McKinstry is a director of Sanoma Oyj and Abbott. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Amsterdam Institute of Finance, the Advisory Board for the University of Rhode Island, the Advisory Board of the Harrington School of Communication and Media, and the Board of Overseers of Columbia Business School. In August 2011, she was appointed by the Chinese State Council Information Office as a member of the Foreign Consultant Committee, given her astute business leadership and long-standing expertise in the information and publishing industry.