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Hugues Lavandier

Senior PartnerParis

Advises energy, mining, and OEM companies on growth and portfolio strategies and evaluates corporate-finance opportunities; supports investors and private-equity groups in the commodities and industrials sector

Hugues leads our Aerospace & Defense Practice in Europe. In this capacity, he serves as a core advanced-industries leader. Since joining the firm in 2005, Hugues has helped industrial-equipment manufacturers, commodities companies, and investors by focusing on M&A transactions, growth, portfolio rebalancing, product development, and competitive positioning.

Hugues works with clients around the globe and leads growth projects for companies in the industrial-equipment, electric-power, mining, oil and gas, and private-equity sectors. He oversees transformational change programs when organizations seek to pursue new growth priorities.

Examples of his recent work the following:

  • leading a large number of due diligences for private-equity groups and corporations in the water technology, equipment, and services space
  • helping the board and the senior management of a leading oil field services company reset its asset strategy and manage the implications for capital-market and midterm financial planning
  • helping a manufacturer of power-generation equipment redefine its services sales strategy by resegmenting its market and developing product offerings tailored to the new segments.
  • supporting the redesign of the innovation and product launch process and organization at a leading power-electronics company; this accelerated critical product launches, enhanced capabilities for engineering and product-development teams, and reprioritized the innovation agenda
  • leading the transformation of a large engineering group for a leading supplier of oil and gas equipment
  • conducting a dozen due-diligence market scans in a variety of industrial sectors—including specialty chemicals, steel, and shipping—for a private-equity group with more than $50 billion in assets under management

Hugues is a native French speaker, fluent in English, and conversant in German. He is on the board of the fundraising committee for Centrale Supélec.

Published work

Is Europe still on the launchpad? Reshaping its space ecosystem to lead,” McKinsey & Company, Novmber 2025

The talent gap: The value at stake for global aerospace and defense,” McKinsey & Company, July 2024

Innovation and efficiency: Increasing Europe’s defense capabilities,” McKinsey & Company, February 2024

The future of European defense and security,” McKinsey & Company, February 2024

Europe’s gray-to-green workforce transition in aerospace and defense,” McKinsey & Company, October 2023

Invasion of Ukraine: Implications for European defense spending,” McKinsey & Company, December 2022

Chemicals and capital markets: Growing sustainably,” McKinsey & Company, April 2022

Five digital and analytics battlegrounds for B2B aftermarket growth,” McKinsey & Company, February 2022

How to boost growth in industrial services: Better customer experience,” McKinsey & Company, July 2021 

Past experience

ArcelorMittal
Flat-carbon automotive, business development, and M&A manager
European stainless, production manager

Mercedes-Benz Group
Paint shop engineer

Education

Columbia University
MBA, finance

Technical University Munich
ME

CentraleSupélec
MS