Gautam Kumra new Managing Director of McKinsey in India
Gautam Kumra, the founder of the McKinsey Leadership Institute and Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, has been appointed the new Managing Director of the firm’s Indian organisation. Kumra succeeds Noshir Kaka, who will lead McKinsey’s analytics practice at a global level.
Having been active in the country for over twenty years, McKinsey & Company have established a substantial practice in India, operating with 15 Senior Partners, 35 Partners, and over 500 consultants. In this period, four people have successively helmed the organization: Tinu Puri, Ranjit Pandit, Adil Zainulbhai, and Noshir Kaka.
Now, as Noshir Kaka transitions to a more global role as a leader of the analytics practice, Senior Partner in New Delhi Gautam Kumra has been chosen as the fifth Managing Director of the consulting firm, effective from the start of 2017. Kevin Sneader, the firm’s chief for Asia, made the announcement at a meeting of the Indian partners in New Delhi.
Kumra has had an illustrious career at McKinsey so far, having spent his entire professional life there since the firm entered the consulting industry 23 years ago. He earned a Bachelor’s of Technology in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi, and subsequently a Masters of Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Ahmedabad, perhaps the most prestigious combination of schools in the country.
McKinsey recruited Kumra as soon as he graduated from IIM, placing him in their New Delhi Office, where he spent eleven years as partner for the firm. In 2006, Kumra was promoted to Senior Partner, and the Head of Asia for the firm’s Organisation Practice, a position that he held until his promotion to Managing Director.
Alongside his longstanding relationship with the firm at the senior level, Kumra is renowned for his endeavor, having launched a number of initiatives while at McKinsey. The consultant is credited with founding the McKinsey Leadership Institute in India, an initiative aimed at nurturing talent to develop transformational leaders. Kumra also leads the McKinsey Asia Center in efforts to cope with globalisation, helping a number of companies with their global strategies.
During his work as Senior Partner, Kumra operated within the pharmaceutical arena, his main field of expertise. Here, he supervised a major transformation of one of India’s leading pharmaceutical companies, complete with a ten-year plan, an organisational restructuring, and a procedural improvement to increase efficiency. In addition, he also co-founded the Public Health Foundation of India, which works with the government to devise policy and develop skills aimed at improving the country’s public healthcare system.
Outside of the pharmaceutical industry, Kumra has helped with organisational redesigns and restructuring of some of India’s leading infrastructure and IT companies. Using this expertise, Kumra also advised some of the world’s biggest multinational corporations with their entry-strategies for the Indian market.
Commenting on the appointment, Kevin Sneader said, “Gautam Kumra is deeply respected by the firm’s partners. He has a record of outstanding client leadership and the ability to build and innovate, perhaps best seen in the McKinsey Leadership Institute.”
Kumra will be leading the firm through a busy period, as the NITI Aayog recently appointed McKinsey to advise on major development plans under the Development Support Services for States scheme.
