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Thomas Vahlenkamp

Senior PartnerDüsseldorf

Advises clients on corporate strategy, organization, operational transformation, energy trading, risk management, and capital-expenditure optimization

Thomas is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Düsseldorf office. He has more than 20 years of experience in serving clients in the power, oil, gas, coal, chemicals, and transportation industries.

Thomas is co-convener of McKinsey's work in energy and materials globally. He has deep expertise in strategy, organization, and operational transformation at both the corporate and business-unit level. He also works with clients on challenges in functions such as energy trading, risk management, and capital expenditure. His recent projects include the following:

  • shaping the strategy of one of the world’s largest utilities and supporting a transformation across multiple countries and businesses that delivered €1 billion in bottom-line impact
  • supporting a leading global agriculture player in its growth strategy, involving the transformation of its R&D and marketing and sales functions
  • helping a major global logistics company attain profitable growth through an operational and IT transformation

Thomas is also a prolific author. He co-wrote a book on excellence in capital expenditure and has published a number of articles and reports on global energy and other topics.

Thomas has a doctorate from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and a degree from the Technical University of Aachen, both in polymer chemistry.

Published Work

A balancing act: Securing European gas and power markets,” McKinsey & Company, April 2023

Revisiting European utility portfolios,” McKinsey & Company, June 2021

Germany’s energy transition at a crossroads,” McKinsey & Company, November 2019

Analytics for grid decision making,” McKinsey & Company, September 2019

Energiewende-Index Deutschland 2020+ – Neuer Kompass für die Wende,” McKinsey & Company, October 2017 (PDF–837 KB)

The Golden Twenties: How Germany can master the challenges of the next decade,” McKinsey & Company, April 2013 (PDF–4.39 MB)

Transformation of Europe’s Power Sector to 2050—including specific considerations for German,” McKinsey & Company, October 2010 (PDF–1.31 MB)

Capex Excellence: Optimizing Fixed Asset Investments, John Wiley & Sons, 2009

Education

Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research
PhD, polymer chemistry

Technical University of Aachen
MS, polymer chemistry