ancy Karch admits that when she arrived at Soldiers Field she had "almost no understanding of business." While pursuing a doctorate in mathematics at Northeastern University, she "stumbled upon the idea of business school" when she realized that a career in academia was not for her. Twenty-five years later, it's clear that she made the right choice. As a director of the Atlanta office of McKinsey & Company and managing partner of McKinsey Southeast United States, Karch has become an expert on numerous business topics, such as retailing, mass merchandising, apparel manufacturing, and the food and hospitality industries.

At HBS, Karch was a quick study. "I didn't know the basic language, but I found I had an aptitude for business," recalls the straightforward, confident Karch, whose downtown Atlanta office is filled with souvenirs from consulting projects. The experience she gained working for a consulting firm the summer after her first year at HBS, as well as her strong academic record, landed her a job at McKinsey's New York office upon graduation. "I figured I'd stay a few years," says Karch, "until it no longer captured my imagination."

But that letdown would never come. "The basic philosophies of McKinsey make sense to me," she says, explaining her lengthy tenure at the firm. She is also a strong believer in McKinsey's world-renowned ability to train its staff: "We don't think of consultants as human resources to be used up. We believe in teaching and in apprenticeship." On the client side, Karch appreciates McKinsey's focus on helping clients make constructive changes. "This place is driven by values," she notes. "Our decisions to work with clients are based on whether we can help them, not on the fees we will accrue."

Karch has made her mark at McKinsey in several areas. Working with a few retailers as a young principal at the firm in the early 1980s, she realized that retailing, which represents one-third of the American economy, could benefit from McKinsey's management expertise. "The timing was terrific, because the industry was just starting to get into serious trouble," says Karch, whose father was a retailer. "We helped them look beyond next season's fashions to see the importance of understanding how their economics worked, how their inventory flowed, and where their cost structure was." Under Karch's leadership, McKinsey soon developed a strong retail practice, which now accounts for half of the firm's consumer business.

Like most senior McKinsey partners, Karch has served on numerous internal committees, and she is particularly proud of her work in forming (and then chairing) a global committee to review the firm's specialized partners. Another source of satisfaction for Karch is the strong consumer practice she helped to build in Chicago, her hometown.

Karch, who is active in Atlanta's Woodruff Arts Center, has never regretted forsaking her academic aspirations. "At McKinsey," she says, "I feel that I have been influential in the business world and that I have been a player in professionalizing the retailing industry. It's enormously fulfilling."

by Susan Young

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Charles W. Cassell	Alfred A. Checchi	Robert F. Diromualdo	Kenneth A. Goldman	Peter G. Harf	Nancy J. Karch	Antoinette J. Rapone	W. Mitt Romney