Strategic Advisory Council

Shumeet Banerji, PhD

Mr. Banerji served as a senior partner of Booz & Company, (now Strategy&), from May 2012 until his retirement in March 2013. Previously, Mr. Banerji served as Chief Executive Officer of Booz & Company from July 2008 to May 2012. Prior to that, Mr. Banerji served in multiple roles at Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting company and predecessor to Booz & Company, while based in offices in North America, Asia and Europe, including President of the Worldwide Commercial Business from February 2008 to July 2008, Managing Director, Europe from 2007 to February 2008 and Managing Director, United Kingdom from 2003 to 2007.

Mr. Banerji has advised public and private sector entities around the world, serving clients in the financial services, telecoms, technology and media, consumer products and retail, resources, steel, and chemicals industries. He has advised diversified conglomerates, investors, and governments. Typical issues have spanned the entire senior agenda, including corporate strategy, senior organization, board performance, transformational change, operational performance improvement, M&A, and compensation.
He is a frequent speaker at key economic and business conferences around the world including the World Economic Forum and the Global Economic Symposium. For the last few years he has focused on leadership issues in the aftermath of the financial crisis. He is the author of numerous articles and is co-author of Cut Costs and Grow Stronger.

Mr. Banerji serves on the Board of Directors of Hewlett-Packard Company, the Panel of Senior Advisers of Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs) and the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, where he received his Ph.D. He was a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business before joining the firm.

Matthias Bowman

Mr. Bowman founded RCT Logic, LLC in 2008. Previously, he was Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch and Chief Executive Officer of Merrill Lynch Ventures.

Mr. Bowman is a founder of Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust, and has previously served on the Board of Directors of MedAvante, Definity Health, Active Health Management, Borg-Warner Automotive, Del Monte Foods, Supermarkets General Corporation, Teleport Communications Group, and U.S. Foodservice.

Mr. Bowman manages the Bowman Family Foundation. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Mental Health Research Organization (IMHRO) and the Sylvan C. Herman Foundation, and is a member of two Advisory Committees of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Board of Advisors of ACTTION (a public private partnership founded by the FDA which is focused on improving development of analgesic therapies). He was formerly a Trustee, member of the Executive Committee, and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the American Cancer Society Foundation, and a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of NARSAD.

Mr. Bowman attended Williams College, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa in 1969 and graduated summa cum laude in 1970. In 1972 he graduated from the Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar. In recent years he has studied Molecular Biology, Neuroscience and Biostatistics.

Carl Castro, PhD

Dr. Carl Castro is currently Assistant Professor and Director of the Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families in the School of Social Work at the University of Southern California. He retired from the Army after serving for 33 years, where he obtained the rank of colonel. Dr. Castro received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in 1989. He began his military career as an infantryman in 1981, and has completed two tours in Iraq, as well as serving on peacekeeping missions to Saudi Arabia, Bosnia and Kosovo. He is currently Chair of a NATO research group on Military Veteran Transitions, a Fulbright Scholar and member of several Department of Defense advisory boards. He has authored over 150 scientific articles and reports on numerous military topics. His current research efforts focus on assessing the effects of combat and operations tempo (OPTEMPO) on soldier, family, and unit readiness, and evaluating the process of service members’ transition from military to civilian life.

Timothy Cheney

Tim has devoted 35 years to understanding and advancing the treatment of brain disease through advocacy, education and research. His passion is deeply rooted; as a child, he suffered a debilitating TBI that had catastrophic impacts on his life and catalyzed the brain disease of addiction. Four years ago, Tim suffered a temporal lobe stroke and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Undaunted, and in recovery since 1981, he remains committed to finding solutions.

Currently Tim is the managing partner of Choopersguide.com, a technology advisor to C4 Recovery Solutions and a consultant to Patrick Kennedy’s addiction and mental health initiatives. Tim received a BA from Boston University (Summa Cum Laude with Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa) despite having attended only one semester of high school. He attended Yale Divinity School and holds designations of Certified Personnel Consultant and Certified International Personnel Consultant

After founding and selling two human resource and technology companies to an international public company, he served as SVP and Regional Executive SVP. As International Technology Division Chairman, he negotiated the Staffing industry’s first cooperation agreements with China in 2000.

Tim was the City of Boston Drug Treatment Program Research Director and the New Haven Community Correctional Center’s Program Director. As Boston’s SMSA representative and member of the Community Correspondents Group, he authored five NIDA epidemiological publications.

Tim has been active in the addiction treatment and child welfare communities for thirty one years. He serves on the following boards: Children’s Home Society of the Treasure Coast, Floridians for Recovery, Faces and Voices of Recovery and is a Member of Leadership Council for the Association of Recovery Organizations.

He is the recipient of the following advocacy awards: Children’s Home Society of Florida – Treasure Coast Division – The David & Lorraine Thomas Child Advocate Award (2009); Congressional Award – Flag of the United States for Advocacy with Foster Children (2009); Guardian AD Litem 19TH Judicial District – Florida Annual Child Advocacy Award (2006) and The Presidents Call to Service- Lifetime Achievement Award (2013).

Sean Hill, PhD

Sean Hill is  Scientific Director of the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Hill also serves as the co-Director of the Blue Brain Project and co-Director of Neuroinformatics in the European Union funded Human Brain Project (HBP) at the École Poly­tech­nique Fédérale de Lau­sanne (EPFL). 

Dr. Hill has extensive experience in building and simulating large-scale models of brain circuitry and currently supervises and leads research efforts exploring the principles underlying the structure and dynamics of neocortical and thalamocortical microcircuitry. He also serves in management and advisory roles on several large-scale clinical informatics initiatives around the world. 

After completing his Ph.D. in computational neuroscience at the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, Dr. Hill held postdoctoral positions at The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, then joined the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center where he served as the Project Manager for Computational Neuroscience in the Blue Brain Project until his appointment at the EPFL. His research interests include the use of biologically-realistic models to study the role of emergent phenomena in information processing, network connectivity and synaptic plasticity in the central nervous system, from the neocortical column to the whole brain, and across different arousal conditions including waking and sleep.

Steve Hyman, MD

Steven E. Hyman, M.D. is director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as well as Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. From 2001 to 2011, he served as provost of Harvard University, the University’s chief academic officer. In that role he helped shape the Broad Institute and Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. From 1996 to 2001, he served as director of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), where he emphasized investment in neuroscience and emerging genetic technologies, as well as the establishment of DNA collections to facilitate genetic studies at large scale. He also initiated a series of large clinical trials with the goal of informing practice.

Hyman is president-elect of the Society for Neuroscience, editor of the Annual Review of Neuroscience, and was founding president of the International Neuroethics Society. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academies where he serves on the Governing Council and Board of Health Science Policy, and chairs the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders, which brings together industry, government, academia, and voluntary organizations. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Hyman received his B.A. summa cum laude from Yale College, a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Cambridge, which he attended as a Mellon fellow, and an M.D. cum laude from Harvard Medical School.

Zaven Khachaturian, PhD

Zaven Khachaturian, PhD, is the President of the Campaign to Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease by 2020 [PAS2020] Inc.(www.pad2020.org). He is also a senior science advisor to the Alzheimer’s Association; the Editor-in-Chief of Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. He is generally acknowledged as the “Founder – Chief Architect” of the extramural research programs on the neurobiology of aging and Alzheimer’s supported by the National Institution on Aging (NIA) / National Institutes of Health [NIH]. Formerly he served as Director of the Office of Alzheimer’s Disease, responsible for coordinating all Alzheimer’s disease-related activities NIH-wide, as well as the Associate Director for the Neuroscience and Neuropsychology of Aging Program at the NIA/NIH. 

Brian Losey, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Retired)

Brian Losey, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Retired), was Commander of Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, California. He previously served as commander under the US Africa Command, Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, and as commander, Special Operations Command Africa. His operational assignments have included a full range of duties in Sea, Air, Land (SEAL) Teams, SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) Teams, and Special Boat Teams, and deployments to named and contingency operations around the world. He commanded SDV Team One and served as deputy commander and commander of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group. He has worked extensively with interagency and international partners in enhancing security cooperation relationships, capabilities, and capacities. Other assignments include duty as deputy commander, Naval Special Warfare Task Group, US 6th Fleet; Maritime Operations officer and deputy chief of Current Operations in the Joint Special Operations Command; and US 7th Fleet special warfare officer in USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19). He served in the executive office of the President as a director on the National Security Council Staff bridging two administrations. Brian holds a master’s degree in National Security Strategy from the National War College. He is a graduate of the Defense Language Institute, the Armed Forces Staff College, and Air Command and Staff College.

Thomas Miller

After earning an SM from the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences and Technology program, Tom joined Siemens where he ran the global MRI business. He has also served as the CEO of the global medical operations of Carl Zeiss, the CEO of Analogic Corporation, and Chairman and CEO of LightLab Imaging, a start-up he helped to establish and sell. Tom rejoined Siemens in 2002, eventually serving as a member of the global operating board of Siemens Healthcare and the CEO of Customer Solutions Division, with 26,000 employees in over 130 countries. In April 2013, Tom started GreyBird Ventures, a consultancy and investment firm.

Jeff Sabados

Jeff Sabados, MBA, MPP, is an experienced entrepreneur and leader having co-founded Resilience Therapeutics in June 2014. Resilience, located in Boston, MA, is dedicated to assembling the best biotech scientists and research organizations in the world who will leverage precision medicine and our drug platform in order to make available new, disease-modifying therapeutics for veterans suffering from PTSD. Prior to Resilience, Jeff co-founded two successful companies – one out of Stanford University and one out of MIT – that are commercializing disruptive technologies.

In the military, Jeff completed six deployments over 8 years both as a Surface Warfare Officer and US Navy SEAL. His deployments in Naval Special Warfare included one tour supporting Task Force K-Bar in Afghanistan, one tour leading several successful National-level SEAL Delivery Vehicle missions as both Platoon Commander and Task Unit Commander and a final tour as a Task Unit Commander where he led and had overall responsibility for 75 special operations personnel in South America.

Jeff graduated from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was awarded the Patrick J. McGovern Entrepreneur Award and the Martin Trust Fellow Award. Prior to MIT, he graduated from Harvard University with a Masters in Public Policy.

Curt Schreiner

Curt Schreiner is a 3-time Olympian, former member of the US Biathlon National Team and U.S. Army National Guard Veteran (Operation Iraqi Freedom III). He was introduced to the sport of biathlon at age 12 when he watched the event at the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid. With the help of the Saratoga Biathlon Club, his family went so far as to build a range at their home in the Adirondacks, and Curt had his own venue for training by the time he was 14. He soon became the strongest member of US Junior National Biathlon Team, and gained a berth on the Senior National Team in time to represent the US at the 1988 Olympics. His career as a world-class biathlete continued until 2002. He has won multiple national championships, competed in World Biathlon Championships and World Cup events all over the globe, and was a member of two additional US Olympic biathlon teams (1992 and 1994).

Curt joined the New York Army National Guard (NYARNG) in 1986. He was a member of the Army’s World Class Athlete program and National Guard Sports programs, which provided him the opportunity for full-time biathlon training. After his retirement from the sport, he was deployed for a 1-year tour of duty in 2005 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom III. There, he commanded a Personnel Services Detachment in Tikrit, coming under mortar fire on a daily basis.

Curt was diagnosed with MS in 2007, while he was working full-time with the NYARNG. In May 2010, he retired from the NYARNG at the rank of Major.

Stephen Kennedy Smith

Mr. Stephen E. Kennedy-Smith, Jr. is a Founding Partner of KSS Realty Partners. Mr. Kennedy-Smith serves as a Member of the Technology Advisory Board of Gridline Communications Holdings, Inc. and as Member of Strategic Advisory Board of RAPID Pharmaceuticals AG. Mr. Kennedy-Smith has been Chairman of the Advisory Committee at Mainland Resources Inc. since March 2010. 

Mr. Kennedy-Smith has been a Director of Med-Design Corp. since September 23, 2003. He is an active member of the Kennedy family financial advisory board. He founded and chairs the Social Media company and Kennedy Smith Sammaweera, a real estate investment and development business. He has delivered keynote presentations at the annual conferences of the Family Firm Institute and the Family Office Exchange – two major family business organizations. 

He served as Deputy Campaign Manager for Senator Edward Kennedy during his presidential and senatorial campaigns. He also served on the staff of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees, and taught negotiation at Harvard University Law School. He is a three-time winner of Harvard’s Danforth Award for Excellence in Teaching and a recipient of the Lyndehurst Foundation prize for social and artistic achievement. Mr. Kennedy-Smith holds an M.A. from Harvard University, a J.D. from Columbia University, and an M.A. Ed. from Harvard’s School for Education.

Jessica Wolfe, PhD, MPH

Dr. Jessica Wolfe has been a behavioral researcher, neuropsychologist and executive in health sciences and public health for over 30 years.  She is currently a senior consultant to ESC (formerly Executive Service Corps), focusing on non-profit strategy and management and professional Research Associate at Harvard Medical School, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.  Prior to that, she served as Senior Research Advisor to Spaulding Hospital Rehabilitation Network’s Institute of Lifestyle Medicine and Senior Research Program Advisor to Partners Healthcare System’s Center for Connected Health where she focused on clinical and research productivity involving wellness and technology innovation.

Jessica helped found the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Center for PTSD where she subsequently developed and directed the National Center’s Women’s Health Sciences Division. There, she led competitively funded, large scale, research initiatives in war trauma, military sexual assault, and Gulf War illnesses.  She has over 70 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Jessica received her Doctorate in clinical psychology from Columbia University.  She completed her Master’s in Public Health from Harvard University (HSPH).  Other interests include interactive health technologies, user-centered design (UX), neuroimaging in PTSD and traumatic brain injury (TBI), and stress adaptation across the lifespan.

Nick Zakrasek

Nick Zakrasek is an experienced leader in the business applications of big data and computational modeling.  He is currently Product Manager for Google’s Knowledge Engine, and was the founding program manager for the launch of Orion Bionetworks in 2012.

Prior to Orion, Nick spent six years working in international aerospace operations for Rockwell Collins.. He holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, and a BA in mathematics and East Asian studies from Brown University.

Thanks to Our Past Council Advisors:

Kristen Rosati

Rainer Fuchs, PhD