Youth violence is a major issue in Chicago. When we started working with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in June 2009, more than 500 students had been shot and more than 50 students had been killed over the past two school years. Our team developed a comprehensive action plan to address the problem, including a risk model that identifies each student's likelihood of being shot. This revealed that 200 students were statistically about 50 times more likely to become victims of gun violence than the average student. This knowledge enabled CPS to prioritize and reach out to these students with personalized interventions. Early results have been very encouraging—both shootings and homicides were down 16 percent last year. I'm incredibly proud of the impact we've made by applying our commercial took kit to a very important social problem.

Mark joined BCG in 2006, after spending four years at an import-management consulting firm and three years at Compaq.

He earned a BA in international studies from The College of William and Mary, and he also holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

If I had to stress the aspect that makes me proudest of belonging to BCG it would be its commitment to society.

A few months ago a colleague and I proposed organizing a voluntary trip to Ethiopia in the summer to collaborate, on the ground and on our own time, with one of the projects we finance.

The partners were very encouraging from the beginning. They helped us organize and even subsidized the trip's cost. The end result was that 36 BCG consultants had an unforgettable experience in Meki, a village south of the capital, teaching English in a school and helping build an orphanage.

Since joining BCG, I have discovered a passion for social responsibility and have had the opportunity to work on four social impact cases. These projects are as challenging and complex as the work we do with corporate clients, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment in knowing I helped change the community in positive ways.

A unique aspect of working at BCG is being able to use our knowledge and skills to work on social impact projects.

On one particular project, we worked to improve the Atlanta Public School (APS) system, focusing on increasing both high-school and college graduation rates. We quickly learned about the high level of complexity involved in public-school operations, as well as the support systems that students need to be successful, and I am confident that the solutions we found will help APS students.

Katie joined BCG in 2006 and has worked mostly in the health care, travel and tourism, and financial services industries.

Before BCG, Katie was a member of The Vanguard Group's leadership development program.

Katie has an MBA from Duke University, where she was a Fuqua Scholar, and a BA in English and music theory from The University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated with honors.

Social impact projects provide us with a way to give back to the community while learning the ins and outs of different types of businesses facing different types of problems.

As a frequent volunteer at soup kitchens and with professional experience in the food industry, I wanted to apply my passion and knowledge for food to one of these projects. I worked with America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest network of food banks, to optimize its supply chain. Working closely with its personnel and food banks throughout the country, our team identified opportunities to save approximately $16M/year.

Knowing that every day I was making a difference by helping put food on the plates of over 25 million Americans in need made this project the most special I’ve worked on.

Andrew BCG in 2006 and has worked primarily in the industrial goods industry.

Before BCG, he worked at General Mills and Campbell’s Soup. Andrew holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University.

Contributing to insight and positive change were major drivers when deciding to pursue a PhD, and also when deciding to expand my experience beyond academic science.

My first case at BCG involved helping the World Health Organization and the Roll Back Malaria partnership to increase their effectiveness, strengthening them in their global battle against malaria. The case was built on combining medical understanding with organizational know-how, practical effectiveness, and global experience.

As well as offering personal satisfaction, it immediately illustrated the magnitude of what we, as an organization, can achieve. 

Nina holds an MS in biomedicine and a PhD in molecular neurobiology from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

She also has research experience from Columbia University in New York and Hôpital la Salpêtrière in Paris.

Nina joined BCG in 2006.

At BCG, when we apply our consultants’ core skills to non-profit organizations, we have a tremendous impact in key areas such as health, education, and the environment. BCG consultants help these organizations develop clear strategies and organize resources in the optimal way to achieve strategic targets.

My social impact secondment with the Global Health Initiative of the World Economic Forum was a dream come true. Organizing the Forum’s malaria control activities and representing the private sector in the global Roll Back Malaria organization has been highly rewarding for me because I was not an external consultant giving advice, but instead an active part of the execution team.

Carolin is a member of the Consumer practice area and has worked on projects for the Healthcare and Energy practices.

She holds a master’s degree in international business administration and economics from the Otto-Friedrich University in Bamberg, Germany, and George Washington University in Washington, DC.

I have worked with several commercial health care clients since joining BCG; however, having previously worked for the UN Development Programme in Zambia as well as on microfi nance and international development projects, I was thrilled to apply the skills I acquired in the commercial and nonprofi t sectors toward global health projects at BCG, in particular the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP).

The GMAP, developed in collaboration with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, is a global strategy to fight a disease that impacts billions and kills almost 1 million people a year.

To develop the strategy and action plan, we worked with hundreds of leaders of organizations involved in the fight against malaria, leveraging our global health knowledge and commercial experience in strategy and implementation. Helping to build a more unifi ed malaria community and facilitate increased funding to fight the disease made this one of the most rewarding projects of my career at BCG.

Lori joined BCG in 2006. She has worked for the Social Impact practice network as well as the Global Advantage and Health Care practices. Before BCG, Lori worked for Elsevier Science and Procter & Gamble. She also interned with the United Nations Development Program in Zambia, focusing on private-sector development in financial services and health care.

Lori graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with high honors from the University of Florida, and she received her MBA from the Harvard Business School. She speaks Dutch and is the "Lori" voice of TomTom navigation systems.

I have always had one consistent goal—to utilize my skills to improve the economic conditions in urban America. 

While I joined BCG for the strategic thinking and analytical problem solving that I recognized would be valuable skills in reaching my goal, I never thought my day-to-day work would directly impact urban America.  However, for the last several years I have had the fortune of working on projects aimed at fundamentally transforming public education in urban areas like Dallas and New Orleans.

These projects have been some of the most rewarding engagements of my BCG career.  Tackling such a complex and truly global problem not only requires a great deal of creative thinking, but a great deal of patience as aligning an entire, community, district, or, in some cases, state around a common plan for change is never easy.

Jamal joined BCG in 2001 and has primarily worked for clients in the travel and tourism industry. He is also a member of the Operations practice.

Before BCG, Jamal spent three years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, where he worked in the real estate division.

Jamal holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BS from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.