Brian Rolfes

Brian Rolfes is currently an External Senior Advisor with McKinsey & Co, having retired from the Firm in 2024.  For 30 years, Brian worked at McKinsey, first as a retail banking and marketing consultant, then as the people functions leader for McKinsey Canada, and – in his final 14 years with the Firm – as the partner lead for all talent acquisition efforts globally.  In this latter role, he led McKinsey’s recruiting strategy and operations for all world-wide hires, across 68 countries and ~38,000+ personnel.

Since 1995, Brian had been a leader (and co-founder) of McKinsey's LGBTQ+ affinity group. Following a major health issue in 2021 which left him with a visual deficit, Brian helped build out “Access McKinsey”, the Firm’s global disabilities initiative.

Brian is currently the Deputy National Secretary for the Rhodes Trust in Canada. For more than a decade, he led the Ontario Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee.  He is also the Vice Chair of the Stratford Theatre Festival’ Board of Directors.  Brian is also an advisor to an AI recruiting start-up.

Brian has a degree in Public Admin from Carleton, and three law degrees from the Universities of Saskatchewan (his home province), Oxford, and Cambridge. Brian is a Rhodes Scholar and is called to the bars of Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Brian’s interests in politics and human rights have served him well as a past member of the Mayor of Toronto’s Diversity Council and as the Chair of the Board of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto for many years, including during the years when the Church successfully married the world’s first same sex couples in 2001. He has served a number of pro bono clients such as the Toronto Foundation, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Point Scholarships.

Brian’s leadership has been recognized globally. In 2018, he was ranked #17 on the Financial Times of London’s global “OUTstanding Role Models” list for queer leaders.  In 2024 when he retired from the Firm, McKinsey Canada named an Inclusive Leadership Award in his honour.  He has received awards from the Canadian business 2SLGBTQ+ community (Out on Bay Street), and in 2025, Brian and his husband Brad Berg (a partner at the national law firm Blakes) were given the Alumni Impact Award from the University of Saskatchewan.