Council

The Foundation’s Council is a group of passionate, enthusiastic advocates who connect us to the greater community, share our story, and promote our mission.

These goodwill ambassadors work closely with the Foundation’s Chairman, Board of Directors and team to provide counsel and advice and assist with raising funds and awareness.

Co-Chairs

John B. Adams, Jr.

Jay Adams is President and CEO of Bowman Companies in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is a past Chairman of the Board of Virginia FREE. He earned his undergraduate degree from Virginia Military Institute in 1966, and his JD from Washington and Lee University School of Law in 1969. He is the former Director on the Board of Universal Corporation in Richmond and is Chairman of The Fauquier Bank in Warrenton. He is a former Director and Chairman of the Board of Virginia Power and a former Director of Dominion Resources and of the National Association of Manufacturers. Mr. Adams is involved in many charitable and civic organizations, including his current service as Chairman of The National Theatre Corporation, Chairman of the Outstanding Virginian Committee, past Chairman of The George C. Marshall Foundation, and past Chairman of the Virginia State Fair. He serves as a Trustee Emeritus of the Museum of the American Revolution, and is an Emeritus Trustee of the Virginia Commonwealth University Foundation and the University of Mary Washington Foundation. He is a member of the Board of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, a past Trustee of the Virginia Historical Society, and a former Trustee of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Foundation. He is an Honorary Trustee of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges and a former Trustee of Woodlawn and of Oatlands, both National Historic Trust Sites.

Jane Metcalfe

Jane Metcalfe is the founder and CEO of NEO.LIFE, a media and events company tracking the radical changes taking place in humans as we harness the tools of engineering and computer science to alter our own biology. She is the co-editor of the new book, NEO.LIFE: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species, featuring scientists, investors, artists, and science fiction writers on the topic of the “neobiological revolution,” a phrase she coined to describe the extraordinary discoveries and inventions that are transforming our bodies, our minds, our food, our economy, and our ecosystems. Prior to NEO.LIFE, Ms. Metcalfe was cofounder (along with her partner Louis Rossetto) and former president of WIRED, whose businesses included the magazine (US, UK, and Japanese editions), a suite of internet sites (including HotBot and WebMonkey), books, and TV. Her past and present board seats and advisory roles include The Human Vaccine Project, the Berggruen Institute for Transformation of the Human, The Stone Research Foundation, UC Berkeley Foundation, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, One Economy, Expressions Center for New Media, Wired Ventures, Inc., TCHO Ventures, Inc., and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Council Members

Carol Atkinson

Ms. Atkinson is a resident of New York City and Vero Beach, Florida. She is a philanthropist and volunteer with a long history of supporting education, healthcare, mental health, conservation, and vibrant communities. Today, she serves on the board of The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, a global non-profit committed to alleviating the suffering caused by mental illness by awarding grants that will lead to advances and breakthroughs in scientific research. Having previously been a member of the Massachusetts General Hospital Council, Ms. Atkinson now serves on McLean Hospital’s National Council (focusing on mental illness). She earlier served on the board of City Harvest for 20 years. An alumna of Ohio University and New York School of Design, Ms. Atkinson founded an interior design business and lived in Japan for eight years. She has two children and three grandchildren.

Jane P. Batten

Mrs. Batten is a civic leader and community volunteer residing in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She has served on numerous philanthropic boards and is currently Vice-Chair of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; on the board of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and the board of E-3 Elevate Early Education, a statewide initiative to promote early childhood development; past Chair and trustee of Virginia Wesleyan College; past trustee of the George Washington Foundation; and emeritus trustee of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges. She was a founding partner of The First Tee South Hampton Roads. Mrs. Batten and her late husband, Frank Batten, Sr., have a long history of support for educational institutions, including the University of Virginia where they established the Batten Institute at the Darden School of Business and the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Mrs. Batten attended Hollins University. She has three children and six grandchildren.

Ellen H. Block

Ellen Block is a registered occupational therapist, small business owner, and an active philanthropist engaged in a wide range of societal and community-related issues locally, nationally and globally. She is Chair of the Board of Overseers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, and serves on the Board of Overseers of the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and the Boards of the University of Chicago Medical Center, the Toy Industry Foundation, the Steering Committee of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, and the American Jewish Joint (JDC) Distribution Committee. She has also served as Chair of the Hasbro Children’s Foundation, a director of the Taylor Institute Think Tank on Urban Issues, and co-Founder and Chair of the September 11th Children’s Fund. In recognition of her philanthropic leadership, Ms. Block was named one of “100 Women Making a Difference” by Today’s Chicago Woman magazine, and has received many awards including the Children’s Aid Society’s Charles Loring Brace Award, the National Hannah Solomon Award, and the 2010 TAGIE Humanitarian Award. Ms. Block is a graduate of Tufts University and received an Honorary Doctorate from the Audrey Cohen College for Social Research.

Amanda Brown

Amanda Brown was a Vice President in Corporate Finance at Lehman Brothers, where she worked for six years. After investment banking, she did interior design work in New York before moving to Charlottesville, Virginia. She has served on numerous non-profit boards, including the Brearley School, St. Anne’s-Belfield School, Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge, CASA, and the Music Resource Center. Mrs. Brown received her undergraduate degree from Trinity College and her MBA from Columbia University.

Jessica Che-yi Chao

Jessica Che-yi Chao was born and raised in Taipei. She received her Bachelor’s degree from National Taiwan University and her M.B.A from Columbia University. Jessica has worked in different capacities in the financial industry for 15 years, across banking, equity research and strategic investment. Most recently she was an Executive Director of Firmwide Strategy at Goldman Sachs (Asia) based in Hong Kong. She now resides in Taipei.

Garry Choy, MD, MBA

Dr. Garry Choy is Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Clinical Systems in the Office of Medical Affairs at UnitedHealth Group, a multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Minnesota. In this role, he focuses on advancing the application of clinically focused technology for the enterprise. Dr. Choy has led innovations in clinical quality improvement and decision support, provider data management, credentialing, population health, analytics, and machine learning at organizations including Massachusetts General Hospital and CredSimple/Andros. He previously served as faculty at Harvard Medical School and completed his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Choy received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, MS in Operations Research and Economic-Engineering Systems from Stanford University, and MBA from Johns Hopkins University.

Senator Thomas A. Daschle

Senator Daschle has participated in the development and debate of almost every major public policy issue of the last three decades. In 1978, he was elected to the US House of Representatives, where he served for eight years. In 1986, he was elected to the US Senate and was chosen as Senate Democratic Leader in 1994. He now leads The Daschle Group, a Public Policy Advisory of Baker Donelson in Washington, DC, where he advises clients on a broad array of key national issues. Senator Daschle is Chair of the board of directors at the Center for American Progress and the National Democratic Institute and serves on the boards of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, the LBJ Foundation, and the World Food Program USA. He is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. After graduating from South Dakota State University in 1969, he served as an intelligence officer in the US Air Force Strategic Command for three years.

Marguerite Davis

Marguerite Davis is owner of Davis, Uniquely Beautiful Jewelry, a fine jewelry boutique in Richmond, Virginia. She is currently in a leadership position on the Foundation Board for the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering and has served on the Board of the Virginia Engineering Foundation at The University of Virginia and the Board of Trustees for Hampden Sydney College. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the Gemological Institute of America.

Norwood H. Davis, Jr.

Norwood Davis is Managing Director of CMD Management, LLC. He is the former Chairman and CEO of Trigon Healthcare and a former director of a number of other public and privately held companies. Mr. Davis has held leadership positions with numerous nonprofit boards, including Hampden-Sydney College, the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research, the Miller Center of Public Affairs, the Metropolitan Richmond Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Richmond Business Hall of Fame. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Virginia School of Law and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Andrew von Eschenbach, MD

Dr. von Eschenbach currently serves as President of Samaritan Health Initiatives, Inc., and as an Adjunct Professor at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is the former Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration and former Director of National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. He is the former President of the American Cancer Society and was a founding member of the National Dialog on Cancer. In 2006, TIME Magazine named him one of the “100 most influential people to shape the world,” and he was selected in both 2007 and 2008 as one of the Modern Healthcare/Modern Physician’s “50 Most Powerful Physician Executives in Healthcare.” He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA and Bausch Health, and he is a Histosonics shareholder. Dr. von Eschenbach received his undergraduate degree from St. Joseph’s University and his MD from Georgetown University.

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel is a musician who founded the band Genesis with a group of friends from school. Since leaving the band in 1975, he has pursued a solo career releasing albums and film scores. In 1980, he founded WOMAD (World of Music Arts and Dance), which has presented 170 festivals in over 30 countries. In 1992, Peter founded Witness.org, pioneering the use of cameras and technology in human rights work. He also founded theElders.org with Nelson Mandela and Richard Branson in 2001, to bring together a respected group of world leaders, whose influence stems not from political, economic or military power, but from experience, integrity, and wisdom. Peter’s other work interests have been in innovative technology, especially in digital media, audio, music, visual language, and more recently, healthcare.

Alicia García Herrero, PhD

Alicia García Herrero, PhD, is chief economist for Asia Pacific at the French investment bank Natixis. Based in Hong Kong, Dr. García Herrero is also an independent Board Member of AGEAS insurance group and adjunct professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She is a Senior Fellow at both the European think-tank BRUEGEL and the East Asian Institute of the National University Singapore. Throughout her career in economics, Dr. García Herrero has held positions at leading international banks, including Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, the Bank of International Settlements, the Bank of Spain, the European Central Bank, Banco Santander, and the International Monetary Fund. She has also been a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University, China Europe International Business School, and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. She holds a PhD in economics from George Washington University and has published extensively in refereed journals and books.

Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg is one of a very elite group of artists who have won the Grammy, the Academy Award, the Golden Globe, the Emmy, and a Tony. She is also a prolific producer, entrepreneur, and is well-known around the world for her many humanitarian endeavors.

David R. Goode

David R. Goode retired from Norfolk Southern after 13 years as Chairman and CEO. In addition to the railroad, he served as director for several companies, including Caterpillar, Delta Air Lines, Texas Instruments and Georgia Pacific. Mr. Goode has been an advocate for the arts and was national chair for the Business Committee for the Arts. He is currently a Trustee of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and is an Emeritus Trustee of Monticello, which owns and operates Monticello, where he was Vice Chairman for several years. Mr. Goode lives in Norfolk and Key West with his wife, Susan, who is herself well-known as an advocate for the arts and history. The Goodes have two daughters and three grandchildren. Mr. Goode received degrees from Duke University and Harvard Law School.

Molly Hardie

Molly Hardie is co-chairman of H7 Holdings, LLC, a private family investment company that takes significant positions in various asset classes. She is involved in a variety of investments, most notably Keswick Hall in Keswick, Virginia, and The Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. She also oversees H7 Holdings ownership of Clover Hill, LLC, a working cattle farm in Keswick. Ms. Hardie has served on the board of several local organizations, including the Virginia Discovery Museum, The University of Virginia (UVA) Health Foundation, and the Peabody School. She currently serves on the board of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and is a member of the Albemarle Garden Club. She is an alumna of Dartmouth College and the UVA Medical School.

Diane Heller

Diane Heller lives in Chicago, where she is involved in many foundations and beautification efforts in the city. Mrs. Heller and her late husband David, who died in 2012, generously supported the building of the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. The Diane and David B. Heller Charitable Foundation is a major supporter and early co-sponsor of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. Mrs. Heller attended the Art Institute of Chicago, majoring in art history.

Robert J. Hugin

Bob Hugin is a leading biopharmaceutical executive and the former Chairman and CEO of Celgene Corporation. He is currently a Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and Chair of The Darden School Foundation at the University of Virginia, and an Emeritus Charter Trustee of Princeton University. Bob also serves as a Director of Chubb Ltd., and Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd., and on the Boards of the nonprofit Garden State Initiative and Family Promise. Prior to joining Celgene, Bob was a Managing Director with J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc. The first in his family to attend college, Bob received an AB degree from Princeton University in 1976 and an MBA from the University of Virginia in 1985. He served as a Marine Corps infantry officer during the intervening period. Bob and his family reside in New Jersey.

Rowland Illing, DM, MRCS, FRCR

Dr. Rowland Illing serves as Chief Medical Officer and Director of Public Sector Health International for Amazon Web Services. He is responsible for public sector health care strategy and delivery of the digital arm of Amazon Web Services internationally. He is an Honorary Associate Professor at University College London, who trained at both Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Dr. Illing is a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists, and a Senior and Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management in the UK. He is also a founder member of the Society of Interventional Oncology and continues to present and publish on topics including digital healthcare and artificial intelligence (AI). He is also a member of the Digital Health Roster of Experts for the World Health Organization (WHO) and a member of the European AI Alliance for the European Commission. Trained as an interventional radiologist, Dr. Illing treated patients with focused ultrasound during his medical career and is knowledgeable, experienced, and passionate about the technology.

Mary Lou Jepsen, PhD

Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen is CEO, Founder and Chair of the Board of Openwater, a San Francisco-based medical laser imaging device technology company. She also serves as a Director on both the Board of Lear Corporation, a Fortune 150 automotive components supplier, and Luminar Technologies a pioneer in LiDAR and autonomous driving. As a prolific inventor and entrepreneur, Dr. Jepsen has been named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine (“Time 100”), in addition to CNN’s top 10 thinkers in science and technology. She has over 200 patents published or issued to her name. Previously, Dr. Jepsen served as the Executive Director of Engineering at Facebook, Inc. and Head of Display Technologies at Oculus, and she has also held similar roles at Google, Inc. and X (formerly Google[x]). Prior to this, Dr. Jepsen was a professor at MIT and co-founded the nonprofit organization “One Laptop per Child,” for which she served as CTO and lead architect on design, cost-down, and scale components for the $100 laptops that were successfully shipped to millions of children in the developing world. Dr. Jepsen received her PhD in Optical Physics as well as her ScB in Electrical Engineering and Studio Art from Brown University.

Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen is an inventor, entrepreneur and a tireless advocate for science and technology. He holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents, many of them for innovative medical devices that have expanded the frontiers of health care worldwide. In 1976, he founded his first medical device company, AutoSyringe, Inc., to manufacture and market the world’s first wearable infusion pump, which he had invented while still a college undergraduate. He later founded DEKA Research & Development Corporation to develop internally-generated inventions as well as to provide research and development for major corporate clients. Kamen led DEKA’s development of such devices as the HomeChoice™ peritoneal dialysis system, the iBOT™ mobility device, and the Segway® Human Transporter. Kamen has received many awards, including the National Medal of Technology in 2000 and the 2002 Lemelson-MIT Prize, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005. One of Dean’s proudest accomplishments is founding FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization dedicated to motivating the next generation to understand, use, and enjoy science and technology. Founded in 1989, this year FIRST® will serve more than 1 million young people, ages 6 to 18, in more than 86 countries around the globe.

Ann Kingston

Ann Kingston is an artist manager and head of philanthropic initiatives for Red Light Management, where she works with the company’s clients to form strategic partnerships with non-profits on local and national levels, assists bands in using their voices to effect positive change, and helps produce large-scale benefit concerts. In addition to her philanthropic role, Mrs. Kingston also manages South African folksinger, poet-activist Vusi Mahlasela, and is a part of the management team for Dave Matthews Band. A graduate of the University of Virginia, she and her husband live in Charlottesville with their two young boys.

Jonna Hiestand Mendez

Jonna Mendez is a retired CIA intelligence officer with 27 years of service. She joined the CIA’s Office of Technical Service (OTS) in early 1970, providing the agency with the technical wherewithal to facilitate its operations around the globe. A specialist in clandestine photography, her duties included training the CIA’s most highly placed foreign assets in the use of spy cameras, and processing the intelligence they gathered. Upon her retirement in 1993, she had risen to the position of Chief of Disguise and earned the CIA’s Intelligence Commendation Medal. Jonna has since continued her career as a fine art photographer, a consultant/lecturer, and an author. Today she works in her photo studio at the family gallery in Maryland. She and her late husband, Antonio J. Mendez, collaborated on the book Spy Dust about their work against the Soviets in Moscow during the Cold War. She also worked closely with her husband in the writing of ARGO. Jonna is a founding board member at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C and also serves as Vice President of the La Gesse Foundation, under the auspices of the Princess Cecilia de Medici, presenting American pianists in Europe and at Carnegie Hall in partnership with Catholic University. She is on the board of the Barbara Ingram School for the Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland, and is a board member of Breast Cancer Awareness, Cumberland Valley.

Paula F. Newcomb

Mrs. Newcomb is the President of Expedition Trust Company, a South Dakota chartered private trust company with an office in Charlottesville. She was formerly the President of VNB Trust, N.A., having joined Virginia National Bank in February 2006 in anticipation of the formation of the Trust Bank. From 1993 to 2004 she served as Director of Development and Public Affairs for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the private nonprofit organization that owns and operates Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. She was Vice President for Development and University Relations at the University of Redlands from 1986 until the end of 1991. Mrs. Newcomb spent the first nine years of her development career at St. Lawrence University. Mrs. Newcomb was a founding director of Charlottesville Tomorrow, and has also served as a director and chairman of Piedmont CASA. She is currently a Big Sister volunteer. A native of Denver, Colorado, she received the AB from Franklin and Marshall College in 1977.

Mo KC Pritzker

Mo KC Pritzker is a serial entrepreneur and futurist with a knack for discovering emerging social movements. In 1998, she co-founded Ammo Marketing, a pioneer in influencer marketing that served a roster of Fortune 500 clients, including Levi’s, Nike, Method Home, and Pepsi UK. She is also successful in the food and dining entrepreneurial space, having launched Seed + Salt, one of the first vegan/plant-based fast casual dining concepts in the US, and Five Suns Food to introduce chocho globally. She is also co-founder of re-origin, an online neuroplasticity program and coaching community created to help people overcome chronic conditions such as depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, food/chemical sensitivities, and more. Ms. Pritzker and her companies have been featured in top media outlets, including Fortune, Elle, SF Chronicle, Well + Good, New York Magazine, Vogue, goop, Bon Appetit, The Food Network, ABC, WebMD, Healthline, and PBS Worldwide. She was named by Origin. Magazine as one of the top 100 people changing the world. She serves on the Boards of ReImagine and Inploration.

Thomas A. Scully

Tom Scully is a general partner with Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, the most active US private equity investor in healthcare. Before entering private equity, Mr. Scully was the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), from 2001 to 2004. He had an instrumental role in designing and passing Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage legislation and initiated the first public reporting and disclosure for comparative quality among hospitals and other healthcare providers. Mr. Scully was also President and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents 1,500 privately owned hospitals. He earned his BA from the University of Virginia and his JD from Catholic University.

Charles H. Seilheimer, Jr.

Charlie Seilheimer was founder, President, and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty Corporation, the largest marketer of luxury residential estate and farm property in the world. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and The George Washington University Law School. He and his wife, Mary Lou, are collectors of American paintings and furniture of the 18th and 19th centuries and reside at Mount Sharon Farm, outside Orange, where they have created extensive gardens, open by invitation to groups and the public. Mr. Seilheimer has served on numerous business and charitable boards reflecting a broad range of interests in the arts, banking, historic preservation, land conservation, medicine, education, history, and the sport of steeplechasing.

Mary Lou Seilheimer

Mary Lou Seilheimer lives in Orange, Virginia, at Mount Sharon Farm, where she manages her extensive gardens, which are opened on a limited basis to groups from throughout the world. Mrs. Seilheimer is the past President and remains on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Orange. She serves on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Central Virginia. Mrs. Seilheimer has also been active with the Garden Club of Virginia, serving in a number of capacities including as Co-Chairman of a $2,000,000 campaign for the restoration and expansion of its Headquarters in Richmond; Chairman of the Finance Committee; Vice President; and Chairman of the Restoration Committee, which designates the recipients of Historic Garden Week in Virginia proceeds. For 10 years, she served as Chairman of the board of the Highland School, Warrenton, Virginia, and she served on the Board of the Jack Morton Company, now a division of the Interpublic Group of Companies. Mrs. Seilheimer is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Sweet Briar College with a degree in mathematics. She and her husband Charlie have two children and four grandchildren.

Nora Seilheimer

Nora Seilheimer is Director of Advancement at the Piedmont Environmental Council. She served as the Foundation’s Chief Advancement Officer from 2015 to 2021 and oversaw all fundraising activities for the organization, including major gifts, special events, and donor communication. She previously worked in development at the Montpelier Foundation, her alma mater St. Anne’s-Belfield School, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Nora serves on the Board of Managers for the Foxfield Races. She is a 1999 graduate of the University of Richmond where she majored in English Literature with a minor in Art History.

Alice H. Siegel

Alice Siegel is a philanthropic and community leader living in Richmond, Virginia. She has served on numerous school and nonprofit boards, including “Access Now,” connected with the Richmond Academy of Medicine; Old St. John’s Church Restoration in King William, Virginia; and The National Council of Stratford Hall. She is the founder of The Bizarre Bazaar, which supports Richmond-area nonprofits by hosting twice-yearly retail gift shows featuring high-quality artisan products. After graduating with a BA in Biology from Hollins University, she became a research assistant first at Sloan Kettering in New York, then in pediatric immunology at the University of Virginia, and finally with the heart transplant team at The Medical College of Virginia. Alice is the widow of John Tyler Siegel, the founder of Thompson, Siegel and Walmsley LLC, an investment firm in Richmond, Virginia. She and her husband have restored several homes, farms and gardens in Virginia. Chericoke, in King William, VA has been open for Historic Garden Week in Virginia and other fundraising events. She has three children and nine grandchildren.

Lorraine Spurge

Lorraine Spurge has more than 40 years of business and financial experience and is the Senior Managing Partner of Hamilton Wealth Group, LLC (HWG), a multi-family office that invests in growth companies. In the 1980s and 1990s, she rose to be one of the most successful women on Wall Street, raising more than $200 billion as a senior member of the capital markets group for Drexel Burnham Lambert. She helped finance MCI Communications, McCaw Cellular, Newscorp, AOL/TimeWarner, Lorimar-Telepictures, Healthtrust, Charter Medical, Safeway Stores, and RJR Nabisco. Ms. Spurge has been a serial entrepreneur and CEO at International Capital Access, Knowledge Exchange, Spurge Ink!, and Maplestone Capital Advisors. She and her husband helped build the asset management business for several investment firms, including Metropolitan West Financial, Post Advisory Group, and Guggenheim Partners. She is an active motivational speaker, an author, and a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Business Journal. Ms. Spurge currently serves on the boards of EEM, Involvy, Nupulse, and Working Nation, and is a mentor for Women in America. She is an emeritus board member of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and has served on the Board of the Geffen Playhouse as well as the Board of Advisors for George Washington University.

Allan C. Stam, PhD

Allan C. Stam, PhD, is the former Dean of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Previously, he was Director of the International Policy Center at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science and Senior Research Scientist at the University of Michigan. Prior to moving to Michigan in 2007, he was the Daniel Webster Professor at Dartmouth College (2000-2007), Visiting Professor at Harvard University (2004) and Assistant Professor at Yale University (1996-2000). Before completing his undergraduate degree at Cornell University in 1988 where he earned a varsity letter in heavyweight crew, he served as a communications specialist on an ‘A’ detachment in the U.S. Army Special Forces. He served later as an armor officer in the US Army Reserves. He holds an MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan. His research focuses on the dynamics of armed conflict and political leadership. His work on war outcomes, war durations, mediation, and alliance politics appears in numerous political science journals, including the American Political Science Review, International Security, and International Organization. He has received several grants supporting his work, including five from the National Science Foundation. His books include Democracies at War (Princeton University Press, 2002) and Why Leaders Fight (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and recipient of the 2004 Karl Deutsch award, given annually by the International Studies Association to the scholar under the age of 40 who has made the greatest contribution to the study of international politics.

Fredericka Stevenson

Fredi Stevenson is chair emeritus and cofounder of Summer Search Boston—an organization whose mission is to identify low-income high school youth who demonstrate resiliency in overcoming hardship and the desire to help others. She is a member of the National Summer Search Board, Smithsonian Institution National Board, NPR Foundation Board, WBUR Board of Overseers, and on the boards of The Cambridge Center for Adult Education and the Fellows of the Harvard Art Museums. She is married to Howard Stevenson. She has four daughters and three stepsons.

Howard H. Stevenson

Howard Stevenson is the Sarofim-Rock Baker Foundation Professor and Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School, and Director of Publishing and Chair of the board for Harvard Business Publishing Company. He has served in various leadership positions at Harvard during the last 35 years, including as the Vice Provost for Harvard University Resources and Planning. Stevenson has been involved with a number of public and privately held companies, including the Baupost Group, Inc.; Camp Dresser & McKee Inc.; Preco Corporation; and Simmons Associates. He has authored, edited or co-authored 11 books and 42 articles. He has served in leadership positions on several nonprofit boards including the Boston Ballet, Sudbury Valley Trustees, National Public Radio, Mount Auburn Hospital, and the Nature Conservancy. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard University.

Bernice Szeto

Bernice Szeto has worked in the finance industry for 20 years in various capacities across family office, private equity and investment banking. Bernice currently heads the strategic development efforts at Olympus Capital Asia, a Pan Asian private equity and private credit investment firm. She is also a consultant to a few single family offices in Asia. Her previous roles include being a Managing Director at Peace Field Ltd., where she headed Peace Field’s placement team and led deal sourcing efforts, and also as the Chief of Staff and Head of Fundraising at FountainVest, a Greater China private equity firm. Prior to that, Bernice was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs and an investment professional at Sun Hung Kai Properties family office as well at PAMA, a Pan-Asian private equity firm. Bernice graduated magna cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Economics, and graduated with distinction from the University of Hong Kong with a master’s degree in International and Public Affairs. In her spare time, Bernice enjoys pursuing personal growth opportunities and doing life coaching and meditation. She also took a sabbatical from finance to teach at Diocesan Girls’ School in Hong Kong. Bernice currently resides in Hong Kong.

Stefan Vilsmeier

Vilsmeier is founder and CEO of Brainlab, a global medical software and hardware company dedicated to improving access to and consistency of medical treatments to improve patient outcomes. A self-taught computer programmer, Vilsmeier wrote a book on 3D Graphics at age 17, and it became a bestseller in its category. In 1989, while enrolled at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, Vilsmeier used the proceeds from the book to establish Brainlab GmbH. Today, Brainlab focuses on treatments that are more precise, less invasive, and less expensive than traditional methods. The company offers technology in the fields of radiotherapy and radiosurgery; image-guided craniomaxillofacial, ENT, orthopedic, spine, trauma, and neurosurgery; intraoperative imaging; integrated operating room solutions; and planning as well as medical image sharing and enhancement. Vilsmeier has been recognized as an entrepreneur and for his contributions to economic growth. He was selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Leaders for Tomorrow 2003’ and World Entrepreneur of the Year 2002 by Ernst & Young. In 2018, Vilsmeier was appointed to the advisory board for SME of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy and the German Chancellor’s Innovation Dialogue.

Claude Wasserstein

Claude Wasserstein is the founder and CEO of Fine Day Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in innovative and impactful technology, specifically fintech, medtech, aerospace, cybersecurity, AI, and energy. Born in France, Ms. Wasserstein is a graduate of Sweet Briar College’s class of 1982 and attended graduate school at the Sorbonne and the Ecole du Louvre in Paris. She began her career as a journalist for Newsweek, working out of the publication’s Paris bureau. Prior to her investment career, Ms. Wasserstein was a producer for CBS News, where she worked in the network’s Dubai, Belfast, London, and Paris bureaus. During her time at CBS News, she won an Emmy for an investigative series. Ms. Wasserstein is a trustee of the King Hussein Cancer Center Foundation and the American Hospital in Paris Foundation; a member of the Metropolitan Museum International Council and the Brookings Institution; and a life trustee at WNET Channel 13. She is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and Harvard’s Global Advisory Council and was recently awarded France’s Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. She resides in New York City.

Carolyn Yeh

Carolyn Yeh worked mainly in finance, at Permira Advisers, a global private equity firm headquartered in London, at the Global Special Situations Group at Citigroup Global Markets Asia, and in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs Asia. She was also a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. Carolyn is now the vice president of the Yale Club of Hong Kong, volunteers her time with several institutions, and serves on the board of a couple of non-profit organizations. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

The Foundation would also like to recognize the following deceased members of its Council:
Edgar M. Bronfman

Alice W. Handy
Antonio J. Mendez
Aaron Stern MD, PhD
Jane Tolleson