McKinsey & Co. has hired a senior Microsoft Corp. executive to be its first-ever chief technology and platform officer, a role that underscores the management consultant’s increased focus on digital initiatives.
(Bloomberg) — McKinsey & Co. has hired a senior Microsoft Corp. executive to be its first-ever chief technology and platform officer, a role that underscores the management consultant’s increased focus on digital initiatives.
Jacky Wright, who previously served as Microsoft’s chief digital officer, will join the firm later this year and report to global managing partner Bob Sternfels, according to a statement. Wright has spent more than two decades in technology, including senior executive roles at BP Plc, General Electric Co. and inside the UK government. The London native was named the “most powerful Black Briton” by the UK’s Powerlist last year, ahead of soccer player Marcus Rashford.
“Jacky will strengthen how we use technology both to help clients scale new ideas and tackle challenges, and to transform the way our more than 40,000 people work together across our global firm,” Sternfels said in the statement.
McKinsey, which said that half of its consultants are “digital practitioners” without defining what that means, has acquired more than 20 tech-related companies in recent years and established alliances with Salesforce Inc. and other industry players. In addition to helping McKinsey use technology in its client work, Wright will lead the firm’s internal technology team, which spans 66 countries.
According to the National Center for Women & Information Technology, a nonprofit focused on improving representation in computing, 13% of US chief technology officer positions were held by women in 2020. Black or African-American women made up just 3% of the computing workforce in 2021, the nonprofit found.
Along with Wright, the small cadre of Black women who hold senior technology executive roles in Corporate America includes Gail Evans, chief digital and technology officer for Walt Disney Co.’s parks, experiences and products division, and Sabina Ewing, the global chief information officer at Abbott Laboratories Inc. A few prominent Black female executives have recently stepped back from the c-suite to serve as corporate directors, like Microsoft’s former Chief Technology Officer Gina Loften and Joy Brown, who was Verizon Media’s chief data officer.
(Corrects source of “most powerful Black Briton” award in second paragraph of story originally published Sept. 21.)
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