Bolanle Asumah is a people transformation expert and human resource leader with over 20 years professional experience in strategic people management and transformation, organisation culture and restructuring, talent development, employee experience, value proposition, and consulting.
During a brief stint in the financial services industry, Bolanle came to discover her passion for talent development and organisational transformation. What made her tick was helping people and organisations realise their full potential. This passion led Bolanle into consulting where she had the opportunity to live out her passion at scale, first at KPMG and then at McKinsey. During her 9 years at KPMG, she supported clients on various people-related topics including performance management, executive search, learning, and organisation restructuring.
Bolanle moved to McKinsey & Company’s Nigeria office in 2012 and immediately distinguished herself, not only with her deep people knowledge and expertise that fostered a vibrant organisational culture rooted in high performance, but with her strong work ethics, personal values, and keen ability to look at the broader picture. In 2018, her role was expanded to the Director of People for Africa, managing the people function across Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Morocco, Ethiopia, and Kenya. She is applauded for building a truly regional and high-performing people function and championing diversity and inclusion especially for people of colour and female colleagues.
In 2022, Bolanle’s expertise was exported from Africa to the Middle East, when she became the Director of People for McKinsey’s Middle East Office. In this role, she leads a team of about 50 people, responsible for transforming the experience of McKinsey colleagues to ensure talent readiness and overall well-being across 9 Middle East offices – Jeddah, Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Pakistan, Egypt, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar.
With a passion for seeing every individual maximise their potential by navigating their professional journeys thoughtfully, Bolanle inspires all those around her – colleagues, family, friends – to push the limit and take every opportunity to become the best versions of themselves.
She was recognised as one of the top 100 career women in Nigeria in 2021 and was one of the 2023 McKinsey Marvin award recipients for integrity.
Bolanle holds a Bachelor of Arts in English language from the Lagos State University and a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Manchester, where her research work has since been updated and published by several leading publishing companies including the Global Business Review and Sage Journal. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria and an Accredited Level 2 MBTI Professional.
