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Eugéne Smit

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Helps major industrial companies design and deliver large-scale, multi-year transformation programs to strengthen operational performance and profitability.

Eugéne Smit leads the McKinsey Implementation practice in North America.

After first joining McKinsey in 1996 in South Africa, Eugéne worked for 10 years in San Francisco. Throughout his career, he has helped executives shape transformational change programs that deliver far-reaching operational performance improvements. Focused on making change sustainable, he helps his clients build their managers’ technical and leadership capabilities to drive improvements.  Working mainly in operations-intensive industries such as mining, defense, and air travel, he helps design and successfully guide multi-year projects focused on broad-based operational transformation.

Examples of his work include:

  • Helping lead a multi-year, large-scale operational transformation in one of the world largest coal miners, rolling out improvements to a network of mines. The program improved EBITDA performance by 10 to 15 percent
  • Guiding an effort at a major consumer goods company to reduce costs substantially by setting up a procurement drive. The work entailed quantifying and verifying the opportunity in key commodities and launching implementation
  • Directing a multi-year lean transformation program for a major grocer, working with suppliers to substantially reduce total supply chain costs; among other outcomes, the effort reduced the labor costs needed to manage the tag hanging process
  • Leading a “mega team” to help a major US airline design and implement a lean maintenance operating system, contributing $200m in savings; the project included establishing improved execution in the areas of airframes, engines, and components
  • Designing and piloting a lean operating system for a large waste company’s maintenance system; the effort included rolling out new operating practices to a network of more than 1,000 maintenance workshops.

Eugéne has also advised several investors on the market dynamics of global and US mining. He regularly speaks at conferences.

Published Work

Regulatory efficiency will be essential for the energy transition,” McKinsey & Company, June 2023

Bridging the copper supply gap,” McKinsey & Company, February 2023

Past experience

International Paper
Project engineer

Education

Stanford University
MBA

University of Cape Town
BS, electrical engineering