Laura Callanan joined the Social Sector Office of McKinsey & Co in July 2008 as a member of the Philanthropy Practice. Laura supports foundation and nonprofit clients, and leads research focused on social impact assessment and social investing.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Laura was an independent consultant working with The Synergos Institute, a non-profit organization addressing global poverty and social injustice and E-Line Ventures, a double bottom line investment fund focused on video games with social impact.
Laura served as Senior Adviser at the United Nations Development Programme in the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery where she was responsible for resource mobilization and external communications, and served as chief of staff.
As Executive Director of The Prospect Hill Foundation, Laura led all aspects of the Foundation's strategy development, board relations, and operations. The Prospect Hill Foundation's grant making is primarily in the areas of environmental conservation, reproductive health and rights, and nuclear non-proliferation.
As Associate Director at The Rockefeller Foundation, Laura had general management responsibility for all activities related to the $3 billion endowment, and investment responsibility for the Foundation's venture capital and private equity portfolio. Laura was also a member of the Foundation's Program Venture Experiment (ProVenEx) commitment committee and oversaw investment decisions for program-related investments and similar public-private activities.
Prior to joining Rockefeller, Laura was Associate Treasurer for the Wallace Foundation. After graduating from Columbia University with a Master of Public Administration degree, she worked in public finance investment banking serving universities and other large endowed non-profit organizations on behalf of Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan and Moody's Investors Service. Laura’s undergraduate degree is from Barnard College of Columbia University.
Laura is an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business where she teaches on the nonprofit capital marketplace. She is a past member of the board of directors of Signature Theater Company, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and Rhizome.org, and the audit committee for the International Women's Health Coalition. Laura was a founding investment committee member and audit committee member for the American Academy of Arts and Letters.