, and many times, the only Black woman. I knew that no one expected me to lead, no one expected me to have a successful business. I overcame that with the ability to bring quality work, working harder than other people, making sure that I undertook new challenges and then honored my commitments. If a client asked, “Is anybody willing to take on this next task?” I would jump up and say, “Yes, I’ll do it,” even though I wasn’t sure how I would get it done.
That mindset led to our work at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, eventually growing from a $200,000 contract to managing $300 million worth of work. That was the beginning of our transit work and services we provide at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Federal Transit Administration, and other similar agencies, including disaster recovery.
There is always someone in the room who will support you. You may not know who they are, but someone is rooting for you, and it’s probably the person you least expect.
Ultimately, overcoming barriers is all about being comfortable with who you are and understanding that your perspective does count. There is always someone in the room who will support you. You may not know who they are, but someone is rooting for you, and it’s probably the person you least expect. You can’t buy that.
What expanding role do you see technology and AI playing at McKissack & McKissack in the future?
Technology has been especially helpful in the construction industry. Our projects now are worth billions of dollars, but in reality, they’re really big data problems.
We have a lot of information to parse. How do you sort it? How do you get 150 companies on the same page when building Terminal One at John F. Kennedy International Airport? How do you make the whole process efficient and lean?
For a long while, we were far behind the times technologically. Now, in the construction business, at least we’re dealing with the data. As far as the future and what AI can bring, I’m becoming more familiar with ChatGPT, Copilot, and other AI platforms. For example, I can draft full board reports for my advisory board now. AI is teaching me best practices, how companies like McKissack would set up, and what an optimal setup is for McKissack. From the perspective of design and construction, AI has been terrific.
Our projects now are worth billions of dollars, but in reality, they’re really big data problems.
AI will have the ability to provide design documents if you’re building a cookie-cutter hospital, hotel, or residence. AI can generate the architectural documents and the engineering documents, but you really will need a [human] designer, an architect, or an engineer to handle the site information. There is a part of AI that I’m not quite sure I’m happy about. My father was an architect. I’m a civil engineer, and I would love to see these professions continue. We already have the drones over building projects and developing as-built plans, and we are looking at the robots handle very dangerous demolition, things of that nature. This could be really good. We just have to wait and see how it unfolds.
I’m an embracer. I lean into whatever is coming my way. So as technology begins to affect our future in design and construction, we’ll have to see how we can lean in. Our human contribution will always be needed. I know ChatGPT needs mine.
You and your father experienced serious health situations during your tenures. What can leaders do to prioritize self-care?
Self-care is important. If you don’t persevere, there’s nothing else left. But it’s just so natural for an owner and a leader to sacrifice and do whatever it takes to get things done. That’s day after day, continuing to do whatever it takes to get ahead to make a business better. That’s part of just being an entrepreneur. Sometimes, unfortunately, it’s not until you become afflicted by some type of physical or health issue that you begin to understand, “I need to take a few minutes and meditate every day. I need to work out, I need to eat instead of just working,” and then starting that engine and treadmill all over the next day.
I encourage everyone to take time for themselves. I try to do it in the mornings when I wake up. in our office, we have a meditation room. I encourage people to meditate. We also have a massage therapist who gives massages to staff seated in their chairs. We also have yoga sessions. It is just important to take that minute to be mindful to center yourself. People don’t want to take that time because they don’t want to “waste” their time. But when you take that time to quiet down, you actually will get more done.
Please finish this sentence: ‘If my ancestors could see me now…’
If my ancestors could see me now, I would think that they would be proud of what we’ve accomplished and how far we have been able to take their sacrifice—their blood, sweat, and tears. While today’s struggle is different, it is still there. There are still people who have the same mindset as the people who did not want to give my grandfather and his brother an opportunity to take their licensing exam to become architects just because they were Black.
While that mentality still exists today, we know from what has happened in the past that we can overcome it. If my ancestors saw me today, they would be proud of how they created a pathway for not just me and my family, but also other families. Others can look at what we’ve done and say, “Look, I can do this, too.” I have met so many first-generation entrepreneurs who have told me they are starting their legacy company, too. It starts with the first generation. So, to Moses McKissack I, II, III, and IV, I appreciate what you have given me, and I am honored to take it into the sixth generation.
