Keiko Honda is a partner at McKinsey & Company's Japan office and the first woman elected Director in Asia. She has advised both Japanese and multinational clients in areas such as M&A activities, corporate valuation, and long-term growth strategy. Her key engagements include facilitating a major Japanese banking merger; counseling a leadership committee on reform and future growth at one of Japan’s largest financial groups; and developing value-creation strategy for a global consumer goods company.

Prior to joining McKinsey in 1989, Ms. Honda worked in the mergers and acquisitions department at Lehman Brothers, and earlier worked as a consultant at Bain & Company.

As McKinsey’s most senior woman in Asia, Ms. Honda is leading the firm’s women’s initiative in the region. She has supported many McKinsey women consultants as a mentor and a coach.

Ms. Honda is the author of several books, including Turnaround (2004) and M&A and Strategic Alliances (1998). She has served on the Council for Regulatory Reform in Japan during the Koizumi, Abe, Fukuda, Aso and Hatoyama administrations. She has also been a visiting associate professor at the Hitotsubashi University’s Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, and a lecturer at the Chuo Graduate School of Strategic Management.

Ms. Honda holds a degree in consumer economics from the Ochanomizu University, and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her MBA