Tera Allas CBE
Tera is a leading economist and expert on growth, productivity, and public policy. Her career spans more than three decades in senior leadership and advisory roles across business, government and academia. She was appointed CBE for services to economic policy in 2019.
Tera is a senior advisor to McKinsey & Company, where she previously led its UK economic research for ten years. She chairs The Productivity Institute’s Advisory Committee and co-chairs The Health Foundation's NHS Productivity Commission. She is a trustee of Be the Business, a governor of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, and a member of the Office for Budget Responsibility's Advisory Panel and several other expert bodies. She holds an Honorary Professorship at Alliance Manchester Business School and is a Fellow of the Royal Economic Society (FREcon), the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the RSA (FRSA).
Previously, Tera served on the boards of Innovate UK, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, and the Royal Economic Society, and on the States of Jersey Fiscal Policy Panel. At the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, she was Director General for Strategy, Analysis, and Better Regulation and Deputy Head of the UK Government Economic Service; before that, she held chief economist roles at the UK’s energy and transport departments. Earlier in her career, she spent over a decade as a management consultant at McKinsey.
Tera holds an MSc in Technology (Industrial Economics) with distinction from Helsinki University of Technology and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD.
Artificial Intelligence and Productivity
Unlocking the Future Economy
The boss factor
Ambitious but risk averse: UK manager attitudes and the investment gap, The Productivity Institute, June 2026
How management can drive UK prosperity, McKinsey & Company, May 2026
Revamping Britain's balance sheet for growth and prosperity, McKinsey & Company, February 2026
The new productivity paradox: When will AI boost UK productivity?, McKinsey & Company, February 2026
Financing the real economy: growth-enhancing public sector capital expenditure, Supplementary written evidence to the Business and Trade Committee, The Productivity Institute, January 2026
From diagnosis to delivery: A framework for accelerating NHS productivity growth, The Health Foundation's NHS Productivity Commission, November 2025
The importance of management and leadership for better wellbeing and productivity in the workplace, Reimagining business schools for the 21st century, Alliance Manchester Business School, November 2025
Good work, wellbeing, and productivity: what is the role of management?, Institute for the Future of Work, July 2025
Not yet productive, already disruptive: AI's uneven effects on UK jobs and talent, McKinsey & Company, July 2025
Public Sector Productivity: Using Digital Technology to Deliver Better Outcomes, Joining Up Pro-Productivity Policies in the UK, NIESR Occasional Paper LXV, National Institute of Economic and Social Research and The Productivity Institute, July 2025
The real test of the industrial strategy? Whole-of-government delivery, Civil Service World, July 2025
After the storm: How UK consumers have stayed the same - and what's quietly changing, McKinsey & Company, June 2025
The UK's capital gap: a short-fall in the trillions of pounds that will take decades to bridge, The Productivity Institute, June 2025
The UK inflation cycle appears to be nearing its end - what can businesses learn from it? , McKinsey & Company, September 2024
Aiming higher: Embedding ‘systematic ambition’ to drive UK corporate growth, McKinsey & Company, July 2024
The hidden costs of quiet quitting, quantified, McKinsey & Company, February 2024
Will UK food inflation turn negative?, McKinsey & Company, November 2023
UK inflation has fallen below 10 percent: How should businesses approach the next phase, McKinsey & Company, June 2023
Competition for talent will remain fierce in the UK despite economic uncertainty, McKinsey & Company, February 2023
Enhancing productivity in the social sector with lessons from the private sector, The Law Family Commission on Civil Society, January 2023
Insight, commitment, execution: How UK businesses can adapt to greater uncertainty, McKinsey & Company, October 2022
Measuring good, Alliance Manchester Business School Magazine, September 2022
Meet the psychological needs of your people—all your people, McKinsey Quarterly, June 2022
More UK employees are leaving their jobs than ever before: How businesses can respond, McKinsey & Company, April 2022
Opportunities for UK businesses in the net zero transition, McKinsey & Company, October 2021
Being a good boss isn’t easy—here’s how to get better, McKinsey & Company, October 2021
Metrics matter: a look at the data that could inform the Government’s levelling up agenda, Levelling Up: An Anthology, Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge, September 2021
Re:Think: On mental health: Don't just follow the money, McKinsey Quarterly, September 2021
Four ways that organizations can help tomorrow’s leaders, McKinsey & Company, September 2021
An old-style manufacturing boom will not revive the North, The Telegraph, August 2021
Lessons on resilience for small and midsize businesses, Harvard Business Review, June 2021
Productivity in the post-COVID 19 era, The Productivity Institute, June 2021
Getting tangible about intangibles: The future of growth and productivity?, McKinsey Global Institute, June 2021
Facing the future: Britain’s new industrial revolution, McKinsey & Company, May 2021
Facing the future: How UK businesses can thrive in the next normal, McKinsey & Company, March 2021
The economic case for reskilling in the UK: How employers can thrive by boosting workers’ skills, McKinsey & Company, November 2020
Problems amid progress: Improving lives and livelihoods for ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom, McKinsey & Company, October 2020
The boss factor: Making the world a better place through workplace relationships, McKinsey Quarterly, September 2020
An experiment to inform universal basic income, McKinsey & Company, September 2020
Future-proofing fiscal stimulus for the post-COVID-19 world, Campaign for Social Science, June 2020
Well-being in Europe: Addressing the high cost of COVID-19 on life satisfaction, McKinsey & Company, June 2020
COVID-19 in the United Kingdom: Assessing jobs at risk and the impact on people and places, McKinsey & Company, May 2020
How European businesses can position themselves for recovery, McKinsey & Company, April 2020
From trade-offs to win-wins: how we can unlock productivity and good jobs, Can Good Work Solve the Productivity Puzzle?, Carnegie UK Trust and the Royal Society for Arts, manufactures and commerce (RSA), 2020
Brexit: The bigger picture—Embracing agility in a volatile world, McKinsey & Company, December 2019
The future of work: Rethinking skills to tackle the UK’s looming talent shortage, McKinsey & Company, November 2019
Confronting overconfidence in talent strategy, management, and development, McKinsey Quarterly, June 2019
The future of women at work in the United Kingdom, McKinsey Global Institute, June 2019
Artificial intelligence in the United Kingdom: Prospects and challenges, McKinsey Global Institute, June 2019
Tech for Good’: Using technology to smooth disruption and improve well-being, McKinsey Global Institute, May 2019
How automation could affect employment for women in the United Kingdom and minorities in the United States, McKinsey Quarterly, April 2019
Brexit: The bigger picture - Revitalizing UK exports in the new world of trade, McKinsey & Company, March 2019
Productivity and job creation, What we really mean when we talk about industrial strategy, Manchester Metropolitan University, A Future Economies Publication, November 2018
Solving the United Kingdom’s productivity puzzle in a digital age, McKinsey Global Institute, September 2018
A smarter approach to cost reduction in the public sector, McKinsey & Company, June 2018
Delivering for citizens: How to triple the success rate of government transformations, McKinsey & Company, May 2018
Transforming a 150-year-old government agency: A CEO story, McKinsey & Company, April 2018
Improving outcomes with better government productivity, McKinsey & Company, March 2018
How smarter purchasing can improve public-sector performance, McKinsey & Company, March 2018
How governments can be more effective by reallocating their resources, McKinsey & Company, March 2018
Improving the effectiveness of tax collection: $30 in additional revenue for every $1 spent?, McKinsey & Company, February 2018
Accelerating the diffusion of technology-enabled business practices, McKinsey Quarterly, February 2018
Mitigating risk in IT megaprojects, McKinsey & Company, January 2018
How the public sector fits in the productivity puzzle, McKinsey & Company, January 2018
How artificial intelligence can deliver real value to companies, McKinsey & Company, June 2017
Artificial intelligence: the next digital frontier?, McKinsey Global Institute, June 2017
The opportunity in government productivity, McKinsey & Company, April 2017
