Partners in the world’s largest consulting firm, McKinsey, allegedly deposed their leader, Kevin Sneader, for having dealt with a number of controversies during his attempt.
The company’s 650 senior partners voted to leave Sneader before the final round of a leadership election that was seen as a referendum on his three years in office, according to the Financial Times.
The 54-year-old Scotsman would be one of the first McKinsey leaders in recent memory to serve only one term – all five Sneader predecessors as global managing partner served two or more terms.
The influential company is known for providing expensive advice to governments and multinational companies around the world. Known as the “CEO factory”, McKinsey’s network of former employees includes some of the biggest names in business and politics.
Notable alumni include Chelsea Clinton, Facebook’s former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, and former Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam. In Britain, those who worked or the company include politician William Hague, the former president of HSBC, Lord Green, the former municipal regulator Lord Turner.
With 30,000 employees in 65 countries, McKinsey is a leading UK government consultant and won lucrative contracts during the Covid crisis. Last year, McKinsey consultants received £ 563,000 for six weeks of work – £ 14,000 a day – to create a permanent replacement for Public Health England, defining its “vision, purpose and narrative”.
But the company, which loves slogans like “Leadership for Integrity”, was hit by a series of crises during Sneader’s leadership.
Earlier this month, McKinsey agreed to pay about $ 600 million (£ 426 million) to settle a lawsuit filed by 49 U.S. states over its role in helping drug makers sell more painkillers – even as the country struggles. a national epidemic of opioid overdose.
The consultancy came under pressure after legal documents revealed that it advised OxyContin’s manufacturer Purdue Pharma on how to “boost” sales of the drug in 2013. The company was found to encourage sales representatives to focus on doctors who have already they prescribed large volumes of OxyContin, and try to move patients to more potent versions of the drug.
Sneader expressed regret after the deal, but did not actually admit the guilt on behalf of McKinsey. The company announced two years ago that it would not advise clients on opioid-related deals.
The first-rate consultancy also faced criticism for working with authoritarian regimes. In 2018, the company said it was “horrified” to learn that a document it produced may have been used to target critics of the Saudi government. McKinsey said it had no evidence that the document, created for internal purposes, was misused.
Earlier this month, it was one of several consultancies identified as having received millions from a company involved in an Angolan corruption scandal. McKinsey said at the time that an internal investigation found no irregularities.
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With Sneader out of the picture, McKinsey will likely be led by one of two senior partners, Bob Sternfels, or Sven Smit, w. Both would have reached the last round of the election, which takes place every three years.
A McKinsey spokesman did not confirm Sneader’s departure, but said: “The election, which is conducted by an independent third party, is in progress and we will announce the result after the election is over.”
Sneader’s downfall comes just weeks after KPMG UK chairman Bill Michael resigned after telling the team to “stop complaining” during a virtual meeting about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 52-year-old Australian, who has run the company since 2017, made the comments during a meeting at the virtual city hall this month, which was attended by about a third of the 1,500 employees of the financial services consulting team.
Michael told the team to stop “playing the victim’s card” and described the concept of unconscious bias as “complete and absolute crap for years”.
Michael, who received £ 1.7 million last year, left after the accounting firm asked the law firm Linklaters to conduct an independent investigation. He later apologized and said the controversy had made his position in the accounting giant “unsustainable”.