Byron Gerald Auguste

Byron is the worldwide managing director of McKinsey’s Social Sector Office, which houses McKinsey & Company’s practices in Global Public Health, Economic Development & Opportunity Creation, Education, and Philanthropy. McKinsey’s Social Sector works with leading intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, philanthropic foundations, and private companies to develop and implement solutions to pressing societal challenges. Based in Washington DC since 2007, Byron spent 14 years in McKinsey’s Los Angeles Office, where he was elected Principal in 1999 and Director in 2005. His private sector client work focuses on helping technology, media, and services companies to achieve faster growth, greater productivity, and higher profitability, and on designing and building information and services businesses across a wide range of industries. He founded and led McKinsey’s High Tech Services Sector globally, has served on the global committees that elect and evaluate new partners, and leads the firm’s diversity initiative globally. Byron is an active writer and public speaker on the impact of globalization, deregulation, and technology changes on industry structure, corporate strategy, and public policy at universities, industry roundtables, and public policy forums. He has been published or quoted in the McKinsey Quarterly, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Global Telecom Business, The Economist, New Perspectives Quarterly, National Public Radio, and N.TV in Germany. He authored "A Revolution in Interaction" (1997), a seminal analysis of the emerging new economy, "What's So New About Globalization?" (1998), a widely cited synthesis of global economic trends and their implications, and "The Other Side of Outsourcing" (2001), an analysis of success factors in developing, marketing, and selling outsourced services, and “The Right Services Strategy for Product Companies” (2006). Byron serves on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy, the leading West Coast international affairs forum; on the Board of Directors of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, one of the world’s largest and most innovative private philanthropies; and on the Board of Trustees of the Center for American Progress. He is a cofounder and chairman of Hope Street Group, a nationwide, nonpartisan, volunteer organization of professionals, executives, and entrepreneurs developing and promoting Opportunity Economics public policies to achieve equality of opportunity in a high-growth U.S. economy. He has worked closely with the Mayor of Los Angeles on a range of strategic and performance management issues for the city, including infrastructure, education, and jobs, and served with other senior business leaders on the Los Angeles Economy and Jobs Committee. He is a Senior Fellow at the UCLA School of Public Affairs. Byron received an B.A. in economics and political science summa cum laude from Yale University, where he was chosen as a Truman Scholar, and a M. Phil. and D.Phil. (doctorate) in economics from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. Before joining McKinsey & Company in 1993, Byron worked as an economist, in international trade, finance, and economic development, at the African Development Bank, at LMC International, and at Oxford University’s Foreign Service Program for mid-career diplomats. He authored The Economics of International Payments Unions and Clearing Houses, published by MacMillan Press in 1997.