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Wesley Hayes

Senior PartnerParis

Advises private equity and principal investors across the investment cycle in Europe and North America; has extensive experience in transactions including exit preparation, portfolio value creation, and fund strategy

Wesley is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Paris office who focuses on private equity across the investment cycle and works directly with portfolio companies. He serves private equity and other alternative investors globally, but focuses his work largely in Europe and North America.

Wesley has been involved in more than 100 commercial and vendor due diligence processes and over 40 strategy and transformation projects for portfolio companies. He coleads our growth-equity efforts around the world and has significant experience in scale ups across the tech ecosystem.

Wesley's areas of experience and expertise include due diligence, exit preparation, value creation, portfolio operations, fund strategy, technology, hospitality, and travel. He has also globally coled our exit preparation work for multiple years and has deep expertise in supporting portfolio companies in value creation leading to cash events ranging from sales, refinancing and IPOs. He has deep knowledge in growth strategy with technology and technology-enabled industries with successful impact stories across Europe and North America.

Published Work

A winning strategy for growth investors at a time of uncertainty,” McKinsey & Company, April 2023

Private equity exit excellence: Getting the story right,” McKinsey & Company, July 2019

Past experience

L.E.K. Consulting
Associate consultant

Lehman Brothers
International stock loan analyst

Dorchester Group
Duty manager

Education

LSE
MS, international strategy and finance

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
MS, international strategy and finance

Northeastern University
BS, international business administration and finance