Gary is the McKinsey & Company chairman of North America. He was previously the managing partner for the firm in North America, and before that led McKinsey’s office for the Western United States. Gary is also the former global leader of McKinsey’s Private Equity & Principal Investors Practice, which he helped cofound more than two decades ago. He has been a long-time member of McKinsey’s Shareholders Council (the firm’s global governance board), including historically chairing the Finance and Infrastructure Committee, the Strategy Committee, and the Risk, Audit, and Governance Committee. His client work spans multiple industries with a particular focus on private equity and principal investors.
Gary joined McKinsey in Los Angeles in 1987 as a business analyst and came to the firm’s San Francisco office in 1992. Over the course of his career, he has worked for Dole Food Company in Honduras, Bear Stearns’ M&A group in New York, and in McKinsey’s Houston, Mexico City, Sydney, and Zurich offices.
Gary currently serves on the boards of Wake Forest University and US Ski and Snowboard. He is a prior member of the boards of San Francisco Opera, California Academy of Sciences, Menlo School, California Business Roundtable, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, ReSurge International (formerly Interplast), and the investment committee for Woodside School Foundation. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in English and quantitative economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, both with distinction.