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Ari Libarikian

Senior PartnerNew York

Advises companies on building thriving businesses, helping organizations to grow, improve business processes, and strengthen digital capabilities

Ari is the global leader of Leap, McKinsey’s business-building practice, as well as McKinsey’s digital and analytics work in the insurance sector. In these roles, he helps some of the world’s leading companies to find new value at the intersection of business, design, and technology.

In his work leading Leap, Ari helps organizations to develop holistic, well-structured approaches to business building, creating strong digital businesses by combining the experimental nature of start-ups with the operational excellence of corporations.

With insurance companies, Ari works on a broad range of issues, from growth to improving business performance. With his deep experience, he also helps develop the cutting-edge knowledge of McKinsey’s Insurance Practice.

Examples of his recent client work include the following:

  • helping a leading hospitality organization to launch and scale a new digital business
  • developing the corporate strategy for a global insurer
  • leading the development of an analytics strategy for a multinational insurer

Previously, Ari led the digitization of McKinsey’s client-service processes, helping practices to bring a broad range of technology and data assets to clients, as well as the McKinsey Digital and McKinsey Analytics Practices in the Northeast.

In addition to his work with McKinsey, Ari serves on the boards of Children’s Aid and the Armenian General Benevolent Union.

Published work

New-business building: Six cybersecurity and digital beliefs that can create risk,” McKinsey & Company, December 2023

TruStage’s Bob Trunzo on bringing bold change to insurance,” McKinsey & Company, December 2023

New-business building: A winning strategy in uncertain times,” McKinsey & Company, December 2023

CEOs’ choice for growth: Building new businesses,” McKinsey & Company, November 2023

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

Building new businesses: How insurers can leap ahead,” McKinsey & Company, July 2023

The new automotive mandate: Moving from building products to building businesses,” McKinsey & Company, May 2023

Business building: The path to resilience in uncertain times,” McKinsey & Company, December 2022

New-business building in 2022: Driving growth in volatile times,” McKinsey & Company, November 2022

Where delegation fails: Five things only the enterprise CEO can do to build new businesses,” McKinsey & Company, August 2022

The SaaS factor: Six ways to drive growth by building new SaaS businesses,” McKinsey & Company, July 2022

How good are you at business building? A new way to score your ability to scale new ventures,” McKinsey & Company, November 2021

Building new digital businesses in insurance,” McKinsey & Company, June 2021

CEO brief: The future of business building in insurance,” McKinsey & Company, June 2021

How to launch a new business: Three approaches that work,” McKinsey & Company, April 2021

Leap to the future of healthcare: Reinvent through business building,” McKinsey & Company, April 2021

Why business building is the new priority for growth,” McKinsey Quarterly, December 2020

Future of insurance: Unleashing growth through new business building,” McKinsey & Company, December 2020

Derisking corporate business launches: Five steps to overcome the most common pitfalls,” McKinsey & Company, October 2020

The digital-led recovery from COVID-19: Five questions for CEOs,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020

Innovating from necessity: The business-building imperative in the current crisis,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020

Building an e-commerce business: Lessons on moving fast,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020

Building new businesses: How incumbents use their advantages to accelerate growth,” McKinsey & Company, December 2019

Insurance 2030—The impact of AI on the future of insurance,” McKinsey & Company, April 2018

Raising returns on analytics investments in insurance,” McKinsey & Company, July 2017

Advanced analytics: Nine insights from the C-suite,” McKinsey & Company, July 2017

Harnessing the potential of data in insurance,” McKinsey & Company, May 2017

The advance of analytics,” McKinsey & Company, March 2017

Straight talk about big data,” McKinsey Quarterly, October 2016

Transforming into an analytics-driven insurance carrier,” McKinsey & Company, February 2016

Unleashing the value of advanced analytics in insurance,” McKinsey & Company, August 2014

Getting infrastructure offshoring right,” McKinsey & Company, July 2009

PAST EXPERIENCE

Nortel Networks
Optical networks engineer

Nokia Bell Labs (Lucent Technologies)
Research associate

EDUCATION

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MS, computer science, electrical engineering

McGill University
BEng, electrical engineering