Theano Liakopoulou
McKinsey Senior Partner, Transforming Procurement, People and Performance for the Next Era of Business
About Theano Liakopoulou
With a background in chemical engineering and early career experience at Procter & Gamble, Theano combines technical rigour with practical leadership. She’s known for helping clients rewire outdated operating models and mobilise large-scale transformation programs, particularly when digital tools, analytics, and human capabilities must align to create meaningful change. Her work extends beyond cost optimisation: she sees procurement as a strategic orchestrator of value across the business, connecting internal teams, suppliers, and ecosystems in smarter and more sustainable ways.
A constant theme in Theano’s career has been a discomfort with inertia. She’s motivated by the gap between how things function today and how they could function better—something that becomes even more urgent as emerging technologies, evolving roles, and rising expectations reshape the business landscape. She thrives in complexity, helping organisations look past surface-level fixes to define what they’re truly trying to solve and to build change that endures.
As a speaker, Theano is driven by the chance to reshape conversations about leadership, operations, and ambition. She believes transformation starts with mindset—both in how organisations define their functions and how individuals view their own potential. Her goal is to spark dialogue that challenges passive thinking, elevates strategic talent, and inspires a more connected and courageous way of working.
Key topics
The future tech stack is an ecosystem, not a silver bullet
Leaders still hunt for the one platform that will “fix” procurement or operations, and are disappointed when complexity wins. Theano brings a different lens: high-performing organizations build a connected tech ecosystem, where core S2P systems, analytics layers, AI tools, and external data sources reinforce each other. The payoff isn’t prettier dashboards, but faster decisions, cleaner governance, and tech that actually changes how work gets done.
Digital transformations stall because nobody rewired how decisions get made
Rolling out new tools is the easy part; the hard part is redesigning the operating model those tools are supposed to serve. Theano has seen analytics and AI projects in procurement fail not because the algorithms were wrong, but because the org never clarified who decides, with what data, and on what cadence-so the tech becomes expensive theater. She brings a practical sequence: define the decisions that matter (risk, demand, pricing exposure), build the data products that serve those decisions, then scale adoption so the system changes-not just the dashboard.
Operations is the new leadership fast track, but only if you build the talent engine
Companies say they want analytical operators, then staff procurement and ops with people who are set up to execute tasks rather than make decisions. Theano’s angle is capability-building as an operating strategy: attracting digital talent, creating practical analytics fluency inside procurement, and using real business problems (volatility, shortages, emissions) as the training ground. Done right, ops stops being “back office” and becomes the proving ground for leaders who can think in systems.
View all topics →
Key topics
The future tech stack is an ecosystem, not a silver bullet
Leaders still hunt for the one platform that will “fix” procurement or operations, and are disappointed when complexity wins. Theano brings a different lens: high-performing organizations build a connected tech ecosystem, where core S2P systems, analytics layers, AI tools, and external data sources reinforce each other. The payoff isn’t prettier dashboards, but faster decisions, cleaner governance, and tech that actually changes how work gets done.
Digital transformations stall because nobody rewired how decisions get made
Rolling out new tools is the easy part; the hard part is redesigning the operating model those tools are supposed to serve. Theano has seen analytics and AI projects in procurement fail not because the algorithms were wrong, but because the org never clarified who decides, with what data, and on what cadence-so the tech becomes expensive theater. She brings a practical sequence: define the decisions that matter (risk, demand, pricing exposure), build the data products that serve those decisions, then scale adoption so the system changes-not just the dashboard.
Operations is the new leadership fast track, but only if you build the talent engine
Companies say they want analytical operators, then staff procurement and ops with people who are set up to execute tasks rather than make decisions. Theano’s angle is capability-building as an operating strategy: attracting digital talent, creating practical analytics fluency inside procurement, and using real business problems (volatility, shortages, emissions) as the training ground. Done right, ops stops being “back office” and becomes the proving ground for leaders who can think in systems.
View all topics →