Chris Bradley, a senior partner at McKinsey & Co., lost his position overseeing the consulting firm's research unit after a LinkedIn post he wrote questioned a workplace challenge that women in executive roles are said to encounter, according to a television news outlet. A Sunday statement from McKinsey confirmed that Bradley had been removed from his director-level post at the McKinsey Global Institute, the consultancy's research arm focused on business and economics.
The firm's internal conduct review led to that partner's removal from all leadership positions, among them the directorship of the McKinsey Global Institute, though his standing as a senior partner within the organisation remains in place. In an emailed statement, McKinsey spokesperson Taylor Burns noted that the individual's public remarks did not meet the conduct standards the firm holds itself to. Membership on certain internal committees was among the responsibilities Bradley held, Burns noted in the news report.
That outcome came after an internal review set in motion by an online exchange Bradley had on LinkedIn the previous month with one of the co-authors behind a newly published book exploring the so-called "glass cliff" concept as it applies to women in professional settings. The firm had put distance between itself and remarks Bradley made on the topic, which were subsequently taken down.
Researchers in academia developed the phrase "glass cliff" to capture an observed tendency for organisations under financial strain or in the midst of a turnaround effort to place women disproportionately into top leadership positions. The concept holds that organisations facing heightened prospects of failure tend to place women in chief executive roles at a disproportionate rate, according to those who advance this line of thinking.
Doubts about whether the phenomenon existed at all were raised by Bradley, who operates out of Australia. Those posts, since removed, contained his characterisation of the glass cliff concept as little more than a framework for perpetual victimhood — a view that sits in tension with McKinsey's stated commitment to examining the obstacles women encounter at work. For over a decade, the organisation released an annual workplace gender study produced in partnership with the Lean In advocacy group founded by Sheryl Sandberg.
Postgraduate study at the London School of Economics and Political Science took Bradley through an economics programme with a focus on industrial organisation, culminating in a master's qualification awarded in 2003. His academic background at the University of New South Wales spans a dual bachelor's qualification covering both commerce and science, with coursework centred on finance and mathematics.
His LinkedIn profile lists a stint as senior brand manager at Sainsbury's Supermarkets in the United Kingdom among Bradley's previous positions. Drawing on two and a half decades at McKinsey, Bradley brings a perspective shaped by work across a broad range of industries. At McKinsey, his earlier responsibilities centred on the Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice throughout Asia, alongside contributing to a number of the firm's foundational frameworks for strategic thinking.
Among his other contributions, a volume titled Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick, published through John Wiley & Sons in 2018 and distributed internationally, carries his name as co-author, while a framework known as McKinsey's Ten Timeless Tests of Strategy traces its origins to his work.
