Biography
Senior Expert, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, McKinsey & Company, London Sundiatu is a global thought leader and advocate on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), leading high-impact research and supporting clients to realise the DEI opportunity for their organisations, the business world, the economy, and wider society. ABOUT SUNDIATU Sundiatu is a "go-to" Firm and global expert on the business, economic and organisational opportunity from DEI, having co-led major research efforts including Diversity Matters, the Firm's most-cited diversity research, and engaged extensively internally and externally with clients and Firm colleagues. The multi-year Diversity Matters series substantiates the business case for diversity in corporate leadership using a proprietary company dataset, complemented with best practice insights on driving lasting DEI change across industry sectors and organisational types. The reports are consistently in the Firm's top 3 most media-mentioned since 2018, and are widely referenced by clients, the business press, policy-makers, think tanks and academia. Sundiatu played and continues to play a central role in shaping and disseminating this work, across fora ranging from conferences to client workshops and practice events. DEI publications Sundiatu has co/led or contributed to include Diversity Still Matters (2020), Diversity Wins (2020), The future of women at work in the United Kingdom, Tech for Good (2020), Diversity Matters LatAm (2020), Understanding Organizational Barriers to a More Inclusive Workplace (2020) and Delivering through Diversity (2018). Over the past 5 years Sundiatu has also led multiple other DEI research efforts, across sectors (e.g. tech), regions (eg LatAm), and specific topics (e.g. impact of the COVID-19 pandemic). She has supported DEI initiatives across the Firm, including Women Matter, Women in the Workplace, the Remarkable Women's Programme, BEM research, and GLAM Masterclasses. Sundiatu has engaged with over 150 client organisations, helping them articulate bespoke, business-led DEI aspirations, deploy diagnostic approaches combining talent metrics with semi-quantitative and qualitative assessments of employee experience to lay out the nature and scale of the gap to close, and crafting tailored transformation programs which win both hearts and minds, and blend executive-level direction-setting with grass-roots buy-in and ownership. Between 2017 and 2020, Sundiatu played the role of Practice Development Manager for DEI, working with our Senior Partner leadership and colleagues globally to engage widely on DEI with clients, CSTs, offices, Firm functions, and external partners. These efforts contributed to driving DEI client engagements at the Firm from less than 20 in 2015 to 84 in 2021, and helped launch the DEI service line within the POP sector in 2019. She also engaged extensively within the Firm, e.g., building DEI capability through a global network of DEI Advisors, and supporting affinity groups and recruiting efforts. Sundiatu recently completed an 18-month Visiting Senior Fellow rotation at McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey's business and economics research arm. This provided an opportunity to broaden her understanding of the wider economic growth opportunity from DEI, as well as build knowledge of core economic topics. During this rotation Sundiatu co-led distinctive research on topics relating to consumption and demand, regional economic development in Africa, and sector-specific growth and competition. She also contributed successful research proposals and supported the MGI directorship in convening global experts to the 2021 Annual Research Conference. In her earlier career at the Firm Sundiatu was a Senior Expert, Expert, Engagement Manager and Associate, serving healthcare clients extensively across pharma and medical products, and health systems and services. Sundiatu was also the first Practice Development Manager supporting growth of the HSS sector globally (2005-2008). Prior to joining McKinsey, Sundiatu worked with a leading Swiss pharmaceuticals company as a Senior Project Manager in drug development, and with Geneva University Hospital as a Clinical Research Coordinator. She holds a PhD and Masters in Molecular Biology from Geneva University, and a First Class BSc(Hons) in Biochemistry from Imperial College London. Sundiatu is a solo parent of two children aged 11 and 4, and is fluent in French with some Spanish and German. September 2022