Jeff Sinclair

Jeff currently serves as a Lecturer at the University of Michigan in the Ross School of Business.  Jeff also serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Zell Lurie Institute, and formerly served on the Advisory Board for the Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering.  Prior to joining the faculty, he served as chair of the Dean’s Advisory Board for the Ross School of Business. 

Jeff retired in December 2012 as a Director (Senior Partner) with McKinsey & Company.  Over the course of more than 30 years, Jeff served in the Firm’s offices in Washington, DC, San Francisco, Barcelona, and Cleveland, where he served as the Location Manager from 1999 through 2005. 

Jeff has a breadth of experience serving CEOs and their leadership teams in strategy, operations, and organization.  He served companies in North America, Asia, and Europe across multiple industries, including electronics and high-tech, aerospace and defense, automotive, and consumer goods.  He also worked extensively with the US Federal Government.

Jeff's functional expertise is in strategy and operations.  He worked with top management teams of technology- and operations-intensive businesses to develop and align business and operations strategies, and to build leadership and front-line capabilities to deliver substantial improvements in strategic and financial performance.  He co-founded McKinsey's Manufacturing Practice and led a major research effort on the Future of Manufacturing jointly with the McKinsey Global Institute.  During his career, Jeff also led the Firm’s Product Development and Supply Chain Practices and served as McKinsey’s Global Knowledge Leader for the Operations Practice, essentially the head of R&D across operations disciplines including product development, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain, and service operations. 

Jeff has a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship.  He has made over 30 investments in start-ups and private-equity-owned companies. He has served as an active advisor, board member, and executive helping start-ups navigate their journeys from founding through exit to both private investment firms and publicly traded companies. Jeff is an investor and currently serves on the advisory board of Sus Clinicals, a health sciences start-up that works with medical device, drug, and radiology researchers in their quests to cure cancer.

Jeff currently serves on the board of The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET), a not-for-profit that supports economic development in manufacturing in Northeast Ohio. He has helped launch and served several other economic and community development not-for-profit organizations over the course of his 40-year career. 

Before joining McKinsey, Jeff worked for Chrysler Corporation and IBM.  He holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Michigan.