From biophysics to management consulting
OCT 11, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024732
Science : In the latest Career Profile, Science reporter Elisabeth Pain describes how Francisca Leite became a management consultant at McKinsey & Co in Lisbon, Portugal. Leite originally planned a career in medicine and biophysics. Before joining McKinsey, she studied the brain using nuclear magnetic resonance and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Now, as a management consultant
Leite helps companies in the banking, media, and health sectors solve strategy, operations, organizational, and finance problems. She interviews client-company employees to figure out what the problem is, presents an analysis to the client company, helps them think their way through possible solutions, and builds models to quantify the impact. “Usually, our job is . . . helping them to frame and solve this problem using the knowledge they have,” Leite says. One case she particularly enjoyed was helping a hospital reduce long waiting lists, which were causing patients to leave, the hospital to lose money, and the staff members to become frustrated.
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
