Partners in Performance promotes John Laing to partner in Sydney
Global management consultancy Partners in Performance has promoted John Laing to partner twelve months on from joining the firm as an associate principal following a decade at McKinsey.
Based out of Sydney, Laing specialises in operational performance and transformation, and prior to switching to consulting with McKinsey & Company spent more than two decades in mostly supply-focused roles between Unilever and Nestle.
Acquired by Accenture Strategy in the second half of last year, Partners in Performance has continued to make a series of partnership promotions across its international offices in recent months, including in the UK, South Africa and Canada.
“John brings the best of both worlds to our team and clients by combining a breadth of experience and the ability to bring strategy to life,” the firm said in celebration of Laing’s promotion. “Over the past 20 years, he has led more than 30 transformations across many industries in the Asia Pacific and driven change initiatives that deliver top and bottom-line performance.”
A science and chemical engineering double-holder from the University of Sydney, with an MBA from Macquarie, Laing spent close to a decade in the Australian army prior to joining the private sector with Unilever and pivoting from production and operations to supply across his fourteen years with the company. He later joined Nestle as a divisional supply chain lead for Oceania.
Notching up more than two decades in the consumer goods sector, Laing then turned his attention to advisory, crossing to McKinsey & Company in 2014 and applying his expertise for clients across a wide range of industries, including the mining, TMT, agriculture, and healthcare sectors among others while serving as the management consultancy’s A/NZ manufacturing & supply chain lead.
Founded by former McKinsey consultant Skipp Williamson close to three decades ago, Laing joins a long line of leaders at Partners in Performance who boast a background at the MBB giant, including fellow recently-promoted partner Joseph Canto and 2024 CFO recruit Tim Naulls, together with A/NZ and Southeast Asia heads Michael Huggins and Tom Schnitker.
Partners in Performance has also made a number of partnership promotions abroad since the start of its new financial year, including Kieren Wilkie and Russell Varty in London, George Crouch in Toronto, and Johannesburg-based pair Rory Atteridge and Helen Hill. Edward Zaayman meanwhile rejoined from Boston Consulting Group as a managing director in the UK business.
