Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Wendy Dalwin and Neal Piliavin
Wharton Club of Boston, Navjot Singh and Mekala Krishnan invite you to a Fireside Chat: An optimistic scenario for the US response to COVID-19 on Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 6:00 -7:00PM. Learn more about Wharton Club of Boston, meet professionals from a variety of companies and experience a unique opportunity to hear from an industry thought leader.
Mr Singh and Dr Krishnan will discuss the Vacines as well as the impact of Covid-19 on Trade and Climate Change.
Agenda
6:00 - 6:05 PM: Welcoming Remarks and Introduction by Wendy Dalwin
6:05 – 7:00 PM: Fireside Chat: Navjot Singh and Mekala Krishnan - Boston Office, McKinsey & Company An optimistic scenario for the US response to COVID-19
Event Chairs: Wendy Dalwin and Neal Piliavin
This is a complimentary event but registration is required to receive access information.
Navjot Singh serves as the managing partner of our Boston office and leads the state and local work for our Public Sector Practice in North America. He is also a leader in our Pharmaceutical & Medical Products and Strategy & Corporate 
Finance Practices, with a focus on innovation. Nav brings deep business expertise in strategy, innovation, operations, business development, and risk to all his client engagements. An expert in the use of Six Sigma methodologies for product development and process design, Nav holds 15 patents.
He works with pharmaceutical companies to enhance R&D productivity, with contract-research organizations to strengthen performance, and with private-equity players that invest in a variety of science- and medicine-intensive areas. He also works with public-sector organizations to refine strategy and operations. Nav spearheads McKinsey’s knowledge initiatives on R&D productivity in the pharmaceutical industry and leads our Center for Asset Optimization. His recent government work has included helping regulators, states, and cities enhance their performance across the board. He is a former chair of the board of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. He also hosts Imagine Get-Togethers that convene cross-sector leaders on cutting-edge topics, such as synthetic biology, commercial applications of drones, and the future of space exploration. Before joining McKinsey, in 2001, Nav was a laboratory manager at General Electric, where he helped to design manufacturing processes and to develop new polymetric materials and nanomaterials.
Dr. Mekala Krishnan is a senior fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey’s business and economics research arm, based in Boston, MA.
Her research focuses on various topics related to inclusive growth and economic development, including climate risk, globalization, productivity growth in advanced economies, and women’s role in labor markets. Her most recent research focuses on the near-term impact of physical climate risk across sectors and geographies, including its implications for companies and countries. She is an author of the recent McKinsey Global Institute research Climate Risk and Response: Physical hazards and socioeconomic impacts. Her past research has focused on the risks facing global value chains and the future of globalization. Mekala is a frequent speaker on these topics at global conferences as well as with executives at Fortune 500 companies. She has authored numerous articles and her work has been cited in leading business publications, including The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Harvard Business Review.
Mekala is a member of a task force at the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings focused on improving productivity measurement, serves on an advisory board for the Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University, and serves on the board of the Global Fund for Women, a leading public foundation dedicated to improving global gender equality.
Mekala received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University in 2011. Prior to Cornell, she received a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2006 from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
