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Marco Breu

PartnerHanoi

Marco Breu

PartnerHanoi

Combines global expertise in banking, real estate, and infrastructure with a deep understanding of local economic development and state-owned enterprise restructuring.

Marco is a partner in McKinsey’s Vietnam office, where he served as the managing partner for 12 years. He advises private companies across multiple sectors on corporate strategy, digital transformation, corporate governance, and growth.

Marco works with Vietnamese state-owned enterprises on business restructuring programs. He also oversees McKinsey’s public sector work in Vietnam, with a particular focus on master planning, economic development, and social growth at the provincial level.

A Swiss national, Marco joined McKinsey’s Zurich office in 1999. He moved to Asia in 2002. Initially based in Seoul, he worked in Singapore before assuming the role of managing partner for Thailand. In 2008, he launched the Vietnam office and has been instrumental in leading the firm’s growth and expansion in the country since.

Passionate about social innovation, Marco founded The Mekong Business Challenge, an annual entrepreneurship program for the Mekong region. Since 2006, the program has welcomed over 1,000 teams from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Bhutan, and supported them in screening, planning, and incubating new businesses.

In 2018, Marco took a sabbatical from the firm to serve as professor of business administration at the Royal Thimphu College in Thimphu, Bhutan. He holds a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Berne, Switzerland and the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

Outside of McKinsey, Marco is an active angel investor in a series of startups in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe in the areas of fintech, e-commerce, retail, and agriculture. He also enjoys scuba diving, flying Cessna planes, and spending time with his family.

Published work

Capturing the wind: Renewable-energy opportunities in Vietnam,” McKinsey & Company, November 2021

How companies can seize opportunity in Vietnam’s growing retail market,” McKinsey & Company, October 2019

Exploring an alternative pathway for Vietnam’s energy future,” McKinsey & Company, January 2019

How grocers can outperform in Vietnam: Standing tall in a crowded market,” McKinsey & Company, March 2018

Sustaining Vietnam’s growth: the productivity challenge,” McKinsey Global Institute, February 2012

“Capturing growth in emerging markets through lean,” Lean Management: New frontiers for financial institutions, 2011

Growing up fast: Vietnam discovers the consumer society,” McKinsey & Company, August 2010

Education

University of Bern
MS in economics