President

Lowell Bryan led the effort to create the Touch Foundation and has served as President since inception in 2004. As President and Chairman of the Board, Lowell has worked tirelessly to ensure the success of the organization, thus changing the lives of many in Tanzania.

Lowell retired in January 2012 from McKinsey & Company after 36 years at the firm.  He served as a Director (i.e. senior partner) for 27 of those years.  Over those years he helped found, and lead, McKinsey’s financial institutions practice and its strategy practice.  He consulted to the top management and boards of directors of dozens of financial institutions, healthcare, and industrial clients primarily on issues of strategy and organization.  He has written six books on banking, capital markets, strategy and organizational topics including Race for the World  (about strategies for a global economy) and Mobilizing Minds: Creating Wealth From Talent in the 21st Century (organizing for the 21st Century).

He is a graduate and trustee of Davidson College, where he also established the Bryan Scholar program, a scholarship awarded to outstanding student-athletes. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and served on their board of visitors.

Lowell continues to serve as a Director Emeritus of the firm and continues to provide advice and counsel to the top management and the boards and directors of several large clients on a range of corporate strategy and organizational issues.  He is also a Board member of DST, a public company, Tresata, a private company, and HWC, a private company.

Kevin is a Partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP and the Founding Director of Stroock’s Public Service Project. His responsibilities include management of the program, leading cases, and advising and assisting associates and partners with their pro bono litigation and transactional work. Kevin has handled or supervised a broad range of matters within the Public Service Project, from special education hearings to family and housing court matters, as well as counseling non-profit entities and micro-entrepreneurs. During his tenure, Kevin and the Public Service Project have won dozens of awards from city, state, and national organizations, both public and private, including the American Bar Association and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association. Prior to his 2001 appointment as the Project’s director, Kevin spent more than five years handling a wide range of commercial litigation matters for Stroock. He has written and presented on a broad range of social justice topics and his work has been recognized by two of his alma maters, Dartmouth College (Martin Luther King Jr./Lester B. Granger Lifetime Achievement Award) and Fordham University School of Law (Champion of Justice Award).

Claudio Braz Ferro is a former executive of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the leading global brewer, where he was the Chief Supply Officer and member of the Executive Board of Management. Born in 1955, Claudio is a Brazilian citizen and holds a Degree in Industrial Chemistry from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, and has studied Brewing Science at the Catholic University of Leuven, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.

Celia Felsher currently serves as a consultant to Reservoir Capital Group, L.L.C., a New-York based investment management.  Celia originally joined Reservoir as General Counsel in 1998, and prior to her retirement at the end of 2017, Celia was Chief Operating Officer and a Partner at 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 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.

Parisa Jaffer has over 20 years experience as a media executive at various organizations including Hearst, Condé Nast, and Disney with an expertise in marketing in the fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and wellness areas. She has a BA from Vassar College, and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

Parisa is on the board of Choate Rosemary Hall, and the President’s Advisory Council at Vassar College. Parisa also does pro bono marketing work for the Aga Khan Foundation and The New American Leader’s project.

Claudia is Executive Director, Strategy at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Prior to joining Skadden in 2011, Claudia was a Principal with McKinsey & Company. She was with the firm for nearly 15 years, serving as the head of McKinsey’s Global Professional Services Practice and working in McKinsey’s Financial Services and Organization Practices. Claudia is the co-author of Mobilizing Minds: Creating Wealth From Talent in the 21st Century. She holds an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Mbago Kaniki is CEO of Alva Cogen, a distributed energy company, and CEO of Adansonia Management, a private investment firm.  He has invested in private and public companies since 2001.  Mbago serves on corporate boards including VanDeMark Chemical, and nonprofit boards including Maendeleo and Touch Foundation.  He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mbago was previously a Managing Director and the Head of Strategic Investments at 40 North Industries; a Senior Analyst at Anchorage Capital Group; a Principal at Sageview Capital; a Vice President at The Carlyle Group; and a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company.  He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard University.

Steven Kelmar is Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs, and he serves as Chief of Staff to Aetna’s Chairman. Mr. Kelmar is head of Aetna’s government, regulatory and policy teams; and head of Communications and the Aetna Foundation. He is responsible for managing the Chairman’s Office, as well as leading critical external initiatives related to health care reform and legislative affairs, communications and philanthropy. He reports directly to Aetna Chairman and CEO Mark T. Bertolini and serves on the company’s executive committee.

Prior to Aetna, Mr. Kelmar was head of Global Public Affairs and Policy for Merck and Co., and also served in that capacity for Novartis AG, in Basel, Switzerland. In these roles, he was responsible for setting and driving the public affairs and policy strategies globally for these companies.

Before joining Novartis he served as Senior Vice President, External Relations for Medtronic Inc., for nine years. In this role he led efforts to establish the company as a leading health care technology company. He also had responsibility for corporate planning and established business initiatives that lead to strengthening the company’s therapeutic franchises. Mr. Kelmar also served on the Executive Committee at Novartis and Medtronic.

Mr. Kelmar spent 14 years in public service in several executive positions. In 1990, he was appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be an Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this position, he served as one of the federal government’s chief policymakers during a time of major national reexamination of health care delivery systems.

During his public service career, Mr. Kelmar was Chief of Staff to two Members of the U.S. Congress and also worked in several legislative capacities for Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He has served on the board of several health care companies.

Mr. Kelmar received his Bachelor of Arts in public administration and economics from Pennsylvania State University. He and his wife Patricia have three children.

Robert H. Niehaus is the Chairman and Founder of GCP Capital Partners LLC which currently manages several private equity investment funds totaling $1.5 billion in committed capital.  Mr. Niehaus has worked more than 30 years in the private equity industry, with prior tenure as a Managing Director in the private equity businesses of Morgan Stanley & Co. and Greenhill & Co.  Bob is also a Board member of the Asia Society, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Student Sponsor Partners, and Success Academy Charter Schools. Bob is a graduate of Princeton University and the Harvard Business School.

Michael Patsalos-Fox is Chairman, President & CEO of Vidyo. Michael is formerly CEO of Stroz Friedberg, a trusted cybersecurity and specialized risk management firm, acquired by Aon Risk Solutions in 2016. Prior to Stroz Friedberg, Michael enjoyed a long career at McKinsey & Company where he served as chairman of McKinsey Americas. Michael also served as senior partner on McKinsey’s operating committee for nine years and held a seat on the board for 12 years. In addition to his role as Chairman, President & CEO, Michael currently serves on the boards of several other companies including Cognizant, Quid, and CloudPay. Michael began his career with Fujitsu Australia Limited and holds a B.Sc. in computer science and pure mathematics from Sydney University in Australia. He received his MBA with distinction from International Institute of Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Sean Ryan is a Partner in the New York Office of McKinsey & Company. Since joining McKinsey in 2010, Sean has been serving pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and MedTech companies on a broad range of topics, from corporate strategy, to new product launch and brand acceleration, to business development. Sean leads the McKinsey Pharmaceutical Brand Acceleration service line and serves a broad range of pharmaceutical clients ranging from top 10 global companies to small/mid-cap public and private pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Before joining McKinsey, Sean worked in investment banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Montgomery & Co., LLC. He holds a BA in Physics and Political Science from Colgate University and an MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Ishaan Seth is a Senior Partner in the New York Office of McKinsey & Company and is a leader in the Banking practice.   He serves a range of financial services clients including banks, asset managers, capital markets institutions, credit card issuers and data/financial technology providers.  His client service spans topics across strategy, organizational design, governance, corporate finance, digital, customer experience, marketing, change management, and cost reduction.

Ishaan leads McKinsey’s Financial Services Private Equity Practice where he serves investors across a broad spectrum of diligence, portfolio and turnaround topics.  He also heads McKinsey’s CFO practice globally, and has led multiple transformations to drive efficiency and effectiveness in the front office and in control/support functions.   Ishaan is also the leader of McKinsey’s overall recruiting efforts in North America, and collaborates with the leading colleges and graduate schools across the country in this regard.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Ishaan worked in investment banking for Morgan Stanley in their Leveraged Finance group in New York and London.  His work focused on structuring leveraged buyout debt financing for private equity and corporate clients.  Ishaan has also spent time with a wireless start-up and with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).  Ishaan also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Dalton School in New York City.

Ishaan has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar (Highest Distinction).  He holds a BA in History magna cum laude from Harvard University and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  He lives in New York City with his wife Neda, and two daughters Inaya (8) and Zara (6).

Charbel 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 B.B.A. from the American University of Beirut (1974) and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1976). He then spent 8 years with McKinsey & 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, Charbel spent two years with an investment group. He 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, reading, and traveling with his family.

Tom retired from Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) in 2018, where he was global head of Securitized and Government/Swaps investment strategies and co-head of the Cross-Sector strategy within the Global Fixed Income team. He was also a member of the Fixed Income Strategy Group. Tom joined Goldman Sachs in 1997 as an associate within the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities Division in New York, where he worked in the Research Department and then as a mortgage trader. He joined GSAM in 2000. Tom was named managing director in 2003 and partner in 2006.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Tom was the assistant investment officer at Travelers Insurance Group from 1994 to 1997.

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