McKinsey & Company organization
Overview
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 in Chicago by James O. McKinsey, an accounting professor at the University of Chicago who conceived the idea after observing inefficiencies among military suppliers while working with the US Army Ordnance Department. Originally a partnership, it was legally restructured as a private corporation in 1956 with shares owned exclusively by partners. It operates a comparatively flat hierarchy with mentorship assignments and is led by a Global Managing Partner — currently Bob Sternfels, based in the San Francisco office — elected to three-year terms, with a mandatory retirement age of 60. The firm reported 38,000 employees in 2025 and $16 billion in revenue in 2023, with offices in major cities worldwide including New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Note that the Wikipedia article reviewed here contains no material on blockchain or cryptocurrency research work, so no such claim is made. McKinsey has been at the centre of repeated controversies: it worked on 20 Enron projects before that company's 2001 collapse (Enron's Jeff Skilling was a former McKinsey consultant); it advised Purdue Pharma to 'turbocharge' OxyContin sales, settling for $600 million in 2021 plus $78 million in 2023 and a $650 million criminal settlement in 2024; it performed over $20 million of work for ICE in 2019 proposing cuts to migrant food and medical care; it identified dissidents on Twitter in work related to Saudi Arabia; and it held a $27.5 million Rikers Island contract (2014–2017) to reduce violence whose reported results were later found to have been manipulated.
Within the DeFi Intel graph, McKinsey & Company connects to 7 tracked entities, most strongly to Tokenization: A Digital-Asset Déjà Vu, From Ripples to Waves: The Transformational Power of Tokenizing Assets, Web3 Beyond the Hype.
Relations
Top connections in the DeFi Intel knowledge graph (confidence-weighted, 7 of 7 total).
| Relation | Connected entity | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
published_by | Tokenization: A Digital-Asset Déjà Vu | 98% |
published_by | From Ripples to Waves: The Transformational Power of Tokenizing Assets | 98% |
published_by | Web3 Beyond the Hype | 97% |
published_by | CBDC and Stablecoins: Early Coexistence on an Uncertain Road | 97% |
published_by | The 2021 McKinsey Global Payments Report | 96% |
employed_by | Matt Higginson | 85% |
employed_by | Anutosh Banerjee | 85% |
Frequently asked questions
When was McKinsey founded?
1926 in Chicago, by University of Chicago accounting professor James O. McKinsey.
Who leads McKinsey?
Global Managing Partner Bob Sternfels, based in San Francisco; the role is elected to three-year terms.
How big is McKinsey?
38,000 employees in 2025 and $16 billion in revenue in 2023, with offices worldwide.
How is McKinsey owned?
It restructured from a partnership into a private corporation in 1956, with shares held exclusively by partners.
What is McKinsey's role in the opioid crisis?
It advised Purdue Pharma to 'turbocharge' OxyContin sales, settling for $600 million in 2021, $78 million in 2023 and $650 million criminally in 2024.
What other controversies has McKinsey faced?
Work for Enron before its collapse, over $20 million of ICE work proposing cuts to migrant food and medical care, work for Saudi Arabia identifying dissidents, and a Rikers Island contract whose results were found manipulated.
Sources
Facts on this page were verified against the following sources.