Michael Obermayer

Michael Obermayer was formerly Managing Director, and Dean of the global Leadership Fellows Programme, World Economic Forum, Switzerland.

Michael is Director Emeritus and former Senior Partner of McKinsey & Company, Inc., with whom he built a successful career spanning more then 25 years. Before his retirement in early 2004, Dr Obermayer was Dean of the McKinsey Institute, the company’s global corporate university, where he was instrumental in developing a state-of-the-art approach to organizational learning. From 1993 to 2000, he was Chairman of McKinsey Eastern Europe, during which time he established offices in Moscow, St Petersburg, Prague, Warsaw and Budapest, building a solid network of local partners. Between 1986 and 1989, he headed McKinsey’s business in Norway and Sweden. He spent his first decade at the firm mainly in Scandinavia, but also in the UK, France and Italy.

Michael holds an MSc degree in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, a PhD summa cum laude in Biochemistry from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and University of Munich, and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau. Before joining McKinsey, Michael was a Research Fellow at Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel.  He is a visiting professor at the Moscow State University and teaches strategy and organisational development at INSEAD. He and his wife Marianne, with their four children, have lived in six European countries. He works in eight languages and considers himself a true European citizen. His passion – apart from his family - is offshore sailing, and playing chamber music.

Michael is treasurer of the IB Board of Governors and chair of the IB finance committee.