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Hugues Lavandier

Senior PartnerParis

Advises energy, mining, and OEM companies on growth and portfolio strategies and evaluates corporate-finance opportunities; supports investors and private-equity groups in the commodities and industrials sector

Hugues leads our Aerospace & Defense Practice in Europe. In this capacity, he serves as a core advanced-industries leader. Since joining the firm in 2005, Hugues has helped industrial-equipment manufacturers, commodities companies, and investors by focusing on M&A transactions, growth, portfolio rebalancing, product development, and competitive positioning.

Hugues works with clients around the globe and leads growth projects for companies in the industrial-equipment, electric-power, mining, oil and gas, and private-equity sectors. He oversees transformational change programs when organizations seek to pursue new growth priorities.

Examples of his recent work the following:

  • leading a large number of due diligences for private-equity groups and corporations in the water technology, equipment, and services space
  • helping the board and the senior management of a leading oil field services company reset its asset strategy and manage the implications for capital-market and midterm financial planning
  • helping a manufacturer of power-generation equipment redefine its services sales strategy by resegmenting its market and developing product offerings tailored to the new segments.
  • supporting the redesign of the innovation and product launch process and organization at a leading power-electronics company; this accelerated critical product launches, enhanced capabilities for engineering and product-development teams, and reprioritized the innovation agenda
  • leading the transformation of a large engineering group for a leading supplier of oil and gas equipment
  • conducting a dozen due-diligence market scans in a variety of industrial sectors—including specialty chemicals, steel, and shipping—for a private-equity group with more than $50 billion in assets under management

Hugues is a native French speaker, fluent in English, and conversant in German. He is on the board of the fundraising committee for Centrale Supélec.

Published work

The talent gap: The value at stake for global aerospace and defense,” McKinsey & Company, July 2024

Innovation and efficiency: Increasing Europe’s defense capabilities,” McKinsey & Company, February 2024

The future of European defense and security,” McKinsey & Company, February 2024

Europe’s gray-to-green workforce transition in aerospace and defense,” McKinsey & Company, October 2023

Invasion of Ukraine: Implications for European defense spending,” McKinsey & Company, December 2022

Chemicals and capital markets: Growing sustainably,” McKinsey & Company, April 2022

Five digital and analytics battlegrounds for B2B aftermarket growth,” McKinsey & Company, February 2022

How to boost growth in industrial services: Better customer experience,” McKinsey & Company, July 2021 

Past experience

ArcelorMittal
Flat-carbon automotive, business development, and M&A manager
European stainless, production manager

Mercedes-Benz Group
Paint shop engineer

Education

Columbia University
MBA, finance

Technical University Munich
ME

CentraleSupélec
MS