McKinsey leader Kevin Sneader ousted after crises
Partners at the world’s largest consultancy firm, McKinsey, have reportedly ousted their leader, Kevin Sneader, over his handling of a string of controversies during his tenture.
The firm’s 650 senior partners voted Sneader out before the final round of a leadership election that was seen as a referendum on his three years in the role, according to the Financial Times.
The 54-year-old Scot would be one of the first McKinsey leaders in recent memory to serve only one term – all five of Sneader’s predecessors as global managing partner have served a two terms or more.
The influential firm is known for providing expensive advice to governments and multinational companies around the world. Known as the “CEO factory”, McKinsey’s network for former employees includes some of the biggest names in business and politics.
Notable alumni include Chelsea Clinton, Facebook’s former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, and the ex-chief executive of Credit Suisse Tidjane Thiam. In Britain, those who worked or the firm including the politician William Hague, former HSBC chair Lord Green, former city regulator Lord Turner.
With 30,000 staff in 65 countries, McKinsey is a go-to consultant for the
UK government, and has picked up lucrative contracts during the Covid crisis. Last year, McKinsey consultants were paid £563,000 for six weeks’ work
– £14,000 a day – to create a permanent replacement for Public Health England, defining its “vision, purpose and narrative”.
But the firm, which has a fondness for mottos such as “Leadership through integrity”, has been stung by a string of crises during Sneader’s leadership.
Earlier this month, McKinsey agreed to pay nearly $600m (£426m) to settle a lawsuit brought by 49 US states over its role in helping drug makers sell more prescription painkillers – even as the country faced a nationwide opioid overdose epidemic.
The consultancy came under pressure after legal documents revealed that it advised the OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma on how to “turbocharge” sales of the drug in 2013. The firm was found to have encouraged sales representatives to focus on doctors who already prescribed high volumes of OxyContin, and to try to move patients to more potent versions of the drug.
Sneader expressed regret after the settlement but stopped short of admit
Every person involved in the 2017 murder of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been apprehended, Malta’s national police chief has declared.
Commissioner Angelo Gafa was speaking before a court hearing on Wednesday evening at which two new suspects were arraigned.
So far, seven men have either admitted to or been charged with complicity to kill Caruana Galizia. They include the property and energy tycoon Yorgen Fenech, who is pleading not guilty to masterminding the murder, and a taxi driver who has already confessed to being the middleman in the alleged contract killing of one of Malta’s most prominent journalists.
“With the evidence we have, we are in a position to say that every person involved, be it mastermind or accomplice, is under arrest or facing charges,” Gafa announced at a press briefing.
The comments may cause some controversy, as Fenech has given evidence to police that accuses senior political figures of having prior knowledge of the plot.
At 11pm in the courts of justice of
Malta’s capital, Valletta, Robert Agius and his associate Jamie Vella pleaded not guilty to complicity in the killing of Caruana Galizia. Vella, who has tested positive for Covid-19, appeared in a hazmat suit in the heavily guarded courtroom. Vella and Robert’s brother Adrian Agius were also charged with involvement in a second murder, the 2015 shooting of a lawyer called Carmel Chircop. They pleaded not guilty.
George Degiorgio, who is already facing trial as one of the hitmen suspected of executing the murder of Caruana Galizia, was also charged with and denied carrying out Chircop’s murder.
Raids on homes and vehicles belonging to the Agius brothers and Vella, who were arrested on Tuesday, unco
vered cash worth €70,000, firearms, 350g of heroin and two sachets of cocaine. At one of the residences, police found 10 cars, which are expected to be confiscated.
Europol, which has been assisting since the beginning of the murder investigation, has been tasked with extracting data from 25 mobile phones and two laptops seized during the swoop.
Fenech was arrested in 2019 as he was attempting to leave Malta onboard his yacht. He is in custody awaiting a decision on whether he will face trial. A taxi driver has secured a presidential pardon in exchange for his evidence against Fenech. A former friend of the tycoon, Melvin Theuma is now living in a safe house, under police protection.
The latest developments came after a key witness secured a plea deal, which was approved by Malta’s prime minister and his cabinet on Monday. Three years after first coming forward with crucial evidence about the case, Vincent Muscat secured a measure of clemency in exchange for his testimony.
After pleading guilty to his involvement in Caruana Galizia’s murder, he was immediately sentenced to 15 years, although his prison time could be commuted to allow his release in 2027. Muscat was also given a presidential pardon for admitting his involvement in the murder of Chircop, in exchange for evidence against his alleged accomplices.
Caruana Galizia, a columnist and investigator whose blog on political corruption in Malta earned her a reputation as a “one woman WikiLeaks”, was almost as well known in her home country as those she exposed in her scoops. Her violent murder, which took place near her home in the village of Bidnija, has embroiled Malta’s ruling Labour party in political scandal.
The country’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat (no relation to Vincent Muscat), was forced to resign in 2019 after allegations that members of his administration had tried to sabotage the police investigation.
One of two livestock ships at sea since mid-December with thousands of cattle on board is now at the Spanish port of Cartagena, but the fate of its cargo is unclear.
The two vessels left from different ports in Spain before Christmas to deliver their cargoes of animals, but were each refused entry by various countries including Turkey and Libya, owing to suspected outbreaks onboard both ships of the bovine disease bluetongue.
Spain’s government and the country’s largest association of beef producers, Asoprovac, have both said the cattle came from areas free of bluetongue.
On Tuesday, the Spanish news agency EFE reported that although Turkey had originally agreed to take the cattle, satisfied they were bluetongue free, the animals were rejected on arrival because of disease fears.
A Spanish government source confirmed that the Karim Allah, carrying a reported 895 calves, was anchored just outside the Spanish port of Cartagena. The other ship, Elbeik, carrying 1,776 animals, continues to sit at anchor in Turkish waters off the coast of Cyprus.
Silvia Barquero, the director of Animal Equality Spain, said she understood that many animals were already dead and any still alive would be “suffering a real hell”.
Official veterinary inspections of both ships had been due to take place late last week in Cyprus and Sardinia, but neither ship approached shore to allow vets on board.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Spain’s agriculture ministry described the ships’ plight as a “failed operation by a Spanish exporter, who was going to sell the animals in Turkey, then tried unsuccessfully to sell them in Libya”. The spokesperson did not respond to questions about animal numbers, conditions on the ships or possible next steps.
The spokesperson added that the Karim Allah, “now arriving in Cartagena, left Spain with animals that had the corresponding health certificates and which were from areas free of bluetongue. The animals therefore left the port of Cartagena in good health.”
Last week, the ministry said the Elbeik, which left from the Spanish port of Tarragona, was also carrying cattle from bluetongue-free areas.
Maria Boada Saña, a vet with NGO Animal Welfare Foundation, said she feared that at least 100 animals on the Karim Allah were already dead.
“The Karim Allah arrived Sunday night at Cartagena, sailing away from a planned veterinary inspection Saturday morning in Sardinia,” she said.
She added that a Spanish agriculture ministry source said that although the ship was in Spanish waters, it had not yet requested entry to Cartagena port.
“That means we have no idea right now if animals are alive or dead,” said Boada Saña. “Other sources, though, have told me the Karim Allah has not asked for animal feed. To me, the way it sailed away from an inspection, the way it is waiting and not asking for food probably means most of the animals are dead.”
Dead animals would have to be removed from the ship by hoist and the operation could take at least a day, or much longer, depending on numbers, said Genoa-based lawyer Manuela Giacomini.
In a related development, a Spanish government source confirmed that Cartagena port had temporarily suspended the departure of livestock ships until the Karim Allah docks. The vessel continues to be anchored in front of the harbour and the decision to enter the port was up to the owner of the ship, the source added.
Prof Kristen Stilt, director of Harvard’s animal law and policy programme, who is writing a book about the transport of live animals, said it was an inherent risk with live transport that the animals would be rejected at their destination port.
Once labelled as rejected, Stilt said it was “very likely that no other country [would] accept them, as we are now seeing with the two vessels at sea with calves from Spain”.
Another problem for crew and livestock, she said, was the absence of an international arbiter that could assess claims of disease and make a binding determination. The result, she said, was “usually catastrophic in terms of loss of animal lives”.
Dutch MEP Anja Hazekamp said “the only way to stop animal cruelty related to animal transport” was to introduce a total ban on the export of live animals outside the EU.
“Both vessels concerned have EU certificate approvals, which means that they can load European animals and send them to third countries, such as Libya, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia,” she said. “In total there are around 80 vessels with such a certificate.”