Kweilin Ellingrud, leader of McKinsey’s Minneapolis office, is known around the country and the world as the business consulting firm’s preeminent voice and researcher on gender equality. Indeed, her work for the McKinsey Global Institute found that 40 of the 95 countries analyzed have high or extremely high levels of gender inequality on at least half of 15 indicators, both economic and social. In 2018, she’ll be focusing on her newest challenge as a co-leader of the firm’s lean-management practice in North America.