James O. McKinsey
founder of McKinsey & Company (1889–1937)
James Oscar McKinsey (June 4, 1889 – November 30, 1937) was an American accountant, management consultant, professor of accounting at the University of Chicago, and founder of McKinsey & Company.
Biography
McKinsey was born in 1889 in Gamma, Missouri, son of James Madison McKinsey and Mary Elizabeth (Logan) McKinsey. After attending regular public school, McKinsey initially received training as a teacher at the Warrensburg Teachers College, now University of Central Missouri, where in 1912 he obtained his Bachelor of Pedagogy.
McKinsey continued to study law at the University of Arkansas, where he obtained his Bachelor of Laws in 1913. In 1914 he studied and taught bookkeeping at the St. Louis University.
Next, McKinsey entered the University of Chicago, where in 1916 he obtained his Bachelor of Philosophy and Master of Arts in 1917, both in commerce. McKinsey was then drafted into the United States Army in 1917; he would rise in the ranks from private to lieutenant in the Ordnance Department and was discharged in 1919. While in the Army, McKinsey believed that the logistics process lacked efficiency.
From 1917 to 1920, McKinsey was an instructor and assistant professor of accounting at Chicago.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “James O. McKinsey” as founder of McKinsey & Company (1889–1937). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as founder of McKinsey & Company (1889–1937). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q322925. VIAF identifies the subject as 67705067. The Library of Congress control number is n50000928. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1889, 1937, 1912 and 1913.
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This entry incorporates text from “James O. McKinsey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.