Mary serves on McKinsey’s Shareholders Council, the global governance board, where she sits on both the people committee and M&A committee. She coleads the Organization Practice globally and is the co-author of Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths.
For more than 20 years she has served leading pharma, consumer products, energy, basic materials, telecommunications, and public sector organizations on their most important transformation, change management, top-team alignment, and performance improvement efforts.
Mary works with a broad range of clients in all sectors on performance and organizational health issues, applying her deep understanding of change management and organizational transformations. She primarily advises clients in the consumer packaged goods, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the public sector. She is also active in other sectors including energy, basic materials, mining, high-tech, and private equity.
She is a cofounder of the McKinsey Women’s Initiative—in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa—Women as Leaders program, and Remarkable Women Program, all which aim to promote women leaders in business. In this context, she regularly participates in McKinsey research evaluating the progress of women in leadership in the corporate world and recommending means of fostering it. Her research work on leadership also addresses the behavioral dynamics in operational and management teams.
A Rhodes scholar, Mary began her career in McKinsey at the Washington DC office, and then spent 13 years in the London office. She moved to Paris in 2011.
In addition to her consulting work, Mary sits on the advisory board of Imperial Business School and was previously on the board of TeachFirst. She graduated summa cum laude with a BA in public and international affairs from Princeton University. She won the Rhodes scholarships and earned a PhD in politics from the University of Oxford.
She is also a member of the business development committee of Philharmonia Orchestra.
Podcast
“What every leader needs to know about organizational management,” McKinsey & Company, November 2017
Published work
“Fit for the postpandemic future: Unilever’s Leena Nair on reinventing how we work,” McKinsey & Company, March 2021
“The future of work after COVID-19,” McKinsey Global Institute, February 2021
“Mary Meaney: Reimagining how organizations operate for the future,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, November 2020
“Reimagining the way businesses operate,” McKinsey & Company, November 2020
“Reimagining organizations for post-pandemic times,” webinar, McKinsey & Company, June 2020
“Successfully transitioning to new leadership roles,” McKinsey & Company, May 2018
“Be rational about irrationality,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, January 2018
“Welcome to the ‘Insights on Leadership & Organization’ Blog,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, November 2017
Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths, Bloomsbury Business, March 2017
“Creating lasting change,” Voices on Transformation 4, McKinsey & Company, December 2010 (PDF– 4.75 MB)
“Corporate transformation under pressure,” McKinsey Quarterly, April 2009
Past experience
South Bronx Educational Foundation
National Endowment for the Humanities
Centre for Strategic and International Studies
Education
University of Oxford, Merton College
PhD
Princeton University, Woodrow School of Public and International Affairs
BA