This is a profile image of Adam Kendall

Adam Kendall

PartnerNairobi

Advises senior leaders in government and business on strategic and operational issues—including national and regional planning, investment, and delivery—in Africa’s energy and resources sectors

Adam is the leader of McKinsey’s Sustainability Practices in Africa. Based in Kenya, he works across the entire continent. Adam is a trusted adviser to clients in the energy, electricity, and resources sectors, working extensively with both the public and private sectors. Besides supporting multiple government ministers of power, finance, and mineral resources with strategic planning at the national and regional levels, Adam has counseled the executive management of private-sector investors pursuing opportunities in Africa.

Examples of Adam’s recent client projects include the following:

  • supporting the ministers of finance and energy in an incoming African government by providing a detailed assessment of financial, operational, and technical issues and opportunities in the energy sector
  • acting as a coleader of research and development for a national electrification plan, including geospatial modeling at the household level, analysis to determine projected costs, and the development of financing solutions for delivery
  • helping a major global conglomerate set its ten-year aspiration for Africa, including defining opportunities in power generation and energy management
  • analyzing the potential to create jobs in an African country’s electricity sector by examining nine generation and primary energy sources to determine the total direct, indirect, and induced job-creation potential of each technology

Published work

Solving the climate finance equation for developing countries,” McKinsey & Company, December 2023

The role of public–private–philanthropic partnerships in driving climate and nature transitions, McKinsey & Company, November 2023

Power to move: Accelerating the electric transport transition in sub-Saharan Africa,” McKinsey & Company, February 2022

Africa’s green manufacturing crossroads: Choices for a low-carbon industrial future,” McKinsey & Company, September 2021

Brighter Africa: The growth potential of the sub-Saharan electricity sector,” McKinsey & Company, February 2015

Reverse the curse: Maximizing the potential of resource-driven economies, McKinsey Global Institute, December 2013

Education

Johns Hopkins University
MA, international relations

University of North Carolina
BA, history and political science