Keya Patel, New York
Trained asa scientist.Working asa strategist.
Senior Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company, working in life sciences and operations. Neuroscience and biology, University of Pennsylvania.
01 About
“The lab taught me how to ask a question. Consulting taught me how to answer it for a client.”
I spent four years at Penn earning a B.A. in Neuroscience and an M.S. in Biology on a submatriculation track, with a Wharton minor in health care management and policy. Along the way I worked in two research labs, shadowed physicians across cardiac surgery and neurosurgery, scribed in a pediatric emergency department, and taught organic chemistry and physics.
Since 2023 I've been at McKinsey & Company, where I work with life-sciences and healthcare clients on operations and transformation: building the financial case, aligning teams across workstreams, and turning priorities into practical plans. I work with senior leaders on the decisions that move a program forward and coach the people who have to own the result after we leave. I bring a scientist's habits to problems that don't come with a protocol: form the hypothesis, find the evidence, and let the data change your mind.
- Based:
- New York
- Focus:
- Life sciences, operations, transformation
- Languages:
- English, Gujarati, Hindi, Spanish
- Education:
- University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
- Honors:
- Governor's Scholars Program; Penn Undergraduate Research Mentorship
02 Selected Work
A few engagements, described in general terms. Client names are confidential.
Life sciences · Operations
Running the business-operations program of a company-wide transformation
Led the integrated view across multiple business units for a large-scale cost program spanning hundreds of initiatives, owning value assurance from baseline to realized P&L. Brought performance, delivery risks, and decisions needing intervention to weekly discussions with the CTO and sponsors. Stepped into the engagement-manager role for stretches of the program.
Diagnostics · Procurement
Resetting a product's supply base
Owned a contract-manufacturing procurement workstream end to end: ran RFPs and negotiations with incumbents and new suppliers, identifying substantial savings across core categories, and built the scenario models behind enterprise-level negotiations. Progressed from analyst to acting engagement manager over the course of the work.
Private equity · Diligence
Sizing the opportunity before the deal
Built the end-to-end financial model and opportunity sizing for a sterile-injectables diligence, including an OEE-based assessment of the asset base. On a separate diligence, led an AI-capability assessment through an extensive series of expert interviews and growth-decomposition modeling.
Pharma · R&D strategy
Making the case for a faster way to work
Shaped the storyline, pages, and use cases for a vaccine R&D sprint strategy, articulating the impact and rationale for a new way of running development work.
How I work: build the baseline, pressure-test the assumptions, translate operations into P&L, and coach the client to own it.
03 Experience
2023 to Present
McKinsey & Company
Senior Business Analyst (Business Analyst 2023 to 2025)
Life-sciences and operations engagements spanning cost transformation, procurement and negotiations, financial modeling, and private-equity diligence. Work ranges from building the business case to coordinating delivery and communicating decisions to senior leaders. Promoted to Senior Business Analyst in 2025.
2022 to 2023
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Pediatric Emergency Department Medical Scribe
Real-time clinical documentation alongside attending physicians.
2022 to 2023
Penn Medicine
Student Intern
Shadowed physicians across cardiac surgery, neurosurgery and other departments.
2021 to 2023
University of Pennsylvania
Organic Chemistry Teaching Assistant; Physics Teaching Assistant (2022)
Led recitations and supported undergraduate instruction.
2020 to 2022
Chodosh Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania
Laboratory Research Assistant
Bench research in molecular and cell biology.
2020 to 2022
Garcia Lab, Penn Medicine
Laboratory Assistant
Research support in an academic medical lab.
2018 to 2022
Owensboro Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics
Student Intern
Early clinical exposure in orthopaedics and sports medicine.
04 Education
2019 to 2023
University of Pennsylvania
Master of Science, Biology
Submatriculation
2019 to 2023
University of Pennsylvania
Bachelor of Arts, Neuroscience
2019 to 2023
The Wharton School
Minor, Health Care Management & Policy
Daviess County High School, Kentucky. Diploma with Honors, 2019. Governor's Scholars Program.
Good strategy is just good science with a deadline.
Keya Patel
05 Contact
Say hello.
For work, speaking, mentoring, or a good book recommendation.