Title: Term Member
Company: Council on Foreign Relations
Location: Atlanta/GA
Education: MPA in International and Global Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School (2023); MBA in Finance, General, The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania (2022); MS in Russian and Central European, East European and Eurasian Studies, University of Oxford (2020); BA, Double Major in International Studies and Political Science, and Spanish; Double Minor in Writing and Economics, Virginia Military Institute (2013); Research Intensive Study Abroad Program, Literature, History and Society of Late 16th and Early 17th Century England, University of Oxford (2011)
Career History: Associate, McKinsey & Company (2023-Present); Summer Associate, McKinsey & Company (2022); Strategy Insights and Planning Summer Consultant, ZS (2021); Foreign Policy Intern, The Heritage Foundation (2013); Intern, United States Senate (2012-2013); Internship, Clerk’s Office, Supreme Court of the United States (2012)
Clark Irvine, Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, has been recognized as a Marquis Emerging Leader for their contributions and achievements in the field of consulting services.
Mr. Irvine grew up in a close-knit farming family in Virginia, where his working-class relatives—spanning military and those juggling numerous jobs—instilled in him values of a strong work ethic, education, curiosity, and service to others. Every member of his family served as great influences in his life, without whom he wouldn’t have carved the path he did. Upon graduating from high school, he attended the Virginia Military Institute, during which he was selected among a small group of students from participating Virginia colleges to be part of a Research-Intensive Study Abroad Program at the University of Oxford in 2011; he also completed internships with the Clerk’s Office of the Supreme Court of the United States and with the U.S. Senate in 2012. He graduated from the military institute in 2013 in the top 1 percent of his class, with distinguished honors. The following year, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving on active duty from 2014 to 2019 and advancing to the rank of infantry captain.
Following his military career, Mr. Irvine continued his education by earning a Master of Science in Russian, Central European, East European, and Eurasian Studies at Oxford, a Master of Public Administration in International and Global Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, and a Master of Business Administration at the Wharton School. Coming from a blue-collar family, with his father being the first to attend college, he considers his ability to rise above his circumstances—attending prestigious institutions, serving in the military, and excelling in these areas—to be his most notable professional achievement.
Mr. Irvine was active as a strategy insights and planning summer consultant at ZS, a management consulting services company, in 2021 and climbed the ranks from summer associate to associate at McKinsey & Company, a business management consultant firm through which he helps large Fortune 500 companies turn their businesses around holistically, since 2023. In this capacity, he leads a team of 10 with responsibilities covering sales both domestically and internationally; markets both domestically and internationally; and develops products, as well as pricing-retention functions, and onboarding for a roughly $8 billion company.
Since graduating, Mr. Irvine has remained connected to the Virginia Military Institute in numerous ways; in 2017, he was awarded a full scholarship in honor one mentor he looked up to, Stephen Chase Prasnicki, who was tragically killed in Afghanistan. He’s also earned the institute’s General of the Army George Catlett Marshall Class of 1901 Citizen-Soldier Award, a Rhodes Scholarship, a John E. Woodward Class of 1957 Graduate Scholarship, and a James C. Wheat Sr. Memorial Scholarship. He would serve as the founder and director of the college’s Boy’s Home Mentorship Program and as a member of the Board of Trustees since 2025. In addition, he’s been active as a volunteer with Volunteers for Peace since 2014 and on the Council on Foreign Relations since 2025.
Looking toward the future, Mr. Irvine wants to continue finding opportunities to solve interesting problems with people he enjoys working with. He aims to lead McKinsey & Company and utilize his background and experiences to foster a culture that motivates people to come to work every day. He aspires to be an owner or operator at the CEO level of the company. Outside of his professional endeavors, he’s happily married to his wife, Odyssa, with whom he has two young sons; he enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, reading books, and going to church every Sunday.