Lenny Mendonca

Lenny Mendonca is director emeritus of McKinsey & Company, a Lecturer at Stanford Business School, co-Chair of California Forward, and a senior fellow at the Presidio Institute.

Opinion: A Wealth Tax Would Harm California

Before approving a one-time tax on the wealth of billionaires who lived in the state at a certain point in time, Californians should consider what such a policy will do to future tax revenues. Since wealth is mobile, those who stand to lose the most will simply leave.

By Lenny Mendonca and Laura Tyson

October 30, 2026

California statewide ballot, focusing on Proposition 40, the wealth tax.

Independent Voters Can Be Heard in California. The Top-Two Primary Is Worth Defending

California voters broke the political parties’ grip on primary elections in 2010. A new repeal effort raises a fundamental question: Who should get to choose the candidates on the November ballot?

By Lenny Mendonca and Dan Schnur

September 21, 2026

Independent Voters Can Be Heard in California. The Top-Two Primary Is Worth Defending

Here's How to Defeat the 4 Biggest Threats to Democracy

During a time of deep political dysfunction in the United States, it is easy to assume that American democracy has gone off the rails, perhaps for good. But if Americans

By Lenny Mendonca

November 13, 2017

New Rules: California's Feinstein May Lose Far Left, and Win

By definition, conventional wisdom is convention. It often has the added value of being right. I read a commentary by Joe Matthews recently that argued California’s Top Two primary

By Lenny Mendonca

November 1, 2017