Dr. Mekala Krishnan is a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey’s business and economics research arm, based in Boston, MA.

Her research focuses on various topics related to inclusive growth and economic development, including climate risk, globalization, and gender economics. Her most recent research focuses on the near-term impact of the climate transition and of physical climate risk across sectors and geographies, including its implications for companies and countries. She is an author of the recent McKinsey Global Institute research Climate Risk and Response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impacts. Her past research has focused on the risks facing global value chains and the future of globalization. Mekala is a frequent speaker on these topics at global conferences as well as with executives at Fortune 500 companies. She has authored numerous articles and her work has been cited in leading business publications, including The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Harvard Business Review.

Mekala is a member of a task force at the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings focused on improving productivity measurement, serves on an advisory board for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, serves on an advisory board for the Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University, and on the board of the Global Fund for Women, a leading public foundation dedicated to improving global gender equality.

Mekala received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University in 2011. Prior to Cornell, she received a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2006 from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.