Ron Daniel

{{Short description|American businessman}}

{{other people|Ronald Daniel}}

{{Infobox person

| name = D. Ronald Daniel

| occupation = Consultant, Management expert

| citizenship = United States

| title = Senior Partner Emeritus

| employer = McKinsey & Company, Inc.

| alma_mater = Wesleyan University
Harvard University

| known_for = critical success factors

| years_active = 1957–1990

| term = 1976–1988 (Managing director)

| predecessor =

| successor = Fred Gluck

}}

D. Ronald Daniel (February 26, 1930 – December 16, 2023) was a longtime top senior partner and director at management consultancy McKinsey & Company, serving as managing director (chief executive) from 1976 to 1988.

Biography

Ronald Daniel graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in mathematics in 1952 and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1954.

Business career

After graduating in 1954, Daniel served as an officer of the U.S. Navy Supply corps, where he worked with early IBM mainframes. He joined McKinsey & Company, Inc. in 1957 and was a senior partner from 1968 to 1990. He served as managing director for twelve years (1976-1988) preceding Fred Gluck, and was senior partner emeritus of the firm.

At McKinsey, Daniel developed the concept of "success factors",Daniel, D. Ronald, "Management Information Crisis", Harvard Business Review, Sept.–Oct. 1961 which led to the emergence of critical success factors, those "areas of [business] activity that should receive constant and careful attention from management".Rockart, John F., [https://hbr.org/1979/03/chief-executives-define-their-own-data-needs Chief Executives Define Their Own Data Needs], Harvard Business Review, March 1979, accessed 24 November 2022 He hired and mentored future managing director Rajat Gupta.{{Cite web|title=Alumni Center {{!}} McKinsey & Company|url=https://www.mckinsey.com/alumni|access-date=2020-08-28|website=www.mckinsey.com|language=en}} He was Jeffrey Skilling's former boss before Skilling became CEO of Enron.{{cite web|url=https://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/global-texte/g-b/Harvard/Harvard-Corp.htm|title=Untitled Document|work=uni-muenster.de}}

In 2004, he described himself as "the bridge between McKinsey's founding generation and the present".{{Cite web|title=Alumni Achievement Awards - Alumni - Harvard Business School|url=https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/awards/Pages/default.aspx?year=2004|access-date=2020-08-28|website=www.alumni.hbs.edu}}

Outside McKinsey, he was a director of Yum! Brands and chairman of New York-based private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings.

Public service career

Daniel had a longtime affiliation with Harvard University. He served for many years as treasurer of the university. Daniel was a member of the Harvard Corporation and chairman of the board of the Harvard Medical School. He was also chairman of the Harvard Management Company, which oversees over $20 billion in assets and endowments.

Daniel held an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Wesleyan and was chairman emeritus of the school's board of trustees. He was a member of the board of Thirteen/WNET (New York's public broadcasting station), a member of the board of the Brookings Institution, and a trustee of Rockefeller University. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.{{cite web|url=http://www.rhji.com/RHJI/About-us/Board-of-Directors/D-Ronald-Daniel/page.aspx/205|title=RHJ International|work=rhji.com}}

References