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Andy West

Senior PartnerBoston

Global coleader of our Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice; helps organizations accelerate sustainable, inclusive growth through strategy development, innovation, M&A, portfolio management, and capital-markets engagement

Andy coleads our Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice globally, helping leaders and organizations accelerate sustainable and inclusive growth through strategy development, innovation, portfolio management, effective capital-markets engagement and communications, IPOs, M&A, and divestitures. He works across sectors, including life sciences, healthcare, high tech, and industrials, and collaborates with companies to realize a step-change in performance. He focuses on helping organizations create and deliver strategy, ensure effective CEO and CFO transitions, drive large-scale portfolio change and transformation, and deliver the full potential of all facets of M&A.

His experience also spans restructuring and cost management, investor relations, and large-scale reorganization. He has worked extensively in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Andy’s recent client work includes the following:

  • leading a portfolio transformation for a specialty pharmaceutical company, involving reallocating more than $40 billion in capital to high-growth market segments, a dozen transactions, and building deep M&A capabilities, leading to a five-fold increase in market capitalization
  • helping a materials-science organization redeploy $20 billion in capital, including programmatic M&A and investor relations strategy to identify, evaluate, and engage target companies over an 18-month period
  • delivering a multiyear strategy and performance transformation for a private company, creating a two-fold increase in valuation and ultimately resulting in an IPO
  • developing a growth strategy to significantly expand cross-selling and new market opportunities for a medical-equipment provider in the context of a major portfolio shift, including M&A, divestiture, and organic acceleration

Published work

How innovative companies leverage tech to outperform,” McKinsey & Company, December 2023

Courageous growth: Six strategies for continuous growth outperformance,” McKinsey & Company, October 2023

Starting up as a new CFO,” McKinsey & Company, January 2023

2023, a testing year: Will the macro-scenario range widen or narrow?,” McKinsey & Company, January 2023

XPO’s Brad Jacobs on building businesses through M&A,” McKinsey & Company, November 2022

Are you chasing the right digital assets?,” McKinsey & Company, December 2021

Achieving win-win spin-offs,” McKinsey & Company, October 2021

Agile business portfolio management,” McKinsey & Company, October 2021

Why you’ve got to put your portfolio on the move,” McKinsey Quarterly, July 2020

The power of through-cycle M&A,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020

How lots of small M&A deals add up to big value,” McKinsey Quarterly, July 2019

Understanding how US tax reform will affect divestitures,” McKinsey & Company, April 2018 

Past experience

Monitor Deloitte
Summer consultant

EY
Senior consultant

EDUCATION

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
MBA, finance, entrepreneurship, and strategic management

Washington University in St. Louis
BA, political science and economics