McKinsey staff organize massive charity hikes as firm marks centennial
McKinsey employees have created an employee-run program that stages multi-day backpacking trips worldwide, raising money for charity and celebrating the firm’s 100-year anniversary.
Alex Harman, an AI product manager at McKinsey, co-founded the employee-led Mind Over Mountains program after a sunrise stop on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The venture has since taken 65 colleagues through Patagonia in 2025 and plans an eight-day, 62-mile trek across the Peaks of the Balkans in September, coinciding with McKinsey’s centennial. Open to any of the firm’s 40,000 staff, the trips cost about $1,000 per participant, not including airfare, and are arranged with hired guides and vendors rather than the company itself.
Hundreds of employees, from senior partners like Ricardo Moya Quiroga to junior analysts, join to disconnect from work, build friendships, and raise funds for mental-health charities, having collected over $115,000 on the Patagonia hike. Organizers emphasize the logistical pressure of coordinating a hundred-person expedition, yet note the strong demand, with the upcoming Balkans trip selling out within hours. Participants describe the experience as a rare chance to see colleagues beyond Zoom, with seniority becoming irrelevant on the trail.
Why it matters
The hikes illustrate how large firms can foster employee bonding and philanthropy outside traditional work settings.
In this story
