Founder and Chairman, MQ Foundation, Trustee, MQ Mental Health Research

A native New Yorker, John has had a long and distinguished career in investment banking. After graduating from Yale and Harvard Business School, in 1961 John joined Lehman Brothers, where he later co-founded its M&A Department. In 1990 he founded a boutique investment bank named The Bridgeford Group, which was acquired by JP Morgan in 2000, and he served there as a managing director until 2007. He joined Lincoln International as managing director and vice chairman in 2007 and continued to serve as senior adviser until his retirement in June, 2018. He is a director of a number of corporations and is active as a financial adviser to corporations and individuals.

In addition to a highly successful career, John has had a lifetime role in philanthropy. He holds leadership roles in many charitable organizations, including the Jewish Board of Family & Children’s Services, National Public Radio, UNICEF, UJA/Federation of New York, the Yale School of Music and at MQ in the U.K. and the MQ Foundation in the U.S. A committed family man, cyclist and world traveler, John and his wife, Anne, his two sons and his seven grandchildren enjoy visiting unique places around the globe.

President, MQ Foundation, Trustee, MQ: Mental Health Research

Michael is a retired partner in the international law firm of Jones Day, where he practiced tax and business law for more than 30 years, representing, among others, substantial families and charities. He was chairman of the board of IMG Worldwide Inc., a sports marketing, media and athlete representation firm, following the death of the company’s founder until the sale of the company in 2004. He continues to serve as a trustee for the founder’s family, as well as numerous other private trusts and family foundations. He chairs the board of Parkland Management Co., a family office, and the Administrative Committee of the HRH Family Foundations, a group of affiliated family foundations.

Michael is a trustee of the Cleveland Orchestra, and he chairs the Personnel and Audit Committees and serves on the Executive and Investment Committees. He also serves as a trustee of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation (where he has served on the Finance Committee) and The Frick Collection in New York (where he chairs the Audit Committee and the Nominating and Governance Committee and serves on the Executive Committee, the Investment Committee, the Architectural and Long Range Planning Committee and as secretary of the corporation). In addition, he is a member of the Visiting Committee of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He is a member of the Investment Committee of The Cleveland Foundation, the first community foundation in the United States. He is a trustee emeritus of Case Western Reserve University and is a former adjunct professor of law of that university, where he lectured on Law and the Visual Arts. He is chair emeritus of The Cleveland Museum of Art (where he served as president from 1996 to 2001 and as chairman of the board from 2001 to 2011). He is an honorary trustee of the University of Virginia Law School Foundation (where he chaired the board for six years and continues to serve as an adviser to the Investment Committee).

He also is a past trustee of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, where he has chaired its Finance and Investment Committee and has served on numerous other committees, including the Executive, Development, Audit and Strategic Planning Committees, in addition to having served for six years as the federation’s primary outside legal counsel.

Director, MQ Foundation

Henry Bedford, now retired, was one of the Moore Capital hedge fund’s top traders, and he managed a significant portion of the company’s estimated $14 billion of funds under management.

Henry previously traded at rival macro hedge fund Caxton Associates and cut his teeth at Goldman Sachs’ global macro proprietary trading desk in the 1980s.

In addition to his trading responsibilities at Moore, Henry was a member of the senior management team, overseeing the firm’s portfolio managers. He served as a trustee and chair of the Investment Committee of his alma mater, Hamilton College. He has been a trustee of several U.K. charities, including The Elliot Foundation, a network of 30+ primary charter schools, which he co-founded.

Director, MQ Foundation

Andrew is an investor who runs his own family office. Prior to this, he worked in the money management business for 25 years.

He was a co-founder of two hedge funds and ran a multi-family office. Andrew has previously served on the boards of BRC Inc., a leading homeless services organization, and Common Denominator, a provider of free math tutoring to middle school students. Andrew was co-chair of C/D for three years. He lives in NYC with his husband Jeffrey Levin and two teenage sons.

Andrew graduated with high honors from Wesleyan University.

Director, MQ Foundation

Professor Emily Holmes, PhD, DClinPsych is at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University. Her research is underpinned by a core interest in mental health science, and the translation of basic findings to create innovations to improve psychological treatments.

In her own words, “My driving force is improving mental health through an scientific-based, interdisciplinary approach to improving treatment. My specialism is mental imagery and its unique impact on emotion.”

Holmes received her BA (Hons) in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, UK, and her Masters in Social Sciences at Uppsala University, Sweden. She is also a clinician and completed a clinical psychology training doctorate at Royal Holloway University of London, and a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, UK. She became Professor in 2010 at the University of Oxford. She is further an affiliated Professor at Karolinska Institution. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences – Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien (KVA). She is the recipient of several international awards, including from the American Psychological Association and the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Holmes was a founding contributor and then served on the Board of Trustees of the UK based research charity "MQ; transforming mental health” until 2022.

Holmes is keen to support the future of psychological treatment innovation, how interventions might be made more readily available to more people, and initiatives where different fields can come together under the umbrella of "mental health science". For work together with MQ see for example our (i) The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on psychological treatments research in tomorrow's science, (ii) our Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science, and (iii) our commentary in Nature on Psychological treatments: A call for mental-health science.

Her research in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and bipolar disorder is linked by an interest in mental imagery and emotion. It has demonstrated that mental imagery has a powerful impact on emotion, compared to words. Her particular interest is intrusive memories —imagery that springs to mind unbidden. She works on potential new methods to prevent and treat intrusive memories after trauma, known as an “imagery competing task intervention”. Investigating how we think in the form of imagery also has fundamental relevance to the science of mental life and the nature of human memory. For further reading see Holmes' publications on Google Scholar.

Director, MQ Foundation

Hayden is a Partner at Geller & Company and Managing Director at G Client Services LLC, a subsidiary. Currently, Hayden co-leads a team within the Geller & Company family of companies serving the personal and philanthropic needs of the firm’s largest client. He was formerly the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Geller Advisors, the firm’s Registered Investment Advisor, and led the firm’s real estate initiatives.

In his leadership roles for Geller Advisors, Hayden was responsible for all aspects of the multi-family office business, including strategy development, client service, and operations management. During his tenure, the firm adopted a new strategic plan, made key investments in people and technology, and expanded its geographic footprint.

As the Head of the Real Estate Solutions Group, Hayden led a team of professionals dedicated to serving clients with a comprehensive range of real estate planning, management and operational needs spanning investment and construction, as well acquisitions and divestitures. His responsibilities included serving as Chief Financial Officer and a member of the steering committee for a very large international corporate development project, and a comparable role for a domestic cultural institution.

More recently, Hayden served as Treasurer for Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign. Prior political finance roles included serving as the Chief Financial Officer for New York City’s Host Committee for the 2004 Republican National Convention and as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer for Michael Bloomberg’s 2005 mayoral re-election campaign.

Earlier in his career, Hayden was the Chief Financial Officer of Highstar Capital LP, an infrastructure-focused private equity firm with over $6 billion AUM. In addition, he held positions in Citigroup’s Investment Banking Division and at the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division in the Telecommunications Task Force reviewing telecom mergers. Hayden graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Honors in History from the University of Pennsylvania, and earned a Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Columbia University.

Director, MQ Foundation

Most recently Catherine served as co-Board Chair for a local youth center where her focus was on increasing access and availability of mental health resources in the community. As part of this role Catherine engaged Harvard Community Partners to develop a new strategic plan that resulted in her recruiting a new Executive Director, a new Head of Programming and restructuring the Board of Directors. During her time there, growing the fundraising base and creating a critically needed endowment was also a priority.

Catherine holds a deep commitment towards community development which has led her to serving on a wide range of school and nonprofit boards.

Prior to becoming a mother of four, Catherine worked in global brand management and marketing for Lancaster Group International and Estee Lauder Companies in New York. Earlier in her career she worked in financial services roles in Lisbon and London.

While growing up Catherine’s father was in the military taking her to Korea and Germany before she settled down in Georgia for high school and college. Her interests include reading, travel, exploring other cultures, and spending time in nature, especially running and hiking. Catherine lives with her husband John in Darien, Connecticut.

Director, MQ Foundation

Chris O’Connor is a Partner and Head Healthcare Advisory for Perella Weinberg Partners LP. Before that he was Managing Director, Healthcare Investment Banking for JPMorgan. He serves on the boards of O’Connor Capital Partners (real estate private equity) and the New Canaan Library.

The father of six has lived in New Canaan, CT since 2003. Chris received an AB in English/American Literature from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Director, MQ Foundation

Sarah is currently Permanent Observer a.i. to the United Nations in New York for the International Development Law Organization (IDLO). Previously, she served in senior positions for several international organizations, including, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York and Bhutan, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, and the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in Geneva. At both UNDP and GAVI, Sarah was Director of Programme Funding. At EBRD, Sarah was Deputy Secretary of the Board. She has proven experience in leveraging funds through powerful advocacy, impact measuring and strategizing.

Having lived on both sides of the Atlantic for long stints, Sarah specializes in advising both for - profit and non - profit organizations which have launched in the United States after being conceived and founded in the United Kingdom. At Save the Children US, Sarah was Senior Adviser to the President and Chair of Save's Economic Opportunities Leadership Council. Sarah was Chair of Fauna and Flora International's (FFI) US Board when it first came to the US 20 years ago. Sarah has represented a London- based new media newsletter, The Browser, to expand its market in the US.

Born in the UK, Sarah grew up in South Africa and was educated at King's College, Cambridge (BA and MA) and the London School of Economics (M.Sc Econ). She resides in New York and has been a visiting lecturer at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She spent 15 years in Washington DC raising her three children.

Director, MQ Foundation

Barbara is the Principal of Ricci Advisors LLC whose clients include non profit organizations and foundations. Prior to this role, Barbara was the Founding Executive Director at Mindful Philanthropy where she brought deep expertise from working with mental health nonprofit organizations and global financial services firms. She launched the non profit organization, after retiring from a 30-year career on Wall Street, to fully devote her time to advance outcomes in mental health, addiction, and community well-being.

Barbara served as Board Treasurer and Policy Committee Chair at NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Board President of NAMI NYC where she helped create the award-winning #IWILLLISTEN campaign. She hosted two CEO Summits on workplace mental health, including the inaugural summit at the NYSE; spoke at the White House on this issue; served on NYC’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Executive Council Regional Planning Consortium; and has been published in Harvard Business Review and Psychiatric Services.

She is a board director at NYS’s Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, InUnity Alliance (formerly The Coalition for Behavioral Health and NY Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers-ASAP) and The Arthur Miller Foundation. She earned her BA from Franklin and Marshall College and her Executive MPA ‘19 plus an Advanced Certificate in Social Finance ‘23 from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Director, MQ Foundation

Evan is the Co-CEO of his family’s business, Century Fasteners Corp, a distributor of fasteners and electro-mechanical components. During his tenure, Evan has helped grow the company from a local New York Distributor with annual sales of less than $10 million, to a company with an international presence and sales approaching $80 million.

Evan and his wife live in Brookville, NY. They have five children. His interests include cooking, travel, cinema and playing golf. Evan graduated from George Washington University with a major in finance.

Director, MQ Foundation

Carol held the Samuel Candler Dobbs Chair in the Department of Anthropology, Emory University, where she directed the Laboratory for Comparative Human Biology. After a dual undergraduate degree in biology and botany at Pomona College, Carol earned her Ph.D. in biological anthropology at Harvard University, having also studied endocrinology at UCSD and neuroscience at MIT under Jack Geller and Richard Wurtman, respectively. After a postdoc in human development with Jerome Kagan, Robert LeVine and Beatrice Whiting, she joined the nascent anthropology faculty at Emory University, and established a pioneering laboratory advancing the use of biomarkers in population research.

Carol conducts interdisciplinary biocultural research on human development and pathways to differential mental and physical health. She has undertaken cross-cultural collaborative research in 13 countries, including Kenya, Tibet, Nepal, Egypt, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and South Africa, as well as in rural, urban and semi-urban areas of the United States. For over 20 years, she collaborated with Jane Costello and Adrian Angold in the Great Smoky Mountains Study, a large, longitudinal, population-based developmental epidemiological project in western North Carolina.

Current work includes tracking effects of war trauma in a matched sample of ex-child soldiers in Nepal, assessment of a sustainable intervention to improve maternal functioning and infant development in Cape Town, and the impact of media exposure (TV) on adolescent functioning in Vietnamese villages lacking television and electricity.

Director, MQ Foundation

Lisa was most recently a senior credit product specialist at Angelo Gordon, a leading alternative asset manager, where she focused on structured credit and direct lending. She also established and co-led the firm’s product and strategy group. In her role Lisa met with investors across the globe and helped launch and grow several of the firm’s key businesses. Previously, she spent over a decade in institutional fixed income sales at Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers. Prior to attending Columbia Business School, Lisa worked for the television division of IMG selling sports programming in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this position she conducted the majority of her work in Spanish. Lisa graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College and received an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Lisa resides in Southern Florida and is an outdoor enthusiast and voracious reader, as well as a passionate cook and avid traveler.

Observer, MQ Foundation, Chairman, MQ Mental Health Research

In two decades of venture investing at Advent, Shahzad has been actively involved with numerous successful investments in Europe and the U.S. in the biopharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics arenas. These include Algeta, Respivert, Biocartis, Powdermed and Axonics modulation technologies.

Shahzad came to Advent in 1999 with a strong background in science and clinical medicine. He gained invaluable experience at the London office of McKinsey & Company, serving international clients in the health care and investment banking sectors.

Shahzad gained an M.A. in physiological sciences while at Oxford University and an M.D. from Cambridge University. He then specialized in interventional cardiology while at the same time pursuing research interests in heart muscle disorders, both in the clinic and basic science laboratory.