Director, McKinsey & Company

 Program:
 Aspen Strategy Group

Biography

Diana Farrell has rejoined McKinsey & Company as a Director after holding the post of Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President on Economic Policy at the White House. Among other leadership responsibilities across the Firm’s public and private sector practices, she will lead the newly formed McKinsey Center for Government. Ms. Farrell joined President Obama’s Administration in January of 2009 and remained there for two years. She led the White House inter-agency wide processes for a broad portfolio of economic initiatives, including financial regulatory reform; housing and housing finance policy; and innovation and competitiveness. She was also a member of the President’s Auto Task Force, charged with devising strategies to restructure the US auto industry and support the affected communities. Before she joined President Obama’s Administration, Ms. Farrell was a Director of McKinsey & Company, and led the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey & Company’s economics research arm. MGI’s independent investigations combine McKinsey’s microeconomic understanding of companies and industries with the rigor of leading macroeconomic thinking to derive perspectives and publish reports on important global economic issues. Ms. Farrell’s work has appeared in academic journals, books, and on the op-ed pages of leading international publications, and she is a frequent speaker at major US and global conferences. She is the editor of an anthology series based on MGI research, published by Harvard Business School Press, 2007. She is the co-author of Market Unbound, published by Wiley & Sons, 1996. Ms. Farrell previously a leader of McKinsey’s Global Financial Institutions and Global Strategy practices. She has served clients around the world in a variety of capacities. Prior to joining McKinsey, she worked for Goldman, Sachs & Company in New York. Ms. Farrell has a B.A. from Wesleyan University in Economics and in the College of Social Studies. She also holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.