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MEET OUR BOARD
Michael Festa (Board Chair)
Chief Transformation Officer
Conduent
Michael Festa (Board Chair)
Michael Festa is the chief financial officer for Xerox Services. He was named to this position in January 2012. Festa was appointed as corporate vice president of Xerox in October 2010. In this position, Festa oversees financial operations for the Services Business Group ensuring adequate internal controls, financial discipline and integrity.
Prior to this appointment, Festa was vice president of business transformation, finance, mergers and acquisitions for the Xerox Global Customer Operations Group. He managed Xerox’s acquisition investments, valuation analysis and negotiations as well as the company’s intellectual property operations. In addition, he was responsible for driving Global Customer Operations infrastructure and business transformation initiatives, including managed print services, remote services and offering simplification.
Festa joined Xerox in 1990 and has held a variety of positions in finance, which includes serving as chief financial officer of both Xerox Europe and Developing Markets Operations, finance executive for the Production Systems Group, and director of corporate financial planning and analysis. Before joining Xerox, he served as a manager at Deloitte and Touche.
Festa holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Seton Hall University and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Ann Davison (Board Vice-Chair)
Director, Public Sector Division
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Ann Davison (Board Vice-Chair)
Ann Davison has an accomplished career as a communications and public affairs advisor to elected officials, government program officers, corporate executives, trade association and nonprofit leaders. She is recognized for creating impact-focused public education campaigns, bringing fresh insights to citizen engagement challenges and driving multiple stakeholders towards common goals.
Ann currently serves as a Director in the Public Sector division of PricewaterhouseCooper where she advises federal agencies and large nonprofit institutions on strategies to more effectively engage the public and key stakeholders. She was recently selected to help lead a team providing public relations and crisis management counsel to U.S. Census Bureau in preparation for the 2020 Decennial with the goal of maximizing public participation.
Ann spent 15 years of her career as a senior leader with two of the nation’s leading public relations firms. As the Chair of the U.S. Public Affairs and Crisis Practice at Burson-Marsteller, Ann led an award-winning crisis management and reputation recovery campaign for the first U.S. hospital to diagnose a patient with Ebola and was invited by the Rockefeller Foundation to share learnings at an international gathering of crisis communications professionals. At Fleishman-Hillard, Ann led ground-breaking integrated communications campaigns to improve public health on behalf of federal government agencies and with private sector clients to create signature corporate citizenship programs and thought leadership platforms with a focus on sustainability and education.
Ann’s public sector experience includes serving as an advisor to EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner in the Clinton-Gore Administration, managing an interagency task force on food safety reform. She regularly briefed Cabinet Members, Congressional staff and media on EPA initiatives and was detailed to the Office of the Vice President to lead communications for a ground-breaking international science and environmental education program.
Prior to joining the Administration, Ann provided legislative counsel and constituent relations support for Florida Senators Lawton Chiles and Bob Graham.
A graduate of Duke University (BA) and Johns Hopkins University (MA), Ann is the Development Committee Chair for the Duke University Student Publishing Company and a leader with Women in Government Relations.
Chris Efessiou, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
SRxA Strategic Pharmaceutical Advisors
Chris Efessiou, PhD
Chris Efessiou is the Founder and CEO of SRxA-Strategic Pharmaceutical Advisors and Affiliated Companies, a life sciences strategic consulting, marketing, and communication company, and the former co-founder and CEO of Strategic Biosciences, a pharmaceutical development company.
Chris Efessiou is a senior business leader and top revenue driver with over twenty years of success in product development, strategic product introduction, engineering the turnaround of products lagging in the marketplace, and driving 36 new products to market. An expert at leadership and corporate development, creating and implementing winning marketing strategies and driving profitability and growth. As an aggressive entrepreneur, he led eight new companies to sustainable profitability, all in their first year of operation, and positioned them for subsequent merger or sale.
Prior to his pharmaceutical career, he directed the Continuing Education Division at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, a Tufts Medical School Affiliate, and developed the hospital’s first Out-Patient Respiratory Care Clinic. His experience includes clinical practice in Critical Respiratory Care and Extracorporeal Circulation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Cardiac Anesthesia Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital, both affiliates of Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is Board Certified and Registered by the American Board for Respiratory Care.
While building his first company, he found himself raising his then seven-year-old daughter as a single dad by applying his business knowledge to the art of parenting. Planning, setting expectations and measuring results, building team unity and empowerment, fostering bilateral communication, mentoring, leading by example and being physically present and emotionally available are essential components for both a prosperous business and loving family. Chris shares his experience and findings in his widely acclaimed book CDO Chief Daddy Officer: The Business of Fatherhood.
He is an international speaker on Leadership, Negotiation and Management topics, he serves on numerous non-profit and business related Boards, including the Small Business Council of the United States Chamber of Commerce, and is an evaluator of The European Union – European Commission’s Directorate General for Information Society and Media.
William M. Genovese
VP, Corporate Strategy Research & Planning
Huawei Technologies
William M. Genovese
William (Bill) Genovese is a Senior Technology Executive with over 24 years of experience, and has held a variety of Executive Leadership positions such as Vice President of Strategy, CIO, CTO, Principal Adviser, Executive Architect, Senior Manager and Senior Consultant. Bill is currently Vice President- Corporate Strategy Research and Planning – Banking, Financial Markets and IT Services for Huawei Technologies, in Shenzhen, China. Prior to joining Huawei, Bill spent most of his career with IBM, KPMG, and Wells Fargo Bank working in living in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas.
He has a proven track record comprised of leadership through consulting, design, and implementation of Enterprise IT systems on an enterprise scale for global organizations. His passion includes raising architectural maturity for organizations by aligning business and technical strategy, and leading and inspiring people to deliver outcomes and drive increased performance. He has a high level of expertise including business engagement and technical leadership with a proven ability to partner, execute, and deliver cross-enterprise portfolio level initiatives focused on the convergence of data and analytics, digitization, and cloud computing through Enterprise Architecture.
Bill has his Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Western Connecticut State University, and he has attended the University of Connecticut with a concentration in Business and Finance, and has completed continuous technical education, as a instructor, mentor, coach and student, and he holds a number of technical certifications.
Stephanie Karsten (Advisory Council Chair)
Vice President
Humanitas, Inc.
Stephanie Karsten (Advisory Council Chair)
Stephanie Karsten is a Certified Management Consultant with expertise in public health program and policy management. She has directed projects for Federal and nonprofit public health organizations for 40 years, specializing in US Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Service programs. Her clients for this organization have included the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the National Institutes of Health. Her expertise in planning, organizing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating public health initiatives underpins the practical, how-to approaches her teams have recommended. Ms. Karsten is particularly skilled in collaborating with clients and the populations they serve to fashion useful, usable results. Products of the contracts and grants she has managed have run the gamut from print materials (such as reports and educational aids) to software solutions and conferences. She has served as Vice President and Principal in charge of initiating and building successful public health consulting practices for three small businesses over a 40-year period. Ms. Karsten’s special interests in the public health arena are primary prevention, child health, and minority health issues.
Prior to her consulting career, Ms. Karsten was a community organizer for the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. As Research Associate in the nation’s first Office of Child Health Advocacy, she led an award-winning organization to eliminate childhood lead poisoning in Washington, D.C. This Committee for Lead Elimination Action in DC (LEAD), comprising 65 representatives of 35 local public and private organizations, successfully addressed housing, health, education, and environmental aspects of the problem and was named Organization of the Year by the Washington Area Public Health Association. Before this assignment Ms. Karsten worked in publications and public relations capacities for the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Center and the American Medical Association.
Ms. Karsten earned a BS in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, and a Masters in Health Services Administration from the George Washington University. She was designated a Certified Management Consultant in 1991 by the Institute of Management Consultants and currently serves as CMC Emeritus.
Ms. Karsten is married to David Karsten and lives in Washington, DC, and Belfast, Maine. Her daughter, Amanda Karsten Hirsch, and her family live in Brooklyn, New York.
Husseini K. Manji, MD, FRCPC
Global Therapeutic Head for Neuroscience, Janssen R&D
Johnson & Johnson
Husseini K. Manji, MD, FRCPC
Husseini K. Manji, MD, FRCPC is Global Therapeutic Head for Neuroscience at Janssen Research & Development, LLC, one of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical companies. He is also Visiting Professor at Duke University. Dr. Manji was previously Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology & Experimental Therapeutics at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Director of the NIH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, the largest program of its kind in the world.
The major focus of Dr. Manji’s world-renowned research is the investigation of disease- and treatment-induced changes in gene and protein networks that regulate synaptic and neural plasticity in neuropsychiatric disorders. His work has helped to conceptualize these illnesses as genetically-influenced disorders of synaptic and neural plasticity and has led to the investigation of novel therapeutics for refractory patients. Dr. Manji has also been actively involved in developing biomarkers to help refine these multifactoral diseases.
Dr. Manji has received a number of prestigious awards, including the NIMH Director’s Career Award for Significant Scientific Achievement, the A. E. Bennett Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the Ziskind-Somerfeld Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the NARSAD Mood Disorders Prize, the Mogens Schou Distinguished Research Award, the ACNP’s Joel Elkes Award for Distinguished Research, the DBSA Klerman Senior Distinguished Researcher Award, the American Federation for Aging Research Award of Distinction, and the Global Health & the Arts Award of Recognition. In 2017, he was recognized as one of 14 inaugural “Health Heroes” by Oprah magazine.
Dr. Manji has been inducted into the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) and has held numerous leadership positions within the IOM, the NIH Biomarkers Neuroscience Steering Committee, the ACNP, and the Society of Biological Psychiatry.
Throughout his career, Dr. Manji has also been committed to undertakings related to medical and neuroscience education and has worked with the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholars Program, and numerous national curriculum committees. He founded and co-directed the NIH Foundation for the Advanced Education in the Sciences Graduate Course in the Neurobiology of Neuropsychiatric Illness, and has received several teaching and mentoring awards. In addition to serving on the editorial board of numerous journals, Dr. Manji has been Editor of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, Deputy Editor of Biological Psychiatry, and Associate Editor of Bipolar Disorders.
Tekedra Mawakana
Chief External Officer
Waymo
Tekedra Mawakana
Tekedra N. Mawakana is the Chief External Officer (CXO) at Waymo — an Alphabet company, formerly the Google Self-Driving Car project. In this role, Tekedra heads Waymo’s external engagement organization, leading the teams responsible for public policy and government relations, public affairs, marketing, communications, social initiatives and corporate social responsibility. She sets the strategic vision for ensuring this emerging, transformational technology can be tested, commercialized and widely adopted by consumers.
Tekedra is an expert in navigating complex high-profile reputational issues. She has more than two decades of experience advising some of the best-known consumer technology companies on how to advance their business interests around the world. She has led global teams at eBay, Yahoo, AOL and Startec Global Communications. She started her career at the law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP.
Tekedra currently serves on the Board of Industry Leaders for the Consumer Technology Association, and as a member of the Executive Committee on the Board of Saving Promise. Previously, she served as the Chairman of the Board of the Internet Association, and on the eBay Foundation Board. In 2016, she was recognized as a Visionary Leader by ALM and InsideCounsel. In 2015, she was recognized by the Washingtonian magazine as a Tech Titan — top 100 tech influencer.
Tekedra received her JD from Columbia Law School and her BA with honors from Trinity College. She loves the sunshine, a good outdoor festival, cooking and writing. She lives in California with her husband and son.
Eddie GM Power, PhD, MBA
VP, North America Medical Affairs, Hospital Business
Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group
Eddie GM Power, PhD, MBA
Dr. Eddie Power is currently the Vice President, North America Medical Affairs, Hospital Business at Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group and has held positions of increasing responsibility during his career in the pharmaceutical industry. He started at Pfizer in September 2010 as the Team Leader, US Medical Affairs Infectious Diseases in SCBU, before assuming the position of Group Leader, US Medical Affairs, Vaccines and Infectious Diseases in 2012 and Head, US Medical Affairs, Vaccines in 2014. Before joining Pfizer, Eddie served as the Global Medical Director for Cubist Pharmaceuticals since 2008, working internationally with alliance partners to develop Medical Affairs strategies for Cubist’s anti-infective portfolio. Previously, Eddie was the Therapy Area head at Schering-Plough leading the Anti-Infectives/Virology/Addiction Medicine portfolio in Global Medical Affairs. He was also with Bayer Healthcare, where he was Director of Global Scientific Affairs, responsible for global opinion leader interactions, scientific communications and overseeing a corporate antimicrobial stewardship program. Prior to joining Bayer in 2002, Eddie was Director, Strategic Microbiology at GlaxoSmithKline supporting GSK’s Infectious Disease portfolio.
Eddie held a faculty position at United Medical and Dental Schools, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals, London, UK. He holds a PhD degree from the Welsh School of Pharmacy, University of Wales and an MBA from Henley Management College, UK, and is a past recipient of the WH Pierce Memorial Prize (UK) for an outstanding contribution to microbiology.
He is married with three children and enjoys sport and cycling in his spare time.
Eileen Walker
Director,
TEDMED Foundation
Eileen Walker
Eileen Walker serves organizations primarily in the areas of education and public health through the lens of an organizational behaviorist. Using her experience and skills from both her formal education and professional experience, she works with not for profit organizations in board or leadership roles to advance their missions.
Eileen serves on the Advisory Council of the Women’s Center of Greater Danbury (Danbury, CT), an organization working to end domestic violence against women, children & men. She also serves on the board of Kids in Crisis (CosCob, CT), an organization that provides round the clock support services to children, teens and their parents for all kind of crises.
Eileen is a director of The TEDMED Foundation, which focuses on advancing knowledge, communications and collaboration on the broad topics of health and medicine.
Ms. Walker is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees of her children’s former school, The Harvey School. In addition, she is a Director of the Ridgefield Visiting Nurse Association, and was Chair of the board from 2009-2013. She serves on the Western Connecticut Health Systems Research Institute Advisory Council in Danbury, CT. She also works in an advisory capacity with Wildlife in Crisis, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Weston, CT.
Eileen has been a trustee of Cornell University since 2009. She serves on the Executive Committee, and chairs the Compensation Committee. She is also a director of eCornell, Cornell’s online education subsidiary. Ms. Walker received her BA and MBA from Cornell.
Ms. Walker is a former IBM human resources executive. During her 18 year career at IBM she successfully engaged in all aspects of human resource management while developing her organizational management skills. She has transferred those skills and tools to the organizations she serves in the not for profit sector.
A lover of gardening, animals and a collector of textile crafts, she is actively engaged in supporting organizations related to wildlife, education and health.
Ms. Walker is married to Jay S. Walker, BS ILR ’77, Chair and CEO of Upside, Curator of TEDMED, the founder and Chairman of Walker Digital and founder of Priceline.com. The Walkers reside in Ridgefield, Connecticut.