Neil Smith Joins the Advisory Council
We are pleased to welcome Neil Smith to the SGSNY Advisory Council.
Until recently, Neil Smith was a partner in McKinsey’s New York Office and is now a Senior Advisor to the firm. As a leader in the McKinsey Transformation (MT) practice, Neil specialized in large-scale transformations.
In 2011 and 2012, Neil led the ground-breaking Bank of America NewBAC initiative. A project on this scale (90 countries; 300,000 employees) had never been completed before, and CEO Brian Moynihan announced an annual profit improvement of $16 billion a year. This project, completed while the bank was under close regulatory scrutiny, reduced branches from 6500 to 4500 while growing deposits by $55 billion and reducing employees to 208,000. Stock performance transformed from worst performing to best performing in the year the initiative was completed (from $6 a share to $32).
Neil has led more than 30 successful large-scale transformations, many with over $1 billion of annual impact. Over the last few years, a number of companies Neil has worked with are now rated the best in their industry, including companies in banking, software, communications, insurance, food manufacturing, distribution, and health care.
Neil introduced an environmental sustainability component to McKinsey Transformation, which included the creation of proprietary tools such as GreenGuage and GreenWave.
Neil originally joined McKinsey in the 1980s (where part of his training was conducted by Firm founder Marvin Bower). He left to form and lead two small specialist highly successful consulting practices focused on whole company transformations, primarily in the financial services industry.
In 2012, Neil wrote his New York Times Bestseller, How Excellent Companies Avoid Dumb Things, before rejoining McKinsey in 2016.
Neil is a board member of the privately owned DDC Group, a leading global provider of Business Process Outsourcing.
Neil has an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, where he was the only Knox Fellow. He earned a B.A. (with honors) in Physics and Economics from the University of Keele, England. In 2015, Neil was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (D. Univ.) from the University of Keele. In 2024, he was nominated as one of the “75 Faces of Keele” to celebrate the University’s 75th Anniversary.
Before business school, Neil was a journalist in London, working with the BBC and the London Sunday Times.
Until recently, Neil served on the International Advisory Board of British American Business, Inc. He is a former member of a Harvard Business School alumni committee and is the founding Chairman of the U.S. Alumni of Keele University. Neil has been a Life Member of the St George’s Society of New York for over 20 years.
During the early days of the Russia-Ukraine War, Neil moved to Poland and helped establish and run the largest Ukrainian Refugee center in the world, in Warsaw. The center helped more than 60,000 refugees. This work came to the attention of Pope Francis, and earlier this year, Neil was invited to the Vatican to attend the launch of World Children’s Day 2026.
Neil enjoys soccer, rugby, cricket, baseball, and collecting ancient British coins. He is a passionate follower of the English Premier League, where his lifelong team is Manchester City.