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Seckin Ungur

PartnerSydney

Seckin leads McKinsey’s Education Practice in Australia and New Zealand, and is the Dean of McKinsey’s Executive Leadership Program.

Seckin helps clients deliver major transformations, with a focus on improving citizen outcomes, organizational culture, and top team effectiveness. With more than 15 years in senior public sector roles, she is particularly passionate about working with governments to drive education and workforce transitions in the new era of skill requirements; and leads McKinsey Australia’s Education Practice.

Examples of her recent work include:

  • helping a Group of 8 (Go8) University to develop an investment case for a major strategic venture
  • delivering an advanced analytics project to understand drivers of persistent disadvantage and poverty for vulnerable people
  • supporting a Commonwealth agency to define their strategic priorities and performance metrics, as well as improve leadership effectiveness
  • developing debt-restart strategies for multiple Australian government agencies
  • designing and helping implement a major K-12 education transformation project for a state government to improve outcomes for students
  • developing a skills and capability strategy for a government department transforming services for citizens
  • supporting a review of the Australian workforce using the McKinsey Global Institute’s future-of-work model

Seckin has published research on automation, jobs, and the future of work. She also has a strong interest in social policy, particularly the reform of the child protection system and reducing re-offending.

Prior to McKinsey, Seckin worked for more than 15 years in the Australian public sector, with roles including head of strategy for a dedicated job-creation agency governed by a private sector board, senior leadership roles overseeing the justice and health portfolios in the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, and in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Seckin currently sits on the board for the Committee for Sydney.

On weekends, Seckin can be found exploring Sydney with her husband and two young daughters and enjoying trying to replicate her mother’s Turkish cooking.

Published work

Generative AI and the future of work in Australia,” McKinsey & Company, February 2024

Spark & Sustain: How all of the world’s school systems can improve learning at scale,” McKinsey & Company, February 2024

How COVID-19 caused a global learning crisis,” McKinsey & Company, April 2022

Improving schools: Reflections from education leaders in South Australia,” McKinsey & Company, January 2021

Reforming public education in Australia: An interview with Mark Scott AO,” McKinsey & Company, October 2020

Automation in government: Harnessing technology to transform customer experience,” McKinsey & Company, September 2020

How to rebuild and reimagine jobs amid the coronavirus crisis,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020

Australia’s automation opportunity: Reigniting productivity and inclusive income growth, McKinsey & Company, March 2019

Past experience

Jobs for NSW
Head of strategy

Education

The University of Sydney
Executive MA, public administration

UNSW Sydney
MA, forensic psychology
BA, psychology