Christopher McDonnell, Principal
Places lived: United States (New York, Connecticut, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts), United Kingdom (London)
Education: Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, MBA; University of Notre Dame, BA in American studies
Experience: Greenwich Associates (consultants to financial institutions) and Eureka Networks (IT infrastructure start-up)
Focus: Education and performance improvement; helping people and companies get better at what they do through research, benchmarking, and new business thinking
Intellectual Influences: Notre Dame and the principles it taught: humility, service, working for common goals. “Kellogg helped me understand the power of teams in business.”
Turning points: Leaving a promising career at an established consultancy. “I was on a good track but had a chance to get out there and see what I could do.”
Chris is a “man of parts” in the sense that he brings together different skills. First, he is an analyst. He likes numbers, segmentation, trends. On the other hand, he naturally leans towards business and relationship development. He likes to figure out what his clients need and then show them how to grow. He is a strategist, as well.
In all his jobs he has shown an ability to see what is changing in a client’s environment and help them respond to those changes. But there is a fourth part to Chris that holds these different skills together: a man intent on living up to the principles he learned at Notre Dame and later at Kellogg.
“Notre Dame wasn’t really optional. My father’s family had all gone there,” he says. “The first few years were really like a test of loyalty – the all-male dormitories, parietal hours, etc. But looking back, I very much appreciate the experience. And Kellogg built on it.” Perhaps the most important thing Chris learned, he says, is the difference between high performers and leaders. “Performers tend to be individually focused, driven by recognition and reward. Leaders bring others along, elevating them to do things they might never achieve on their own.”
Greenwich Associates is a $75 million consulting firm in institutional financial services. In his first few years there Chris served the research group, focusing on market intelligence and product development. Then he left to join Eureka Networks, a start-up offering communications and IT services to SMEs in Manhattan. He built a sales team that was part of an effort that drove annual sales to $25 million within 18 months. “It could have been a flop. But I took a chance because they had a great business model at the right time. And I got a crash course in entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, finance, and how you can really change your customers’ economics.”
Chris then returned to Greenwich Associates and earned several promotions, eventually becoming a principal based on his ability to build relationships with leading financial institutions and to provide research, large-scale assessments, and real-time strategy insights.
Through all these experiences runs a discernible theme: “You are compensated to help a third party get better at what they do. Maybe that is the only reason anyone should have a job in this business. Everything I did was great preparation for Tapestry.”
Chris lives with his wife and daughter just outside Boston.
Download Chris McDonnell's Formal Biography
