Our Advisors

We are supported and guided by corporate leaders from Columbia Mailman's Board of Advisors, who serve as an informal advisory board. These leaders represent several different industries that touch on public health, including medical devices, health communications, hospital systems, and investment management. This impressive group works to enhance our business development strategy and is an invaluable resource as we expand our outreach to the corproate sector. 

Alan Batkin

Alan R. Batkin was Vice Chairman of Eton Park Capital Management, L.P., a global, multi-disciplinary investment firm from March, 2007 to December, 2012. Prior to joining Eton Park, he was, from 1990 to 2007, Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc., a geopolitical consulting company.  Before joining Kissinger Associates, he was an investment banker at Lehman Brothers for 18 years.

Mr. Batkin is on the Board of Directors of four US-based public companies. He is Senior Advisor to Discovery Group, a South Africa-based health insurance and financial services company as well as Senior Advisor to Oaktree Emerging Markets Opportunity Fund.

Mr. Batkin is Chairman Emeritus of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and is currently Chair of Airbel, the IRC’s research and development unit.

He is Chairman of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health Advisory Board and Co-Chair of the Board of Overseers of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He is a Trustee and Executive Committee member of the New York City Police Foundation and a member of the MD Anderson Cancer Center Board and Executive Committee.

He is a Trustee of The Brookings Institution and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served as a member of The Trilateral Commission and the Inter-American Dialogue.

Cyrus Massoumi 

Cyrus Massoumi is the founder and CEO of Shadow, the technology platform that enables a community of volunteers to reunite lost dogs with their owners. In building this network of seekers and finders, Mr. Massoumi draws on his previous experience: building a network of patients and care providers.

Prior to founding Shadow, Mr. Massoumi served for eight years as CEO of Zocdoc, a company he started in 2007.  Zocdoc enables patients to book medical care appointments instantly and free of charge.  Mr. Massoumi is also currently the Managing Partner of humbition, a venture fund launched in 2018 that invests in founder-led, mission-driven startups in New York City.

Mr. Massoumi holds an MBA with honors from Columbia Business School and a BS degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Columbia Business School has featured him as one of eight alumni changing the world. He has also been recognized by Fast Company as one of the Most Creative People in Business and by Fortune and Crain’s as one of their 40 under 40 honorees. Mr. Massoumi currently serves as a member of the Board of Overseers for the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Jack Rowe 

Dr. John Rowe is the Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.  Previously, from 2000 until his retirement in late 2006, Dr. Rowe served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc., one of the nation's leading health care and related benefits organizations.  Before his tenure at Aetna, from 1988 to 2000, Dr. Rowe served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health, one of the nation’s largest academic health care organizations. From 1988 to 1998, prior to the Mount Sinai-NYU Health merger, Dr. Rowe was President of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Before joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Rowe was a Professor of Medicine and the founding Director of the Division on Aging at the Harvard Medical School, as well as Chief of Gerontology at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. Dr. Rowe has received many honors and awards for his research and health policy efforts regarding care of the elderly. Currently, Dr. Rowe leads the Research Network on An Aging Society.

Dr. Rowe is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences  and a member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He. served on the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation,  and was  Chair of the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School and the Board of Trustees at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Dr. Rowe is a former Commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). 

Dr Rowe has received many awards and recognitions including being listed in the top ten managers of the year, in the world, by Business Week in 2005 and being included in Harvard Business Review’s 2013 listing of the best performing CEOs in the world, in all industries.

Linda Tharby 

Linda Tharby is Executive Vice President of Customer Experience at Becton Dickinson (BD). She leads a cross-company Global Customer Experience Council, comprised of leaders from across the functions, regions and businesses that focuses on a prioritized view of customers’ needs that shape the company’s value offers and ongoing process improvements. Ms. Tharby has served in every aspect of the BD matrix as a regional, business and functional leader. She began her BD career as a key account manager and later served as Country General Manager for Canada. She held several business leadership roles, including worldwide President, Diabetes Care, and Group President, Pre-analytical Systems and Biosciences, before leading the Life Sciences Segment as Segment President. 

Nancy Turrett

Nancy Mesch Turrett is an innovator in generative leadership and health engagement. 

Ms. Turrett has been with APCO Worldwide since 2019, where she is a member of the Global Leadership Team and serves as the firm's first Chief Health Strategist, advising clients across industries on strategies that advance health, enterprise and society. 

Ms. Turrett established her WholeView consultancy in 2013 to focus on global health, working with World Bank Group, United Nations, MDG Alliance, World Health Organization, Roll Back Malaria, We Own TV, C(ancer)-Change, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, International Vaccine Institute, Rockefeller Foundation, BCG, Merck, and Omnicom. 

In two decades at Edelman, Ms. Turrett built the communication industry's pace-setting health practice, forging deep relationships with clients and partners worldwide. She was the founding leader of signal firm-wide initiatives for thought leadership and IP, global practices, strategic programming, global citizenship, and service excellence; and managed major operations in the US, Canada, and Latin America. 

Since 2007, Ms. Turrett has been a member of the Board of Advisors at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, where she is a Chair of the Enterprise Strategy Committee. Ms. Turrett is also a member of the Advisory Board for Project HEAL, and previous board/committee work includes the World Economic Forum's Global Education Initiative, American Diabetes Association, American Cancer Society, NYU's Center for Aging and Dementia, Resolve Fertility Association, and her alma mater, Princeton University.