The authors are all current or former consultants of McKinsey & Company's corporate finance practice. Collectively they have more than 50 years of experience in consulting and financial education. McKinsey & Company is a management-consulting firm that helps leading corporations and organizations make distinctive, lasting, and substantial improvements in their performance. Over the past seven decades, the firm's primary objective has remained constant: to serve as an organization's most trusted external advisor on critical issues facing senior management. With consultants deployed from over 80 offices in more than 40 countries, McKinsey advises companies on strategic, operational, organizational, financial, and technological issues. The firm has extensive experience in all major industry sectors and primary functional areas, as well as in-depth expertise in high-priority areas for today's business leaders. Tim Koller is a partner in McKinsey's New York office. He leads the firm's Corporate Performance Center and is a member of the leadership group of the firm's global corporate finance practice. In his 20 years in consulting Tim has served clients in North America and Europe on corporate strategy and capital markets, M&A transactions, and value-based management. He leads the firm's research activities in valuation and capital markets. He was formerly with Stern Stewart & Company, and Mobil Corporation. He received his MBA from the University of Chicago. Marc Goedhart is an associate principal in McKinsey's Amsterdam office and a member of the leadership group of the firm's corporate finance practice in Europe. Marc has served clients across Europe on portfolio restructuring, capital markets, and M&A transactions. He taught finance as an assistant professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, where he also earned a PhD in finance. David Wessels is an adjunct professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Named by Business Week as one of America's top business school instructors, he teaches courses on investment banking and corporate valuation at the MBA and Executive MBA levels. David is also a director in Wharton's executive education group, serving on the executive development faculties of several Fortune 500 companies. David, a former consultant with McKinsey, received his PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles.
