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Markus Wilthaner

PartnerBrussels

Passionate about building businesses in hydrogen and batteries, working with industry leaders, start-ups, and public institutions

Markus is a partner in McKinsey’s Brussels office and works with his clients in hydrogen and batteries to craft strategies, enter new markets, raise capital, cut product costs, and acquire companies across the European Union, North America, Japan, Korea, and the Middle East. He coleads McKinsey's global hydrogen team, is a leader in the firm’s sustainability growth platform and the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility, and leads hydrogen insights—the firm’s internal competence center on all things hydrogen.

Examples of Markus’s recent client projects include the following:

  • advising a hydrogen-technology company on a commercialization strategy, including finding attractive markets, identifying target customers, and developing its go-to-market approach
  • advising a large industrial company on the strategy, carve-out, and subsequent listing of a hydrogen division as a separate company
  • assisting a battery company with an in-depth market, cost, and environmental perspective for a major financing round
  • developing the business case for a gigascale integration for a hydrogen-production project, including identification of offtake markets and sectors, and optimization of the overall project design
  • developing the hydrogen strategy for a major global energy group, including design of a joint venture and commercial structures for long-term hydrogen offtake
  • supporting a public-private partnership in evaluating the prospects of hydrogen for the decarbonization of aviation

Markus holds a master’s in international economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a master’s from the TU Wien. Prior to joining McKinsey, he developed software for industrials, banks, and telecom companies.

Published Work

Global Energy Perspective 2023: Hydrogen outlook,” McKinsey & Company, January 2024

Five charts on hydrogen’s role in a net-zero future,” McKinsey & Company, October 2022

Unlocking hydrogen’s power for long-haul freight transport,” McKinsey & Company, August 2022

Hydrogen cars or battery electric vehicles—why not both?,” in “The trends transforming mobility’s future,” McKinsey Quarterly, March 2019

Hydrogen: The next wave for electric vehicles?,” McKinsey & Company, November 2017

Past Experience

Mobilkom, Austria
Technical project manager

GE Money Bank, Austria
IT consultant

Education

Johns Hopkins University
MA, international economics and relations

Vienna University of Technology
MSc in business informatics
BSc in computer science and economics