Co-founder and director, Protix Biosystems
What did your McKinsey career look like?
After a period of working and travelling following university, I decided to go for a fellowship at McKinsey since I wanted to learn more about business. During my time at McKinsey I mainly worked on strategy in innovation and R&D within the high tech and telecom industries. After completing my fellowship program I decided I didn’t want to pursue an MBA but instead I was ready to take a chance and started my own company.
What is the best thing you have learned from your McKinsey time? Professionalism. Whatever you do, do it right. And help the people around you because you can learn from them and they will be able to help you as well when you need it.
What do you do today? I founded Protix Biosystems together with another McKinsey alumnus, Tariq Arsiwalla. We are in the business of developing industrial technology to produce protein sources from waste streams. Through innovation we believe we can provide solutions that enable more Waste-2-Food conversion. I focus mainly on R&D, Operations and communications.
Where do you want to be in 10 years from now? I don’t know. I could write down a nice future vision about love, career and health, but I’m too chaotic and enthusiastic about all sorts of different things to actually believe I know what I’ll want in 10 years.
How does being a McKinsey alumnus specifically help you? Having a wide and deep network of people, specialists, colleagues and friends is always helpful. Especially when they all have the intention to help—you just have to ask.
Kees left McKinsey as a fellow, and has an M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering, Technical University at Delft.