Frank Mattern retires from McKinsey & Company for entrepreneurship
Frank Mattern is retiring from McKinsey & Company per 1 September. He leaves the firm, where he was its Global Head of Recruiting and member of its highest body, to pursue his own consultancy work at corporates and support various startups with accelerating their growth.
Frank Mattern joined strategy consulting firm McKinsey & Company twenty-seven years ago, and climbed his way to the top of the firm’s global operations, most recently holding the position of Global Head of Recruiting. His career with the consulting firm saw him take on the role of Practice Leader of the German Financial Institutions Group in 1996, before, in 2001, becoming a Managing Partner of the firm’s Business Technology Office. Various other roles, Managing Partner of Germany (2007), Leader Global Functional Practices (2014), brought him finally to his most recent position, which he took on in 2015.
The 55 year old, who studied studied Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Business Administration and Management at the University of Münster and a Masters of Business Administration at the University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School, recently announced that it is time for a change, retiring from the firm per 1 September 2017. Explaining his decision he states, “I’ve achieved everything I could ever achieve in this firm. Mission accomplished.”
Rather than being poached by another top-tier strategy consulting firm, or retiring early, Mattern has opted to launch his own specialist consultancy firm focused on the public and private projects in Frankfurt, Germany. As part of the new business, Mattern will leverage the sale of his shares in McKinsey & Company, which provide considerable financial security to the top-tier in the firm, to finance various companies, he states, “Investments in companies will certainly also play a part. I’ve already invested in a small growth enterprise.”
Mattern announced his decision at the firm’s strategy meeting among top partners in Berlin. According to sources, the decision did not come as a surprise to the leaders, although one partner noted that the role Mattern held will be hard to fill – his project work included some of the firm's larger projects in Germany, including work to improve the German Government's refugee processes. His decision to leave will also see him exit the firm’s 31 member shareholder council, McKinsey's highest leadership body.
