CEO

Olivia White

Olivia White joined FCLTGlobal in 2026. Previously she was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), combining a first-class academic pedigree in physics and mathematics with advisory and research leadership across financial services, risk, and economic development.  

Olivia completed a double major in physics and mathematics at Stanford University. Awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, she attended Merton College, Oxford, initially studying deeply numerate subjects including mathematical physics, and analysis. Olivia then gained her PhD in Physics from Harvard University in 2005, focusing on disordered systems -such as the viscous properties of glass – and on neural networks and models of learning and memory. A subsequent Pappalardo Fellowship at MIT allowed her to continue work at the intersection of physics and neuroscience.  

During this period, however, she began to question whether a purely academic path aligned with her desire for broader societal impact. As she has described it, she came to realize she was more interested in “fighting the world’s fight”. 

Olivia joined McKinsey in 2008, just as the global financial crisis was unfolding. Initially undertaking a private equity rotation, she worked on due diligences and on engagements blending asset management strategy with risk management, examining how investment decision-making processes incorporate both financial and behavioral risks.  

Shortly thereafter, she relocated to Europe to support a major financial institution navigating post-crisis clean-up, gaining what she describes as a “front-row seat” to the causes and consequences of systemic failure. This shaped her focus on financial services and risk management. She worked extensively with banks and insurers on the intersection of strategy, risk, and regulation, and later broadened into operational transformation – merger integration, procurement, and service operations – developing an appreciation for the practical mechanics of institutional change beyond conceptual frameworks. 

A key strand of her career emerged through work with a major foundation examining digital financial inclusion and the economics of payment systems globally. That work combined system-level analysis with social impact, exploring why financial systems fail to serve those who could productively access credit and how regulatory and market design choices shape inclusion.