William Barnett

Bill is a retired Director of McKinsey & Company, Inc., where he worked for 23 years in the Washington, Atlanta, and Dallas offices. During his career with McKinsey, Bill advised clients in a wide range of industries on strategy, performance improvement, and organizational effectiveness. Bill led McKinsey’s Strategy Practice – the group that determines how to improve the firm’s strategy development capability. His work to develop new strategic thinking included demand and price forecasting, game theory, and scenario planning. He authored articles on strategy topics in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business Review. Bill also led the firm’s Economic Development Practice, developing methodologies to help metro areas stimulate local economies. Since retiring from McKinsey, Bill has been an Adjunct Professor at the Yale School of Management. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Eagle Materials in Dallas, he is an Overseer of the International Rescue Committee in New York, and he is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. Earlier, Bill worked in the Department of State where he started a new policy assessment office in politico-military affairs. He worked in the Program Analysis and Evaluation group of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and he was a member of the U.S. delegation to the force reduction negotiations between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. He was a Captain in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Bill received a B.S. from West Point and an M.B.A. from Harvard. At both schools, he was in the top 5 percent of his class. He lives in Dallas and regularly spends time in Seabrook Island, South Carolina.