Cheryl Lim is a partner in McKinsey’s Kuala Lumpur office with over 18 years of experience advising public- and private-sector organizations on people, organizational, and cultural transformations. As a global leader of McKinsey’s People & Organization Performance work, she supports CEOs, CHROs, and executive teams on leadership development, strategic workforce planning, HR operating model transformation, and cultural change.
Cheryl also serves on the leadership team of the McKinsey Center for CEO Excellence (MCCE), where she helps design and deliver flagship leadership programs for senior executives throughout Asia.
Examples of Cheryl’s work include:
- helping found the McKinsey Center for CEO Excellence, including designing its flagship CEO programs
- coleading McKinsey’s Field and Forum capability-building program in Singapore for national champions, focused on new business building, operating model evolution, and leadership effectiveness
- leading an enterprise-wide cultural change and top-team transformation for a top Southeast Asian insurance company, focused on improving accountability, risk ownership, and execution discipline
- supporting a major Asian bank on its enterprise agile transformation, from diagnostics through operating model redesign, including performance management and incentive realignment to support new ways of working
- designing and leading a transformational leadership development program for a leading Asian bank, targeting the top 50 cross-functional value-creating teams to build trust, alignment, and delivery capability
- leading a multiyear cultural transformation program for a large Southeast Asian financial institution, leveraging McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index to set priorities and track impact
- driving a strategic workforce planning (SWP) transformation for a national oil company, including identifying critical roles, redesigning the SWP process, and developing bespoke tools that integrate internal and external workforce data
- supporting a leading Southeast Asian utility in redesigning its corporate and HR operating model, improving governance, accelerating decision making, and strengthening risk management
Cheryl’s work is grounded in a deep understanding of how organizations translate strategy into sustained performance through leadership, culture, and integrated talent systems. She brings a practical, data-driven approach to enabling change, informed by extensive cross-sector experience in financial services, energy, utilities, and the public sector in Southeast Asia and beyond.