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Bill Wiseman

Senior PartnerSeattle

As a senior partner in our Seattle office, brings innovation to client service through new management science for technology and industrial clients

Bill is a global coleader of McKinsey’s Semiconductors Practice. Before returning to the United States and taking global leadership of McKinsey’s product-development and procurement projects, Bill led the firm’s Advanced Industries work in the Asia–Pacific region, including for clients in electronics, semiconductors, and aerospace and defense. He founded the firm’s Design Lab in Taipei, which generates detailed value- and cost-driven insights for products in industries as diverse as clean technology, consumer electronics, and electric vehicles. Bill recently led McKinsey’s acquisition of QuantumBlack, a premier data-science company based in London.

With deep expertise in semiconductors, electronic components, contract manufacturing, and clean technology, Bill most often advises clients on issues related to operations, performance transformation, and strategy.

Examples of his recent client work include the following:

  • using machine-learning techniques to lift the effectiveness of large-scale engineering workforces across oil and gas, consumer electronics, industrial electronics, and semiconductor design by 10 to 65 percent, as measured by cost, quality, and schedule adherence
  • conducting commercial due diligence on more than 15 semiconductor companies on behalf of strategic buyers and financial investors, with work that included benchmarking more than 100 wafer fabrications, 55 assembly and test facilities, and 20 solar-cell and module-manufacturing facilities
  • supporting a photovoltaic-system provider in transforming its procurement function and using design-to-value and cleansheet techniques to help the client minimize cost and maximize energy output for commercial and utility scale installations
  • assisting a leading semiconductor manufacturer with a lean performance transformation that encompassed wafer-fabrication facilities, final manufacturing facilities, maintenance services, product design, and capital-equipment-procurement functions

Before joining McKinsey, Bill was a Special Warfare officer in the US Navy from 1992 to 1997, leading several elite special forces units at SEAL Team 5. Following his military service, he designed mixed-signal integrated circuits for a multinational IT company.

Published work

Strategies for building US semiconductor fabs: Finding skilled labor,” McKinsey & Company, February 2023

Semiconductor fabs: Construction challenges in the United States,” McKinsey & Company, January 2023

Deep learning in product design,” McKinsey & Company, December 2022

The future is now: Unlocking the promise of AI in industrials,” McKinsey & Company, December 2022

Is there a ‘best’ owner of satellite internet?,” McKinsey & Company, August 2022

Skinny design: Smaller is better,” McKinsey & Company, April 2022

Five-star growth: Using online ratings to design better products,” McKinsey & Company, August 2021

Semiconductor design and manufacturing: Achieving leading-edge capabilities,” McKinsey & Company, August 2020

Large LEO satellite constellations: Will it be different this time?,” McKinsey & Company, May 2020

Find cost opportunities with today’s should-cost analysis,” McKinsey & Company, June 2018

Disruptive forces in the industrial sectors: Global executive survey, McKinsey & Company, March 2018

Moneyball for engineers: What the semiconductor industry can learn from sports,” McKinsey & Company, March 2017

The age of analytics: Competing in a data-driven world,” McKinsey Global Institute, December 2016

Straight talk about big data,” McKinsey & Company, August 2016

Infrastructure and economic development: An interview with John Rice,” McKinsey & Company, August 2015

How semiconductor companies can get better at managing software development,” McKinsey & Company, September 2014

“Creating value through M&A and divestiture,” McKinsey on Semiconductors, Autumn 2012 (PDF–532 KB)

“Will analog be as good tomorrow as it was yesterday?” McKinsey on Semiconductors, Autumn 2011

“The evolution of business models in a disrupted value chain,” McKinsey on Semiconductors, Autumn 2011

Past experience

IBM
Mixed-signal integrated-circuit design engineer

US Navy
Platoon commander, SEAL Team 5

Education

Fuqua School of Business at Duke University
MBA

North Carolina State University
MS, electrical engineering

US Naval Academy
BS, systems engineering