Nancy McKinstry

Nancy McKinstry (born 4 January 1959 in Connecticut, USA, now living in the Netherlands) is CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Wolters Kluwer since September 1, 2003, and Member of the Executive Board since June 1, 2001.

She holds an MBA (Finance & Marketing) from Columbia Business School, a bachelor's degree in economics from University of Rhode Island (Phi Beta Kappa), and received a Doctor of Laws (honorary) from University of Rhode Island.

Early in her career, McKinstry held management positions with Booz & Company (formerly Booz Allen Hamilton, currently known as Strategy&), an international management-consulting firm, where she focused on assignments in the media and technology industries. In 1999, McKinstry worked as CEO of SCP Communications, a medical information company, before rejoining Wolters Kluwer to head its North American operations.

Before becoming a CEO of Wolters Kluwer in 2003, McKinstry was chief executive of the company’s North American operations and had held a range of senior positions at subsidiaries, including chief executive of CCH Legal Information Services, now a part of Wolters Kluwer’s Legal & Regulatory division. Earlier, McKinstry held product management positions with CCH INCORPORATED, now part of Wolters Kluwer’sTax & Accounting division. She is both the Dutch company’s first American and first female chief executive. She has praised her board’s “courage” in making the appointment and credits her deep group experience in helping with “the transformation from print to digital … as quickly as possible”. Today three-quarters of Wolters Kluwer's revenue comes from online or electronic products, up from 71 percent in 2011, and 49 percent when the transition from print was launched at the end of 2008.

McKinstry is not a fan of quotas, but considers diversity a priority for the company. Currently Wolters Kluwer has 28% female executives (in 2003, only 20% had top leadership posts), 43% female managers, and 54% female employees. "In my experience it's key to have strong diversity at the middle management level because that is really what you draw on as you look to fill executive positions. If you don't have enough diversity at that level it's very difficult to be able to really get diversity at the most senior levels." She takes a hands on approach to making sure women are rising to the top, “We’ve been able to attract female talent because they see women leading different parts of the company. Diversity helps, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

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