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Dr. Christoph Schmitz

Senior PartnerFrankfurt

Drives global large-scale restructuring, transformation, and performance enhancement initiatives, with a primary focus on the automotive, chemicals and agriculture, and industrial sectors. Additionally serves military and defense clients in key markets with his public sector expertise

Christoph serves as McKinsey’s Restructuring & Transformation CEO in Germany. Over the course of his career, he has held several prominent leadership roles, including leading our Global Manufacturing & Supply Chain Practice for nine years and our Global Capital Excellence Practice for four years. He also serves as the CFO of McKinsey’s German office and is a core member of the global leadership team for the Chemicals & Agriculture and Automotive & Assembly Practices. Previously, Christoph spent nine years as the managing partner of McKinsey’s Frankfurt office.

Christoph specializes in driving holistic global performance transformations, with a strong focus on digitally enabling systemic improvements in manufacturing, supply chain, and capital excellence. He is also deeply committed to leading industry-defining mergers and acquisitions, managing the entire life cycle from strategy to execution. He is also passionate about serving military and defense clients in key markets.

Christoph’s expertise lies in combining strategic vision with operational excellence, leveraging digital and advanced analytics to deliver sustainable impact for clients across industries.

Examples of his recent client work include:

  • comprehensively restructuring a chemicals company, achieving a 600 percent total return to shareholders
  • guiding an automotive supplier through financial restructuring to restore positive cash flow and enable deleveraging
  • turning around an automotive supplier, reversing performance trends, and establishing a foundation for financial stability
  • developing and deploying global production systems, covering network strategy, site diagnostics, and shop floor transformation
  • driving productivity improvements through advanced analytics, digital tools, and robotics while designing end-to-end transformation journeys
  • redesigning capital and project organizations, including governance structures to enhance efficiency and effectiveness
  • optimizing capital expenditure portfolios and project execution, improving planning effectiveness and productivity
  • leading cultural and organizational transformations, including redesigning people systems, operating models, and governance structures
  • supporting M&A initiatives, from target screening and due diligence to post-merger integration and synergy realization
  • developing a comprehensive and integrated perspective on a public sector client’s transformation to achieve a pivotal performance uplift

Published work

Seize the decade: Maximizing value through pre-construction excellence,” McKinsey & Company, September 2023

Accelerating capital projects to secure advantages in the net-zero transition,” McKinsey & Company, November 2022

Doing good demands doing better: Delivering net-zero capital projects,” McKinsey & Company, October 2022

How to manage the coming wave of investment in capital projects,” McKinsey & Company, June 2022

Capital investment is about to surge: Are your operations ready?,” McKinsey & Company, April 2022

Here comes the 21st century’s first big investment wave. Is your capital strategy ready?,” McKinsey & Company, March 2022

Capturing value at scale in discrete manufacturing with Industry 4.0,” McKinsey & Company, September 2019

Brexit: The bigger picture—Rethinking supply chains in a time of uncertainty,” McKinsey & Company, May 2019

The great remake: Manufacturing for modern times,” McKinsey & Company, August 2017

What to do when a specialty-chemical business gets commoditized,” McKinsey & Company, May 2017

The dirty little secret about digitally transforming operations,” Harvard Business Review, May 2016

Education

University of Bayreuth
PhD, chemistry