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 first Attorney 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.

Claudio Braz Ferro is the Chief Supply Officer and member of the Executive Board of Management for Anheuser-Busch InBev, the leading global brewer. 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 is Chief Operating Officer and a Partner at Reservoir Capital Group, L.L.C., 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 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.

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 companies since 2001. Mbago serves on corporate boards including Seahawk Drilling and 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.

Bob is the Chairman and Founder of GCP Capital L.L.C. which currently manages four private equity funds totaling $1.8 billion in committed capital, consisting of three U.S. private equity funds and a European private equity fund. Bob formed GCP Capital Partners in 2009 as the successor to Greenhill Capital Partners, the merchant banking business of Greenhill & Co., Inc. Bob joined Greenhill & Co. in 2000 to begin the formation of Greenhill Capital Partners and served as its Chairman and Chair of its Investment Committee from 2000 to 2009. Prior to joining Greenhill in 2000, Bob spent 17 years at Morgan Stanley & Co., where he was Managing Director in the merchant banking department from 1990 to 1999. Bob is a Trustee of the Asia Society and serves on the Board of Student Sponsor Partners, Teach for America’s NYC Board of Advisors, and Princeton University Investment Company (‘PRINCO’), which oversees Princeton’s $17 billion endowment. Bob received a B.A. in International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Michael is the Chief Executive Officer of Stroz Friedberg. He was appointed as the firm’s CEO in November 2013. A former chairman of the Americas for management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Michael is responsible for Stroz Friedberg’s global operations and growth strategies. Michael brings decades of international and senior strategic consulting experience to bear, having helped his clients solve their most difficult business problems. He began his career with Fujitsu Australia Limited.

Michael was born in Cyprus and has lived in Australia, Switzerland, the UK, and the U.S. He holds a B.Sc. in computer science and pure mathematics from Sydney University in Australia and received his M.B.A. with distinction from the International Institute of Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (a public company,) Playwrights Horizons Theater Company, and several small technology companies, including Cloudpay, Quid and Vidyo.

Mr. Salim Ramji, Senior Managing Director, is head of BlackRock’s US Wealth Advisory business. He is responsible for leading and executing relationships with wealth management firms and overseeing distribution of active products, iShares and technology services to retail clients.

Salim joined BlackRock in 2014, serving as the Global Head of Corporate Strategy and a member of the Global Executive Committee. Previously, Salim was a senior partner at McKinsey & Company where he led McKinsey’s Asset Management and Retirement practice areas. Before joining McKinsey, Salim was a corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions lawyer in London and Hong Kong.

Salim earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and politics from University of Toronto, a law degree from Cambridge University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He is a trustee of Graham Windham, a New York-based child care agency, in addition to the Touch Foundation.

Ishaan is a Director in the New York Office of McKinsey & Company. He serves a range of clients in the financial institutions and professional services sectors, including investment banks, retail banks, brokerages, insurance companies and audit firms. Ishaan has led a number of major cost and organizational performance transformations across a broad variety of corporate and support functions, with a particular focus on Finance. Ishaan leads the Finance Transformation/CFO service line in the Americas.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Ishaan worked in investment banking with Morgan Stanley & Co. as a senior analyst in their Leveraged Finance group in New York and London. Ishaan has also spent time with wireless start-up Isovia and with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Ishaan has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar (Highest Distinction). He holds a B.A. in History magna cum laude from Harvard University (Phi Beta Kappa).

Marco is the Global Product Manager for Economics and Macro Strategy at UBS. Marco was 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 M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business.

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, skiing, and traveling with his family.

Tom is global head of Securitized and Government/Swaps investment strategies and co-head of the Cross-Sector strategy within the Global Fixed Income team in Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). He is 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 the firm, Tom was the assistant investment officer at Travelers Insurance Group from 1994 to 1997.

Tom serves on the board of the Touch Foundation.

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