Jonathan R. Woetzel

Jonathan is a senior partner of McKinsey & Company. He is the global leader of its Cities Special Initiative and is a Director of the McKinsey Global Institute. He has also led McKinsey's Energy and Materials practice in Asia and its Corporate Finance practice in China. As McKinsey's leader in developing its China practice, Dr. Woetzel opened the Shanghai location in 1995 and has been resident since then. He has also worked in the Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York, and Zurich offices. Dr. Woetzel has over 30 years of experience in developing strategies and organizations for both industrial and consumer companies. Industries of particular interest include energy, mining, infrastructure, health care, telecom, and airlines. He has led many of the Firm's most significant engagements in China including the first major international listing of a Chinese company, the revitalization of Nanjing Road in Shanghai, and global client service to the world's most significant resource company for the past 15 years. Dr. Woetzel also advises China's national and local government authorities on economic development and reform issues. He has assisted the State Economic Commission in making regulatory changes to improve the foreign investment environment, and has developed economic plans for the cities of Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Xian and Harbin among others. Globally he advises government leaders in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Southeast Asia and the United States among others on sustainable growth strategies. In 2008, Dr. Woetzel authored the report China's Urban Billion, still the most rigorous analysis of China's urbanization trends. He then launched the Urban China Initiative along with Tsinghua University and Columbia University to catalyze the next stage of China's urbanization by supporting world-class research on China's key urban challenges. Dr. Woetzel has authored four books on China: One Hour China (2013), China's Economic Opening to the Outside World (Praeger, 1989), Capitalist China: Strategies for a Revolutionized Economy (John Wiley, 2003) and Operation China (Harvard, 2006). He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Southern California, where his work focused on China's political economy. Dr. Woetzel, a U.S. citizen, is proficient in Mandarin, Spanish, and German, and is the proud father of Dominic and Taylor Woetzel.