Amandla Ooko-Ombaka, Partner, McKinsey & Company

Amandla Ooko-Ombaka currently leads McKinsey’s work on integrated land use management, and their Global Food Security Initiative. As the world braces for unprecedented pressure on food systems linked to climate, geopolitics and shortening supply chains, Amandla says farmers and consumers across Africa and other emerging markets will be most acutely impacted. She adds that food system needs are intimately linked to the world’s rising appetite for biofuels, our commitments to nature and biodiversity, the materials we need to mine for AI and computing, places for work and play and so on.

The vast majority of her work focuses on helping her clients across the private and public sector to navigate these challenges, and in doing so improve the lives and livelihoods of the farmers and consumers they serve.

Until Sept 2023, Amandla was based in her home city of Nairobi, Kenya and co-led their agriculture practice in Africa.

She is an economist and partner at McKinsey focused on food systems. She co-leads the Global Food Security Initiative including working on integrated land use management. She is on the Board of Harvard Centre for African Studies (Chair, Leadership Council), FreshLife, Emerging Public Leaders, and LendHer Capital.

She is specialised in strategy with focus on food systems development, food and nutrition security, route-to-market, digital applications for agriculture, integrated land use management, executive communication, public speaking and moderating.

Amandla Ooko-Ombaka is a development economist with a public sector heart, a private sector mind and a passion for getting things done.

Amandla views leadership as a call to service, and is passionate about building cultivating inspiration and evidence-based leadership. She often engages in broadcasted conversations on these topics with Presidents and former heads of state, Central Bank Governors, CEOs of pioneering billion dollar businesses and innovative start-ups, Presidents of leading global universities, and her peers. She is a Tutu Fellow (2023).

A co-author of several of McKinsey’s acclaimed publications on agriculture, Amandla is featured in various media—including BBC, Business Daily, CNBC, CNN — and regularly speaks on the main stage at global fora on food systems, including AFSF, COP28 and the Tana Forum. She has featured on several 100 Most Influential lists, including in the New African – “Change Maker”, and Avance Media “Young African” (2022), Iconic Leaders (2023).

She is a Kenyan national who has lived/travelled to 50+ countries. She holds a BA in Economics and International Studies with distinction from Yale University, an MPA in International Development and an MBA from Harvard with honours, where she was a Centre for Public Leadership Fellow.