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Gemma D’Auria

Senior PartnerMilan

Gemma D’Auria

Senior PartnerMilan

Supports organizations in the retail, fashion, and luxury sectors in driving transformations for higher performance and health, including building capabilities and developing leadership capacity

Gemma is a senior partner based in our Milan office, where she leads our efforts with consumer retail, fashion, and luxury in the Mediterranean.

A global leaders in our People & Organizational Performance Practice, her areas of focus are organizational learning and leadership development to support institutions across public and private sectors in development and capability-building initiatives at scale.

Gemma is also a member of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) council, which advises on MGI research on global economic, business, and technology trends.

She has coauthored a number of articles on organizational topics and is also one of the contributors to a book recently published by McKinsey called Leadership at Scale, which is focused on how to effectively enhance leadership in organizations.

Recent engagement experience includes the following:

  • driving a performance acceleration program at a leading retail organization in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)
  • leading a holistic digital, and advanced-analytics transformation with a prominent B2C conglomerate across several industries including grocery, retail, luxury shopping malls, leisure, and entertainment with meaningful impact on both performance and health
  • defining a lifestyle ecosystem strategy and supporting its implementation for a leading retail group in EMEA
  • establishing a corporate academy for a private-sector conglomerate encompassing a school of leadership, analytics and technology, and customer experience
  • transforming the operating model and culture of a prominent family-owned business, changing its operating model from a passive investor to a strategic architect via best-practice talent and performance management

Gemma began her career at McKinsey in our New York office and also worked throughout the Middle East. Before joining McKinsey, Gemma worked in the investment banking division of a multinational investment bank in London, and she now lives in Milan with her husband and four children.

Published work

How CEO Alain Bejjani, an emerging-markets leader, models resilience,” McKinsey & Company, February 2022

Grocers can fuel growth with advanced analytics,” McKinsey & Company, June 2021

Sustainably shifting how an organization leads,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, July 2020

Reimagining the post-pandemic organization,” McKinsey Quarterly, May 2020

Tuning in, turning outward: Cultivating compassionate leadership in a crisis,” McKinsey & Company, May 2020

Leadership in a crisis: Responding to the coronavirus outbreak and future challenges,” McKinsey & Company, March 2020 

Education

Stanford Graduate School of Business
MBA

LSE
BS, government and economics