From a young age, Kyle Stapleton observed that the world tends to force one’s hand. Choose art or business, but never the twain shall meet. The Fayetteville, Georgia, native vowed to “stay slippery and try to stay outside the boxes the world seems to assign to everybody and everything.” He served as captain of his high school football team, earned an MBA in organizational leadership from Georgia State’s Robinson College of Business, and now works as head of global firm engagement in sustainability at McKinsey.
Throughout Stapleton’s youth, he was a regular at local punk shows. During his undergrad years, he co-hosted Crossroads, the midnight blues show aired on Georgia State’s radio station, WRAS-FM 88.5. Art is deeply important to Stapleton. He’s always been drawn to creative pursuits like writing and immersing himself socially within Atlanta’s culture scenes.
Whereas some artists are driven to turn their passion into a full-time vocation, Stapleton has found a balance between being business-minded and culture-obsessed. He earned a B.B.A. in 2009 and an MBA in 2012, but his academic experience began with forays into English and literature. His pivot away from conversations about Foucault and political communications was not a concession but a bridge to the life he’d envisioned for himself.
“Your life is a creative act,” he said, and he’s proven it both personally and professionally. After wrapping up his MBA, Stapleton worked at a creative agency and then within Turner’s culture and experience department, where he collaborated and rubbed shoulders with artists every day.

Stapleton speaks at McKinsey's 2024 Green Building Business Summit.
Still very much a punk and tender-heart, Stapleton never imagined he’d wind up working for a major consulting firm. “I’m too strange for a place like that,” he thought, until he spoke to someone at McKinsey who changed his mind. He’s been leading communications for the company’s sustainability initiatives for more than three years. And while the subject matter is a world apart from where Stapleton spent the earlier phases of his career, he finds himself drawing from his grad school experiences more than ever.
“I'm interacting with tons of different cultures, taking in the ambiguity of complex problems that don't have easy answers, and having to reason as a global citizen,” he said. “All the stuff I learned at Robinson is fully in play. I don't think I would have been remotely qualified for this role without that education.”