McKinsey

Privately owned management consulting firm founded in Chicago in 1926. It has worked in the Middle East since 1957 and has teams in seven cities across the region, including Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.

Industry: Management consulting | Founded: 1926

About McKinsey

McKinsey & Company is a privately owned global management consulting firm. It was started in Chicago in 1926 as James O. McKinsey & Company by James O. McKinsey, then an accounting professor at the University of Chicago, and is widely described as the oldest of the major strategy consultancies. Wikipedia and Plunkett Research list New York City as its headquarters, but the firm's own media fact sheet, dated May 2026, says it has no headquarters in the traditional sense and that its managing partner chooses a home office. The firm is led by Bob Sternfels, global managing partner since 2021. Senior partners re-elected Sternfels to a second three-year term in 2024, after a runoff against Rodney Zemmel, who leads its digital strategy practice. Plunkett Research describes McKinsey as operating more than 130 offices across over 65 countries. Press reports put its workforce at a peak of around 45,000 in 2022, down to about 40,000 later; in 2025 Bloomberg-sourced reports said the firm was discussing a reduction of roughly 10 percent in non-client-facing roles over 18 to 24 months, which a spokesperson described as a review of support functions. Also in April 2025, Bloomberg reported that the firm's latest group of 56 senior partners included six women. McKinsey has a substantial presence in the Gulf and wider Middle East. Its regional site describes seven locations: Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Doha, Dubai, Karachi, Manama and Riyadh, although some third-party recruiting guides list eight offices including Kuwait City. The Riyadh office is in Kingdom Tower, and the Dubai office is in the Dubai International Financial Centre. Recruiting guides report that Riyadh and Dubai carry the heaviest project load, a claim that comes from third-party commentary rather than the firm. Gassan Al-Kibsi leads the firm in the region. His McKinsey profile describes him as senior partner and chair for the region, based in Riyadh, leading a team of more than 180 partners and over 2,400 colleagues, and as a member of the firm's board of directors. The World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader in 2014. A 2025 item noted that the firm was entering its 20th year in the Middle East. In February 2023 McKinsey launched its QuantumBlack artificial intelligence unit in the Middle East, operating from its offices in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Regional coverage has also linked the firm to work for Saudi clients, including a financial strategy engagement for LIV Golf reported in 2023.

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