McKinsey on Healthcare

Dr. Laura Furstenthal is the Senior Partner of McKinsey & Company’s San Francisco Office and a leader within the Healthcare Practice.  She serves healthcare clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and payor sectors across the U.S., Europe and Asia.  She is also co-leader of the North America Innovation Practice across industries.

She recently worked on engagements around commercial optimization of multiple pharmaceutical clients, including salesforce, marketing, gross-to-net, distribution, and patient/ physician support services. She also works with payors, providers, and manufacturers to reduce overall healthcare costs and improve quality, including strategies for creating and partnering with accountable care organizations (ACOs), consumer-driven/ health exchanges, and optimizing operations. She also works on innovation transformation partnerships (ITP) across healthcare, high tech, automotive, insurance, consumer, and non-profit foundations, including establishing clear innovation vision/ aspiration, ensuring effective operating model to deliver internal and external solutions, and developing new product and service concepts.

Beyond client service, Laura is the leader of McKinsey’s annual WC Women’s Summit (keynote speakers include Sheryl Sandberg, Geena Davis, Condoleezza Rice). She has authored publications in journals including Nature and speaks regularly at healthcare industry and women’s leadership conferences. She serves on multiple boards, including America Diabetes Association and Seven Hills School. She is also the mother of 2 children, Rory (13) and Evan (6).

Laura received her PhD in cancer biology from Stanford University and an AB in biology from Harvard University. Recent articles of Laura’s include “The outlook for personalized medicine” (McKinsey & Company, March 2013), “The microeconomics of personalized medicine” (Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, April 2009), and “What drives success for specialty pharmaceuticals?” (Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, July 2008).