Global management consulting company McKinsey and Company is opening a 17-employee Vancouver office today.
In a speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade on September 9, global managing director Dominic Barton promised McKinsey would “steal talent” from British Columbia.
The firm has 110 offices worldwide.
London-based Barton was raised near Chilliwack and is a strategic advisor to HQ Vancouver, an initiative backed by the provincial government and Business Council of British Columbia to encourage Asian companies to locate their North American headquarters in British Columbia.
In his speech, Barton said that despite China’s recent economic troubles, he is optimistic about the country’s economic growth over the long term. Barton said he is “bullish on commodities,” which have been hit hard by declining demand from China.
“I’m very confident of China’s growth in at least the next 15 years because of the urbanization,” Barton said. “It’s going to be bumpy, but we’re going to have 18 million people a year moving from the rural areas to the cities.”
British Columbia is well-positioned through geographic and cultural ties to take advantage of China’s future economic growth, but needs to do more to position itself to compete with other regions, Barton said. He identified tech, tourism, agriculture and education as areas where B.C. could position itself to capture the new middle class consumers of Asia.
McKinsey’s Vancouver office will be headed by Miklos Dietz, Mingyu Guan and Matias Marcote.
@jenstden
