world-class project leads from mckinsey, bain & BCG
Beacon Project Leads are experienced consultants, having worked at McKinsey, Bain, or BCG, with degrees from top institutions such as Harvard Business School. They guide Fellows through the project, coordinate client interactions, and provide Fellows with personal insights into the life of a top-tier consultant.
On program, Project Leads teach key organizational strategies and methods, game-changing tools and shortcuts, and other powerful best practices to enable their learning during Beacon and to create the highest quality work for the client. Project Leads are devoted solely to the Fellows as a mentor and resource; Fellows can request advice in any number of career and consulting-related areas. During a 4-week program, Fellows will spend about 100 hours under the direct guidance of the Project Lead.
The Beacon Project Lead is very likely one of the highest caliber individuals a Beacon Fellow may have a chance to work with in their professional journey. Time and again, students testify that the advice and training they received from their Project Lead was the highlight of their Fellowship.
After the program, Project Leads serve as a professional reference for Fellows as they launch their career. Because of the intense, collaborative nature of the projects, Project Leads are uniquely positioned to speak to Fellows’ strengths and abilities. We say that the best recommendation a Project Lead can give a Fellow is, “I wish I’d had this person on my team at McKinsey.”
Past project leads
joan marita | london business school MBA ‘21 | 4 years at mckinsey & company
Joan Marita is a 2nd year MBA candidate at London Business School and specializes in Strategy, Tech and Analytics. She has spent her time in Europe working in Health Tech companies and devised AI algorithms and strategies across the healthcare value chain. Prior to this, Marita worked as a management consultant at McKinsey based off the Nairobi office and primarily consulted on digital transformations in banking, consumer, healthcare, etc. across the African continent.
At work, she loves playing with Excel and building models, as well as coaching her team and clients. Outside work, she enjoys traveling and photography, having worked and lived in 28 countries.
allen xu | yale JD-MBA ‘23 | 2.5 years at boston consulting group
Allen is currently a JD-MBA candidate at Yale Law School and Yale School of Management. Prior to graduate school, Allen served as Director of Strategy and Growth at HarrisX, a market research startup in Washington D.C., where he led initiatives around the launch of the new Telephia platform. Before HarrisX, Allen supported leading US and European clients in the Retail and Healthcare sectors as a member of BCG’s Washington D.C. office, where he also led undergraduate recruiting from Stanford.
Allen’s additional experiences include consulting and investments work in the spaces of education, affordable housing, and international development. Allen received his B.A. in Economics and Comparative Literature from Stanford University, and hails from Overland Park, Kansas.
Enrique González Bencomo | dartmouth MBA ‘20 | 3 years at mckinsey & company
Enrique graduated in 2020 with an MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Enrique has a undergrad degree in Economics from Mexico’s ITAM University. He started his career working for Siemens in their Power & Gas division as a strategic business planner where he worked on sales and market strategy for the North American power generation markets. He joined McKinsey & Company in 2015 in the Mexico City office. He has worked extensively in Operations, Strategy and Organization projects with clients in the Oil & Gas, Electric Sector, Chemicals, Cement, Mining and Public Sector Industries. Enrique has professional experience working in Mexico, United States, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Spain and Israel. He spent the summer of 2019 working for EDP Renewables, one of the largest renewable energy companies in North America. Enrique is a Spanish native speaker and a fluent English speaker. Enrique likes to play chess in his free times and is an active community leader in Mexico working pro bono in social development programs.
“Beacon facilitates an amazing opportunity to mentor young, energized and talented students while they apply in a real client situation the consulting and strategic thinking skills learned. The opportunity to leverage my experience as a former consultant to help grow future consultants and professionals comes as a big reward.” - Enrique González Bencomo
putting fellows in the driver’s seat
“To maximize learning, I put Fellows in the driver’s seat, pushing them to use their own best thinking to solve our client’s problems. We then walked through their thinking and my thinking side-by-side as a collaborative team so we could all learn from one another. We used many different formats, including whiteboarding sessions, brainstorms, trainings, workshops, and one-on-one coaching to facilitate this learning.”
– Daniel, Harvard MBA and Bain & Co. alumnus (Summer 2019, Madrid)
Project Lead Viet, McKinsey alumnus/Harvard MBA, poses with Fellows at the BaseKX client site.
Kemal Armada| Harvard Business School MBA ‘21 | 3 years at McKinsey & Company
Kemal is a current first year MBA student at Harvard Business School with distinctive management consulting experience globally in 10+ countries and 3 continents. Kemal is an engineer by background (BSc. Electrical Engineering from EPFL in Switzerland and MSc. In Electrical Engineering from MIT in the USA). After graduation, he started his career at McKinsey & Company in the Geneva office in Switzerland, and later transferred to Addis Ababa office in Ethiopia to work on high impact projects that were happening in the African continent. Before taking his educational leave for HBS, Kemal was already assuming the role of Engagement Manager (or Project Leader) for 6 months and has significant experience managing complex consulting projects and coaching junior colleagues. During his time at McKinsey, Kemal served various industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Consumer goods, Retail, Oil & Gas, and functions such as Corporate Finance and M&A, Marketing & Sales, Capital and Infrastructure, Public Sector and Economic Development.
In his spare time, Kemal loves playing squash, saxophone and traveling (70+ countries visited so far).
“There is nothing more powerful than a mentee and mentor relationship. Everything I have done/achieved in my life was thanks to mentors I have met along the way. I love coaching and mentoring and it is one of my strong suits. I am delighted by the possibility of meeting all of you, developing long-lasting mentor/mentee relationships and solving tough business problems while learning about the management consulting industry (and while having lots of fun).” - Kemal Armada
Zhuopei Chen| Harvard Business School MBA ‘20 | 3 years at Bain & Company
Zhuopei is finishing her MBA at Harvard Business School. She spent three years in management consulting for Bain & Company, both the Shanghai and London offices, most recently as a Senior Associate Consultant. Her consulting expertise includes the sectors of consumer goods, retail practices, and entertainment. Long committed to the fields of business and consulting, she even founded the Fudan University Consulting and Banking Club while an undergraduate! A connoisseur of the arts, Zhuopei enjoys painting, music, photography, and even paragliding.
“Coaching and mentoring have always been a significant motivation for me in all aspects of life, and Beacon’s mission aligns perfectly with my values.” - Zhuopei Chen
John Davis| Harvard Business School MBA ‘20 | 2 years at BOston Consulting Group
John, a member of Harvard Business School MBA class of 2020, spent two years consulting with Boston Consulting Group, and after spending some time working in the fields of healthcare innovation and finance. During his undergraduate at Duke, John spent two summers conducting research in Uganda and India, as well studying abroad in Germany–he has been to over 45 countries! When he’s not globe-trotting, John enjoys cooking, skiing, and training for triathlons.
“I am excited about the opportunity to expose undergraduate students to the consulting industry and teach them valuable skills that will set them up for success as consultants when they graduate from university or enter into other career paths. My experience as a consultant at BCG set me up for success early in my career, and I want to be able to teach students valuable lessons I learned along the way.” - John Davis
Maree Lambrechts| INSEAD MBA ‘19 | 2 years at Bain & company
Maree graduated in 2019 with an MBA from INSEAD Business School, spending time across both Singapore and France. Maree has a background in financial services and risk management from the University of Stellenbosch, and is a qualified short term insurance and enterprise risk management actuary. He started his career as a consulting actuary at Deloitte, where he advised clients on insurance and risk management issues across Africa and created a new software system to streamline and partially automate the technical liability estimation process for insurers. Maree has spent the last 2 years as a consultant at Bain & Company working on projects across Financial Services, Industrial Goods & Services and Oil & Gas, most recently testing various advanced analytics algorithms as proofs of concept to assist businesses with improving their operational decisions. In his spare time Maree loves being outdoors, cycling, hiking or adding to list of 30 countries already explored.
“Beacon provides me with the opportunity to share my passion for consulting with a promising team of potential new consultants, where I can share the valuable lessons I’ve learned along the way while jointly solving fun and exciting business challenges!” - Maree Lambrechts
Pieter Swart | IESE MBA ‘21 | 3 years at Bain & company
Pieter is an MBA student at IESE Business School in Barcelona. After finishing his Accounting degree at the University of the Witatersrand, Pieter joined Bain & Company’s Johannesburg office for three and a half years, working his way up to the rank of Consultant. During this time, he spent extensive time traveling around the African continent, working across the government, mining and telecommunications sectors. Pieter also has a strong interest in developing market fintech, with the hope of participating in the transformative effects it can have on the economy. In his free time, Pieter is an avid musician, having played in numerous bands and founding bands in his wake (Bain band, IESE class of ’21 band. He also enjoys reading classics and playing football.”
“The first thing that caught my eye was Beacon's lighthouse logo: a tall and proud, universally trusted guide. I have a passion to be this trusted guide and mentor to Beacon Fellows navigating the rough seas of career decision. Not to mention the opportunity to work with cutting edge clients across the globe on priority projects!” - Pieter Swart
Viet| Harvard mba ‘20 | 3 years at mckinsey & company
Viet is a current MBA student at Harvard Business School and heads up business strategy for Google’s new business sales division in the Asia Pacific. Prior to HBS, he managed a digital marketing startup and was a consultant for 3 years at McKinsey. As a Project Lead, he enjoyed meeting all the Fellows and working with them to develop impact for clients. Coming from a musical background, he often organizes jamming sessions with friends or attends jazz clubs. His advice to incoming Fellows? "Find your particular strength and focus on that spike to become exceptional."
Deborah| Harvard mba | 3 years at Bain & co.
After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, Deborah began her MBA program at Harvard Business School. She has worked at Bain & Company and held internships at GE Healthcare, A Better Chicago, and HomeLight. Deborah loves to cook, attend concerts, read, and generally stay active. Her advice to incoming Fellows? "Approach this opportunity with a growth mindset – work hard, experiment, and come in with a goal of learning as much as possible. It’ll be a fun, risk-free way to learn more about consulting."
Daniel| Harvard MBA | 1 year at Bain & co.
Daniel graduated in 2019 with an MBA at Harvard Business School and a MPA in International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has worked as a management consultant with Bain & Company in South Africa, a policy consultant with IDinsight in Uganda and India, and in the New York City Mayor's Office of Operations, the World Bank, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. In these roles, he has worked on operational transformations, business strategies, impact evaluations, and economic development plans for businesses, governments, foundations, and NGOs. His tip for incoming Fellows? "Learn keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft office - they're incredibly useful."
Jaime| MIT Sloan mba ‘20 | 4 years at Boston consulting group (bcg)
Born and raised in Spain, Jaime has a background in aerospace engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and is currently earning his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. After graduation, he gained experience in multiple capacities in Madrid and Barcelona, most recently as a consultant for BCG. He has worked in the travel, tourism, energy and industrial goods sectors dealing with revenue management, operations, cascading, M&A and more.
Bonnie| Harvard mba | 2 years at Bain & co.
After graduating from Harvard Business School, Bonnie served as a Project Lead with Beacon and then returned to the San Francisco bay area — where she grew up — for a job at Salesforce. Prior to business school, she worked in consulting at Bain Chicago where she had the opportunity to work in a number of different industries and exciting midwestern cities. In her free time, Bonnie enjoys golf (she played for her college team) and salsa dancing. She is also trying to get back into reading for fun, now that required class readings have ended.
the fellows’ perspective
Fellow: Alina | Dartmouth | Summer 2019, London
Mentored by mckinsey alumnus/Harvard MBA project lead
“Above all, through trainings and feedback on our slides, [my Project Lead] taught me the basic knowledge needed in consulting…I learned how to be MECE and Top-Down in communication, how to make professional-looking slides, and how to estimate market size using the TAM-SAM-SOM approach. Case interview practice and related conversations with the Project Lead prepared me for recruiting seasons in the future. Walking out of the program, I’ve gained much more insight and confidence regarding internship applications. Check-ins with the Project Lead on a daily basis made me think about and synthesize my Beacon experience frequently and thus memorize my learnings deeply.”
Fellow: Bhoomika | University of Michigan | Summer 2019, Madrid
Mentored by bain alumnus/harvard mba project lead
“Our Project Lead [Daniel] was exceptional and provided us with guidance and mentorship throughout the process. I believe Daniel, more than anyone or anything, made the experience as amazing as it was.”
Fellow: Christopher | suny | Summer 2019, London
Mentored by mckinsey alumnus/Harvard MBA project lead
“[My Project Lead Viet] aided my team and I in a variety of challenges and hurdles we faced while working for the client. Everything from team dynamic challenges to how to help the client better, Viet taught the proper steps to problem solving, feedback and how to convey the message in a concise and detailed manner.”