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Thomas Vahlenkamp

Senior PartnerDüsseldorf

Advises clients on corporate strategy, organization, operational transformation, energy trading, risk management, and capital-expenditure optimization

Thomas is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Düsseldorf office. He has more than 30 years of experience in serving clients in the power, oil, gas, coal, chemicals, and transportation industries.

Thomas has been co-convener of McKinsey's work in energy and materials globally. He has deep expertise in strategy, organization, and operational transformation at both the corporate and business-unit level. He also works with clients on challenges in functions such as energy trading, risk management, and capital expenditure. His recent projects include the following:

  • shaping the strategy of one of the world’s largest utilities and supporting a transformation across multiple countries and businesses that delivered €1 billion in bottom-line impact
  • supporting a leading global agriculture player in its growth strategy, involving the transformation of its R&D and marketing and sales functions
  • helping a major global logistics company attain profitable growth through an operational and IT transformation

Thomas is also a prolific author. He co-wrote a book on excellence in capital expenditure and has published a number of articles and reports on global energy and other topics.

Thomas has a doctorate from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and a degree from the Technical University of Aachen, both in polymer chemistry.

Published Work

A balancing act: Securing European gas and power markets,” McKinsey & Company, April 2023

Revisiting European utility portfolios,” McKinsey & Company, June 2021

Germany’s energy transition at a crossroads,” McKinsey & Company, November 2019

Analytics for grid decision making,” McKinsey & Company, September 2019

Energiewende-Index Deutschland 2020+ – Neuer Kompass für die Wende,” McKinsey & Company, October 2017 (PDF–837 KB)

The Golden Twenties: How Germany can master the challenges of the next decade,” McKinsey & Company, April 2013 (PDF–4.39 MB)

Transformation of Europe’s Power Sector to 2050—including specific considerations for German,” McKinsey & Company, October 2010 (PDF–1.31 MB)

Capex Excellence: Optimizing Fixed Asset Investments, John Wiley & Sons, 2009

Education

Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research
PhD, polymer chemistry

Technical University of Aachen
MS, polymer chemistry