He began his career at
Fujitsu, Australia, in technical marketing and joined
McKinsey & Company in 1982. Over a 28-year career at McKinsey he led the New York office, the North American Corporate Finance practice, and the Americas region. He moved from the London office to the New York office in 1996 and was a frontrunner in the
managing director elections of both
Ian Davis in 2003 and
Dominic Barton in 2009. He was also a member of the board of directors of the
Partnership for New York City. In July 2012, Patsalos-Fox announced his impending retirement from McKinsey and was elected to the board of directors at
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation. In September 2018, the board elected him as chairman, succeeding John E. Klein. He served as chair until January 2023 and remained on the board afterward. From 2017 to 2019, Patsalos-Fox served as chairman and chief executive officer of Vidyo, a cloud-based video conferencing services company. ==References==