Shirley advises on strategy, performance, and culture at social-impact organizations.
My Experience
I am an independent consultant serving mission-driven organizations on strategy, performance, and culture.
I led initiatives to retain and advance women.
After years of serving clients on change and inclusion, I wanted to apply these theories as a practitioner. I joined McKinsey’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Team as a Global Diversity & Inclusion Manager. This team is responsible for the company’s approach and outcomes to retaining and advancing consultants identifying as black, Hispanic or Latino, LGBTQIA, Asian, female, and diversely able. I led our Women’s Initiative across North America offices and formally established the Asian employee resource group. I was invited as a speaker at internal and external conferences on firm research in this field, including Women in the Workplace and Diversity Matters.
I advised public and private sector executives.
The functional themes across my work was organizational change and strategy. I worked with executives across an intentionally broad range of industries, including aerospace, automotive, finance, oil & gas, healthcare and human services. I am honored to have contributed to McKinsey Global Institute’s report, The Power of Parity: How Advancing Women’s Equality Can Add $12 Trillion to Global Growth (2015).
I researched sustainability in the Middle East.
I lived and worked in Jordan at the leading sustainability advisory and research firm in the Middle East. I co-authored Responsible Competitiveness in Jordan (2009), a report on how the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan could increase sustainability outcomes while increasing economic competitiveness. It was during this experience that I went to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as COP-15. As a Chinese-American, I was asked endlessly about why “my governments” weren’t doing more to stop climate change. I decided to pursue a dual degree MBA/MPP to study how governments and leaders make decisions.
I served in global nonprofit leadership roles.
I moved to Rotterdam to join AIESEC International as the Global Strategy Director of Growth and Asia Pacific. Our team of 21 people from 18 countries supported operations spanning 100+ countries and territories. As Director of Growth, I designed and facilitated convenings of 1000+ participants, including participatory global agenda setting. As Director of Asia Pacific I advised leaders of the fastest growing region. I visited 20+ countries in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, and Asia Pacific. Prior to this role I served as the Executive Director of AIESEC in Canada, leading a full time team of nine executives. As Regional Vice President of Western and Atlantic Canada I coached teams across across six provinces.
About me
I identify as a cisgender second-generation daughter of Chinese immigrants.
I grew up in Metro Detroit - and yes, both of my parents worked at Ford Motor Company. I completed my MBA, MPP, and BA at the University of Michigan. After traveling the world, I could not resist the pull back to the Midwest: I married my spouse and delivered my kid in Chicago. We recently all moved back to the great state of Michigan.
Organizations Shirley has worked with:
What People Are Saying
“My organization was at a crossroads with a burnt out board, very little money to our name, and a scrappy vision. Her own lived experience as a woman of color executive was exactly the lens I needed as a Muslim woman of color myself, and was incomparable to any of the other consultant I had ever worked with. She is leaving the org with more than double the revenue and staff. Shirley is simply a gift. ”