Daniel Pacthod

Daniel is part of the firm’s extended operating team and leads the McKinsey Leadership Factory (MLF), stewarding the firm’s role as the preeminent developer of senior leaders, as recognized by Fortune and TIME.

Building on a concept first coined by former managing partner Ron Daniel, MLF under Daniel’s leadership has made progress on two fronts: reinventing how the firm develops its 500 most senior leaders through tailored leadership interventions and helping clients build models to create tomorrow’s leaders today at industrial speed and scale. He has co-authored pieces on this work: the art of 21st century leadership, how to scale a leadership factory, and the CEO as elite athlete. He regularly convenes CEOs and board members on these topics.

Daniel partners with with CEOs and leadership teams across defense, technology, software, and industrial sectors to raise their ambitions, accelerate performance, capture the full potential of reimagining their organizations through gen AI, and build leadership factories that develop tomorrow’s leaders.

Over the past 15 years, he has built and scaled new capabilities for the firm. He founded and led McKinsey’s North American Aerospace & Defense Practice, cofounded and scaled McKinsey Sustainability to help clients navigate the energy transition, launched McKinsey New Ventures, which incubated new digital assets and capabilities, and also led the alumni functions.

Daniel served on McKinsey’s global board for 12 years and on its global operating committee for three. Since 2019, he has led McKinsey’s partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and co-convenes the McKinsey Advisory Council, a group of 15 leading CEOs, alongside the firm’s global managing partner.

Passionate about helping not-for-profit institutions, Daniel serves on the Board of Trustees of Rockefeller University and the Advisory Board of the Hospital for Special Surgery, both in New York.