Lowell L. Bryan

President

Lowell Bryan is a director of McKinsey & Company, where he serves major clients on a wide range of issues related to corporate strategy and organization. He has spoken and written extensively – particularly on topics related to strategy, organization, and financial services – for the past thirty years. His current book, Mobilizing Minds: Creating Wealth From Talent in the 21st Century Organization, published by McGraw Hill in 2007, reflects more than a decade’s worth of research into the forces at work in the global economy and their implications for corporations.

Others include Race for the World: Strategies to Build a Great Global Firm, published by the Harvard Business Press in 1999, Market Unbound and Breaking Up the Bank. He has been a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal editorial page and has published articles in numerous periodicals, including the Harvard Business Review and the McKinsey Quarterly.

Lowell earned a B.A. from Davidson College in 1968 and an M.B.A., with distinction, from the Harvard Business School in 1970. Prior to joining McKinsey & Co. in 1975, he worked for the State Street Bank of Boston. He is a trustee of Davidson College and has just completed a term on the Visiting Committee for Harvard Business School.

Kevin J. Curnin

Kevin Curnin is Partner and Director for Stroock & Stroock & Lavan’s Public Service Project. He is responsible for the overall management of the program, including advising and assisting associates and partners with their pro bono litigation and transactional work, and carries his own pro bono caseload in addition to handling commercial cases. During his tenure, the Public Service Project has won numerous awards from city, state, educational, and nonprofit organizations.

Prior to his March 2001 appointment as the Project’s first Attorney Director, Kevin spent more than five years handling a wide range of commercial litigation matters for Stroock. His areas of expertise include insurance, banking, securities, and arbitration.

Before joining Stroock, he clerked for the Hon. Loretta A. Preska, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), and served as a summer law clerk for the Hon. John F. Keenan, also of the SDNY. He has also worked as a teacher and a journalist.

Celia Felsher

Celia is General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of Reservoir Capital Group, LLC, a New-York based investment management firm that she joined in 1998.

Prior to joining Reservoir, from 1988 through 1997, Celia was a partner in the Corporate Department of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, where she also held the position of associate from 1979 through 1987. During her time at Milbank, Celia represented both U.S. and international clients in a wide variety of corporate matters, including the public and private issuance of debt and equity securities, stock and asset acquisitions, and issues related to the formation of REITs and private investment funds.

Celia was as a member of the Mamaroneck, New York Board of Education from July 2000 until June 2006, serving in the capacity of Board President from July 2004 to June 2006.

Celia received an A.B. from Princeton University and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.

Jane Fraser

Jane Fraser is the Chief Executive of Citi Private Bank.  She sits on the firm's Senior Leadership Committee and is based in London. Prior to joining Citi, Jane was a Partner at McKinsey & Company in London and New York for ten years, serving clients primarily in the financial services industry.  She was one of the leaders of McKinsey's Global Strategy practice.

Whilst at McKinsey she authored a number of articles on globalization and co-authored a book on global strategy, Race for the World, published by HBS Press in 1999. She started her career at Goldman Sachs in the Mergers & Acquisition department in London and then worked for Asesores Bursatiles in Spain.

Mbago Kaniki

Mbago Kaniki is Chief Executive Officer of Adansonia Management.  He has invested in private companies since 2001. 

Previously, Mbago was a Managing Director and the Head of Strategic Investments at 40 North Industries from 2011 to 2013.  At 40 North, he led the firm's investing in private equity and illiquid debt, with emphasis on the industrial and energy sectors.  Prior to 40 North, Mbago was a Senior Analyst at Anchorage Capital Group from 2010 to 2011.  At Anchorage, he invested in debt and equity, across liquid and illiquid markets, and led the firm's activities in the chemical, defense, infrastructure and shipping sectors. 

Earlier, Mbago was a Principal at Sageview Capital from 2007 to 2010.  At Sageview, he invested in private equity and public equity, and led the firm's efforts in the industrial sector.  Before, Mbago was a Vice President at The Carlyle Group, where he worked from 2001 to 2007.  At Carlyle, he invested in buyout transactions in the automotive & transportation and consumer & retail sectors.  Mbago began his career as a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company. 

Mbago earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard University. 

Steven Kelmar

Steven Kelmar is Senior Vice President and head of Aetna's government, regulatory and policy teams.  He also serves as Chief of Staff to Aetna's Chairman and CEO and is a member of the company's executive committee.   In that role he helps drive the strategy of the corporation.  Steve is also responsible for leading critical external initiatives related to health care reform, the U.S. economy and legislative affairs.

Prior to joining Aetna, Steven was Head of Global Public Affairs and Policy for Merck and Co. and served in a similar position at Novartis AG in Basel, Switzerland.  Before serving in this position at Merck and Novartis, Steven worked as Senior Vice President, External Relations for Medtronic, Inc. where he led efforts to establish the company as a leading health care technology company.

In addition to his private sector work, Mr. Kelmar spent 14 years in public service in several executive positions.  During his public service career, Steven was Chief of Staff to two Members of the U.S. Congress and, in 1990, he was appointed by President Bush and confirmed to be an Assistant Secretary for Legislation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Mr. Kelmar received his Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration and Economics from Pennsylvania State University.  He and his wife Patricia have three children. 

Fr. Doctor Peter Le Jacq

Volunteer

Father Peter served at Bugando Medical Centre for over a decade, as both doctor and priest for many of the 900 inpatients at Bugando at any given time. Father Peter's involvement with the Touch Foundation dates back to 2001, when he was assigned to raise funds for the Bugando University College of Health Sciences on behalf of the Touch Foundation's predecessor organization, the Touching Tanzania committee. Prior to his assignment in Tanzania, Fr. Peter worked in Maryknoll Promotion in the New York tri-state area for five years.

Fr. Peter received his Diplomas in Tropical Medicine and International Health from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland, in 1989 and 1990 respectively. He was ordained at Maryknoll Seminary after completing his Masters in Divinity in 1987. He completed his internship at St. Vincent's Medical Center in New York City in 1982. Fr. Peter received his M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College in 1981 and a B.S. from St. John's University. During the fall of 2006, he studied Theology in Rome.

Fr. Peter was born on Christmas Eve in 1954 to Kathleen and Louis Le Jacq, who raised him with his four sisters in Manhasset, Long Island. He attended St. Mary's Grammar and High Schools in Manhasset, where he wrote his eighth grade religion paper, Why I Want to Be a Missionary Priest-Doctor in Africa.

Robert H. Niehaus

Bob Niehaus is a Managing Director of Greenhill & Co., and is the Chairman, Senior Member and Founder of Greenhill Capital Partners, LLC. GCP has raised $1.3 billion in capital, focusing on the energy, financial services and telecommunications industries.

Prior to joining Greenhill in January 2000, Bob spent seventeen years at Morgan Stanley & Co. where he was a Managing Director in the merchant banking department from 1990 to 1999. Bob was also the chief operating officer of Morgan Stanley’s merchant banking department from 1996 to 1998.

Bob is Chairman of Student Sponsor Partners, which provides high school scholarships and mentoring to 1,300 disadvantaged students in New York City. Bob is also a Director of Good Shepherd Services and the Acumen Fund.

Bob is a graduate of Princeton University and the Harvard Business School. He and his wife Kate have three children and reside in Rye, New York.

Salim Ramji

Salim Ramji is a Senior Partner in McKinsey & Company's New York office, and leads McKinsey's Asset Management, Wealth Management and Retirement Practice. Salim has spoken at a number of industry and investor conferences on asset management and retirement and written extensively on these topics, including as a co-author of The Retirement Journey, The Asset Management Industry in 2015, Restoring Americans' Retirement Security and The Second Act Begins for ETFs.

Salim is responsible for McKinsey's client service to a number of leading asset managers and wealth managers globally.  Recent engagements have covered market growth, post-merger integration, new product innovation and operational improvement strategies in all segments of the asset management business (including retail, institutional, retirement and international) and the wealth management business (including compensation, sales management, new product launches and pricing).

Prior to joining McKinsey, Salim practiced as a corporate finance lawyer in London. He earned his law degree from Cambridge University, his BA in economics and politics from the University of Toronto and received his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. In addition to the Touch Foundation, he is a Trustee of Graham-Windham, a New York based child care agency.

Marco Spinelli

Marco Spinelli is the Co-CEO of a conglomerate of family businesses in Brazil (businesses span across segments such as hydro and wind energy generation, paper recycling, tubing and signage).

Prior to that, Marco worked at BridgeWater Associates (a CT based hedge fund) as the head of Analytics. Marco also worked at Morgan Stanley for 6 years in multiple roles and areas (Global Strategy and Internal M&A, Prime Brokerage and Equities) and at McKinsey & Company for 5 years as a banking consultant in NY, Paris and London.

Marco has both a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering/Automation and Control from University of Sao Paulo, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Charbel Tagher

Charbel Tagher is the President of Specified Technologies Inc (STI), a provider of firestopping products and solutions he co-founded in 1990.  Today, STI is one of the top two firestopping manufacturers in the United States, with an increasing presence world-wide.  

Charbel holds a BBA from the American University of Beirut (1974) and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1976).  He then spent 8 years with McKinsey and Company, working on assignments in Europe, North Africa, the Middle-East and the United States.  Subsequently, he became a Vice President of Thomas and Betts, a manufacturer of electrical and electronic components, where he ran a division for three years. 

Prior to founding STI, he spent two years with an investment group.  Charbel is also involved with a number of non-profit organizations focused on the education of young people and in particular is President of TFL-US, which raises funds to support Teach For Lebanon.  Charbel is a U.S. citizen.  He enjoys gardening, playing tennis and golf, skiing, and traveling with his family.

Tom Teles

Tom Teles is the global head of securitized and government investments within the Global Fixed Income team in Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). He is also a member of the Fixed Income Strategy Group (FISG), which oversees all Global Fixed Income and Currency portfolios.

Tom joined Goldman Sachs in 1997 and was named managing director in 2003. Prior to joining the firm, Tom was the assistant investment officer at Travelers Insurance Group.

Tom earned a BA from the University of Maryland in 1992 and an MBA from The University of Chicago in 1994.