Tiffany Burns is the Managing Partner of the Atlanta Office, and a leader in McKinsey & Company’s global Consumer Practice.
She works with apparel, consumer, and retail clients to design and implement enterprise-wide and functional transformations. Tiffany has worked with several of the world’s leading retailers as part of transformational programs to drive efficiency from the store floor to the supply chain. She also helped develop McKinsey’s perspective on the “store of the future,” which focused on identifying key technologies across the customer and associate retail journey, and testing live use cases in the Modern Retail Collective, a technology-enabled store in Mall of America.
In addition to her client work, Tiffany helped lead the creation of McKinsey’s 10 Actions toward racial equity, which is a portfolio of initiatives and efforts to improve racial equity within the firm and around the world. Most recently, Tiffany helped to architect McKinsey’s Next 1B program, a business accelerator program for Black founders to build $1B businesses, which has impacted over 200 founders to date.
Tiffany is also an active member of the Atlanta philanthropic community, serving on the board of the Woodruff Arts Center, Leadership Atlanta, The Georgia Tech Athletic Association and as the cofounder of the Rising Seniors Foundation.
Published work
“Rising tide: How private equity can lift the shipbuilding industry,” McKinsey & Company, April 2025
“Empowering Black, Latina, and Native American women in tech,” McKinsey & Company, August 2023
“Unlocking the full potential in fashion for Black consumers,” McKinsey & Company, January 2023
“Investing in Georgia today for the economy of tomorrow,” McKinsey & Company, December 2022
“The big break: How retailers can break habits to support diverse-owned businesses,” McKinsey & Company, October 2022
“Beyond burnout: What helps—and what doesn’t,” McKinsey Health Institute, October 2022
“Black beauty brands and consumers: Where do we go from here?,” McKinsey & Company, July 2022
“Building Black-owned brands to accelerate prosperity,” McKinsey & Company, June 2022
“Black representation in the beauty industry,” McKinsey Quarterly, June 2022
“Meet the Black beauty execs,” McKinsey Quarterly, June 2022
“Beyond the distribution center,” McKinsey & Company, June 2022
“Forecasting the future of stores,” McKinsey & Company, March 2022
“The five zeros reshaping stores,” McKinsey & Company, March 2022
“The rise of the inclusive consumer,” McKinsey & Company, February 2022
“The Black unicorn: Changing the game for inclusivity in retail,” McKinsey & Company, November 2021
“Women in the Workplace 2021,” McKinsey & Company, September 2021
“The diversity imperative in retail,” McKinsey & Company, January 2021
Education
Harvard Law School
JD
Harvard Law School
MBA
Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government
MPP
Georgia Institute of Technology
BS, industrial engineering