Ms. Jaana Remes

McKinsey & Company

Dr. Jaana Remes is an economist and a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey & Company's business and economics research arm, based in San Francisco. Since 2003, Jaana has led MGI's research on productivity, competitiveness, and growth, as well as health and urban economics. Her most recent research sizes the global economic and social benefits from rethinking health as an investment, not just a cost to manage. Jaana leads MGI’s Urban World research series that includes sizing the impact of smart city solutions on citizens’ quality of life, mapping of economic power of cities, identifying global consumer groups shaping global demand, and mapping of the global company landscape; as well as the patterns of urban growth across the Americas. Her long term research interests include productivity prospects in the digital age, global growth prospects in an era of demographic decline, analyses of how different policies have contributed to industry competitiveness and growth; as well as in-depth assessments of the barriers to competitiveness and growth across a range of economies, including the US, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, UK, Finland, Sweden, and South Korea. She has led MGI's research on energy, with a focus on understanding the microeconomic underpinnings of global energy demand and the opportunity to reduce energy consumption through higher energy productivity. She advises global business and government leaders on related topics and frequently contributes to policy debates through articles and conference presentations. Jaana has a Ph.D. on applied economies from Stanford University and an MSc degree in economics and philosophy from the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is a nonresident senior fellow at the Strategic Foresight Initiative of the Atlantic Council, serves on the Board of directors of Girl Scouts Heart of Central California, and is a Search and Rescue K9 handler at California Rescue Dog Association.