Our Team

Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors provides strategic oversight and leadership for the UHNW Institute. This group of accomplished industry leaders brings diverse perspectives, deep expertise, and a shared commitment to advancing the field of ultra-high-net-worth wealth management.

*Founding Member

Stephen Prostano*

Chairman & CEO
The UHNW Institute

Partner
PKF O’Connor Davies

Steve Prostano is the Partner-in-Charge of the Center for Private Business Owners which delivers comprehensive solutions for private business owners to help them achieve their business and personal financial goals.

In a career spanning over three decades, Steve Prostano has distinguished himself as an innovator and thought leader in the wealth management, multi-family office and global financial services industries. He has designed and built leading global and national multi-family offices, asset management firms and has advised industry leaders and ultra-high-net-worth families and family offices throughout his career.

Prior to joining the Firm, Steve was the Head of Family Wealth Advisors, a division of Bank of the West Wealth Management, an affiliate of BNP Paribas, where he built the first global, multi-family office in the U.S. Additionally, he served on the Bank of the West’s Senior Management Committee. Steve is also the founder of The UHNW Institute, a nonprofit, independent “Think Tank” and publisher of exceptional thought leadership content for UHNW families, family offices, their advisors and the financial services industry.

Steve previously served as CEO of Silver Bridge, President of Atlantic Trust and a Global Partner of Amvescap, President of Chase Global Asset Management and Executive Vice President of the Private Clients Group of FleetBoston Financial. He also held senior positions with Mellon Bank and KPMG, where he began his career.

Steve is the recipient of several distinguished industry awards, including Family Wealth Report’s Leading Individual in the MFO Industry and Private Asset Magazine’s Outstanding Contributor to the Wealth Management Industry.

Joe Calabrese*

Chief Operating Officer
Wealth Management, KeyBank

As Chief Operating Officer, I am responsible for overseeing the development, integrated delivery, and strategic development of a full range of financial planning, investment, fiduciary and banking capabilities for Key’s private and institutional clients.

Our client experience is built on three pillars: comprehensive personalized service; an holistic advisory model that reflects the expertise of a broad team of financial experts; and a human touch.

I take great pride in hard work and crafting items of value that are designed to endure, both in my professional and personal life. Thirty years ago, I discovered a passion for woodworking and I’ve honed my skills ever since. Like sound wealth management, woodworking is a skill that requires practice, precision and patience. Well designed and executed wealth management strategies will deliver benefits to families that can be enjoyed for many generations … as enduring as a fine piece of hand- crafted furniture.

Specialties: family office services | investments | private wealth management | strategic financial planning | client services

Wally Head*

Founder & Principal
Personal Fiduciary Advisors, LLC

Relying on his background as an attorney and a CPA, Wally has helped families and family offices executives throughout his career develop, communicate, and implement strategies to effectively manage family wealth and transfer it to future generations. He currently advises a few families with family offices and serves as a founding board member of The UHNW Institute, a non-profit think tank and learning exchange.

Wally has held leadership positions in national accounting and financial services firms, including serving most recently as vice chairman of Gresham Partners, a firm providing investment and other wealth management services to over 100 wealthy families. Previously, he served as chief executive officer of wealth management and a member of The Private Bank and Trust Company’s board of directors, after being co-owner, president and chief operating officer of Family Office Exchange.

Wally has authored many articles and been a frequent speaker, panelist, or moderator on a full range of wealth management topics. He currently is leading an initiative of The UHNW Institute to codify industry standards for identifying and delivering integrated family wealth management services.

Wally grew up on a family farm in Missouri, which he and his son own and operate as fourth and fifth generation family members. Wally received J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Missouri, and a B.A. degree from Westminster College in Missouri. He is a Trustee and former chair of Westminster College’s Board of Trustees and a Trustee and former vice chair of the John G. Shedd Aquarium’s Board of Trustees.

Jamie McLaughlin*

CEO
J.H. McLaughlin & Co.

Mr. McLaughlin co-founded J. H. McLaughlin & Co, LLC, a management consulting and strategy firm focusing on strategy and practice management for single and multi-family offices. He is a shareholder of and Special Advisor to Pennington Partners. He has over 25 years of experience in both senior operating roles and client-facing roles in the family office and ultra-high net worth industry.

Previously, he was CEO of Geller Family Office Services, a Partner at Convergent Wealth Advisors where he built the firm’s New York office, the Regional President of Mellon Private Wealth Management’s New York region, and a Financial Advisor at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, Inc., where he started in the wealth management industry.

Earlier in his career, Jamie served in the Connecticut General Assembly for a decade as a two-term State Representative and a three-term State Senator. In 1985, the Hartford Courant named him one of Connecticut’s “10 Best Legislators.” He is an Emeritus Trustee of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) where for many years he chaired the AFB’s investment committee. He is Chair of the Subscribers Advisory Committee for PURE, a policyholder-owned property and casualty insurance company, and a member of the Greenwich Roundtable. He serves as an advisor to Addepar, Inc., a wealth management
technology company, and on the Advisory Board of PivotalPath, a hedge fund due diligence firm. He also serves on the Town of Darien’s Board of Finance.

Mr. McLaughlin received his bachelor’s degree in history from Lafayette College and his Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Michael Zeuner*

Managing Partner
WE Family Offices

Michael Zeuner has been serving wealthy families for more than two decades and currently serves as one of three managing partners at WE. Michael is a nationally recognized leader in the family office industry and has dedicated his professional career to empowering financially successful families to manage their wealth with confidence, competence and success.

Michael is a co-founder and a board member of the Ultra High Net Worth Institute, a non- profit think tank and learning exchange. In addition, Michael is a co-founder and a board member of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard and served on board and as an independent director at Wren Investment Office, a UK-based multi-family office from it’s founding in July, 2026 until September of 2024 and a member firm of the global alliance formed by WE, Wren and MdF. Michael was honored to receive the 2025 Outstanding Individual (MFO) award from the Family Wealth Report awards, a testament to his role not only at WE, but also in the ultra high net worth industry.

Since 2024, Michael has been hosting the Wealth Enterprise Briefing a regular podcast on topics of interest to investors and wealthy families. Prior to his role at WE Family Offices he served as senior executive partner of GenSpring Family Offices. In this capacity, he had responsibility for the leadership and management of GenSpring’s network of 10 family offices in the United States, that firm’s key advisory practices, and its delivery of a high-quality client experience. In addition, he was a member of the firm’s Operating Committee. Before joining GenSpring, Michael was managing director and global head of Wealth Solutions at JP Morgan Private Bank. As a member of the executive team, he had responsibility for strategic planning, branding, marketing and specialized advisory services (family governance, philanthropy and fine art wealth management) for the worldwide private bank.

A management consultant by training, Michael led projects in the financial services area for both Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and Booz, Allen & Hamilton. He joined Chase Manhattan in 1995 as vice president at the investment bank and moved to the private bank in 1997 to head up strategy and marketing worldwide. JP Morgan and Chase merged in January 2002.

Michael graduated from Brandeis University, (B.A.) and earned an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Dennis Jaffe**

Senior Research Fellow
Banyan Global

Dennis helps large, global families manage personal and organizational issues that lead to successful and fulfilling transfer of businesses, wealth, values, commitments and legacies between generations.

As both an organizational consultant and clinical psychologist, he is one of the architects of the emerging field of family enterprise consulting. He is a family business fellow at the Cornell Johnson College of Business. He was recently cited by Family Wealth Report for special commendation as an individual thought leader. As a founding member of the Family Firm Institute, he has served on their board, written frequently for their journal Family Business Review, and was awarded the Richard Beckhard and International Awards for contributions to practice. In 2007 he was Thinker in Residence for S. Australia, helping the region design a strategic plan for the future of their entrepreneurial and family businesses.

Dennis is the author of the new book Borrowed from Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises; as well as Cross-Cultures: How Global Families Negotiate Change Across Generations; and Stewardship of Your Family Enterprise: Developing Responsible Leadership Across Generations, and more than 15 other management books, including Getting Your Organization to Change, Rekindling Commitment, Take This Job and Love it! and From Burnout to Balance. He is the co-creator of the Family Enterprise Assessment Tool (FEAT, The Values Edge, the Transition Curve, and other tools for assessment of family enterprise success.

In 1984 he founded Changeworks Global, a consulting firm in San Francisco, which works with organizations for long-term change to build competitive advantage by unleashing the power of their employees. He was a founder of MemeStreams, which pioneered the use of on-line executive development tools. In 1990-92 he served as Deputy Director of Research for the Macarthur Foundation Network on Healthy Companies. He is emeritus professor of Organizational Systems and Psychology at Saybrook University in San Francisco.

Kathy Lintz

Partner & Managing Member
Matter Family Office

Kathy began her career in financial services at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City. There, she had the opportunity to help develop and deliver one of the first financial education and planning programs in the country at The Chase Exchange. This experience led her to become an early CFP®certificant, and to begin building a fee-only, comprehensive, financial planning practice in St. Louis.

In 1990, with just two employees, Kathy founded the firm that would become Matter Family Office. Her steadfast vision and commitment to the integration of independent investments, deep planning and coordination, family wellbeing, governance, and philanthropy has evolved Matter into a thought-leading multifamily office. Kathy is tremendously grateful to all the talented, dedicated associates at Matter who have shared this vision and helped her realize it over the past three decades.

Kathy works with Matter’s client teams daily and loves building lasting relationships with the complex, multigenerational families we serve. She is also one of four managing members who lead the firm and is responsible for the Matter investment committee and active in evolving our industry-leading family culture and legacy services. As founder, Kathy takes a leadership role in aligning Matter’s values, capabilities, and future efforts with the firm’s core purpose of helping families realize their most important goals in an intentional, integrated, and authentic way.

Kathy spent her formative school years in Westport, Connecticut. She earned a BA in history at Duke University then settled in the New York area to start her financial career. She is a lifelong learner and enjoys building and sharing knowledge across a variety of topics, ranging from finance and investing trends to family psychology and communication.

A contributor to many articles, blogs and industry groups, Kathy is frequently asked to participate as a panelist at industry conferences. She has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Bloomberg, Financial Advisor Magazine, Financial Planning Magazine, and other financial publications.

Kathy and her husband moved to St. Louis in 1982, and she is an active member of the community. She is honored to serve as chair of the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation finance committee and dedicated to helping children gain access to lifesaving care regardless of their financial circumstances. She has also been a board member of the St. Louis Boys and Girls Club and the St. Louis Zoo and brings her positive outlook, collaborative nature, and love of helping people to all the causes she supports.

While enjoying rich relationships with Matter families is a huge highlight for Kathy, her first love and priority is her own family—her husband, children, and grandchildren. She is energized by being outdoors and particularly enjoys hiking, tennis, and golf. And, at the end of a long week, Kathy most looks forward to her Saturday morning run with friends.

Linda Mack

Founder and President
Mack International

With more than 25 years of experience spanning family office/wealth management, human resources, and financial services, Linda has built a reputation as a thought leader in the industry. She frequently speaks at global family office conferences and is a recognized authority in her field.

Linda serves on the Board of Directors of the Ultra High Net Worth Institute (UHNWI) and is an FFI Fellow, holding the Advanced Certificate in Family Wealth Advising (ACFWA) from the Family Firm Institute. She is actively involved in organizations such as the Economic Club of Chicago, the Institute for Private Investors (IPI), Campden Wealth, and the Family Firm Institute (FFI). Linda also contributes her time to civic and non-profit organizations, including The Women’s Board of Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center and Northwestern University Women’s Board.

Before founding Mack International, Linda was a Partner in the Global Financial Services Practice of TMP Worldwide, where she led executive search assignments across various wealth and investment management functions. Earlier in her career, she held executive and management positions at Harris Bank/Bank of Montreal and The Northern Trust Bank.

Linda earned her M.B.A. in finance and accounting from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. She also studied at Franklin University Switzerland during her undergraduate education.

Tom McCullough

Managing Director of Thought Leadership and Strategy
The UHNW Institute

Founder & Chairman
Northwood Family Office

Tom McCullough is co-founder and chairman of Northwood Family Office. He is a frequent speaker on issues relevant to families of wealth and is the co-author of three books — Wealth of Wisdom: The Top 50 Questions Wealthy Families Ask, Wealth of Wisdom: Top Practices for Wealthy Families and Their Advisors, and Family Wealth Management: 7 Imperatives for Successful Investing. He is an adjunct professor and executive-in-residence at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Wealth Management, and a member of the board and faculty of the Ultra High Net Worth Institute. He was awarded ‘Best Individual Contribution to Thought Leadership in the Wealth Management Industry (North America)’ at the 2020 Family Wealth Report Awards.

Thom Melcher

Advisory Board Chair
The UHNW Institute

Director of Family Wealth
Glenmede

Thom Melcher is Glenmede’s Director of Family Wealth. In this role, Mr. Melcher leads Glenmede’s wealth management practice for entrepreneurial clients and multi-generational ultra-high-net-worth families, including the development and management of customized and comprehensive planning, advisory and investment management services.

Mr. Melcher is a member of Glenmede’s Private Wealth leadership team, a voting member of the Investment Policy Committee and a member of the Private Wealth Operating Committee. In addition, Mr. Melcher serves as a primary point of contact for Glenmede’s strategic alliance with Stonehage Fleming.

Prior to joining Glenmede, Mr. Melcher devoted two and a half decades to PNC, where he most recently served as EVP and Chief Investment Officer (CIO), for the PNC Asset Management Group. Prior to that, he was the Managing Executive for Hawthorn, PNC Family Wealth, where he built the practice into one of the nation’s largest providers serving ultra-high net worth clients. Previously, Mr. Melcher held the CIO role for PNC Wealth Management in Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. Mr. Melcher’s media presence includes appearances on CNBC, citations in the Financial Press and extensive quotations in “The Family Office Book,” written by Richard Wilson. Mr. Melcher also authored the foreword to “Sell Like A Team” by Michael Dalis and was twice recognized as one of the nation’s “Top 100 Wealth Advisors” by Worth Magazine.

Mr. Melcher earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and has pursued graduate work at Drexel University in investment management.

Mr. Melcher is a corporate council member of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, co-chair of the Next Generation Council of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education and a board member of the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C.

Loraine Tsavaris

Boards of Directors
The Rockefeller Trust Companies

Loraine Tsavaris has over 40 years of client and management experience in the wealth management industry. She retired from Rockefeller & Co. in 2017, as a managing director working with UHNW individuals, families and family offices since 2008. Prior to joining Rockefeller, Loraine was at US Trust for 37 years, where she served across a range of senior level positions and had a critical role in growing the company’s various high wealth businesses. In her last position, Loraine was managing director and principal of US Trust’s multi-family office group, where she advised the company’s wealthiest clients and developed the firm’s UHNW business into a national platform. Loraine received a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and a B.B.A. in Economics from Pace University. She is admitted to practice in New York, Connecticut and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Loraine is on the Board of Directors of Rockefeller Trust Company, N.A.; The Rockefeller Trust Company (Delaware); The UHNW Institute and is Director of Membership Services.

Maria Elena Lagomasino

Chief Executive Officer & Managing Partner
WE Family Offices

Maria Elena (Mel) Lagomasino has worked with financially successful families for more than three decades. As CEO and Managing Partner of WE Family Offices, a global family office serving ultra high net worth families, she engages client families to build their wealth enterprise®s and provide the support and control they need to manage their wealth as a successful business enterprise. She is a recognized leader in the wealth management industry, and is a founder of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard.

Before founding WE, Mel served as CEO of GenSpring Family Offices, a wealth management firm. Prior to that, she served as chairman and chief executive officer of JP Morgan Private Bank, an institution with more than $300 billion in client assets under supervision. Her career in banking began in 1977 at Citibank. She joined the Chase Manhattan Private Bank in 1983 and was named head of Chase’s worldwide private banking business in 1997. Following the Chase-JP Morgan merger, she became chairman and chief executive officer of JP Morgan Private Bank.

Mel serves on the boards of The Walt Disney Company and The Coca-Cola Company. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and as of March 2019, she became a Trustee of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

In August 2015 she was named one of the 50 most influential women in Wealth Management by Private Asset Management. In 2012, Mel was named one of the Directorship 100 by the National Association of Corporate Directors and was named by American Banker one of 2012’s Top 25 Women in Finance. Mel was named “Women of the Year” by Hispanic Business Magazine in 2007. In September 2006, she was appointed by President Bush to help lead an effort to secure private sector funds to aid disaster victims in Central America and served on Secretary Rice’s Advisory Board on Transformational Diplomacy.

A graduate of Manhattanville College (B. A.), Mel also earned graduate degrees at Columbia University (M.S.) and Fordham University (M.B.A).

Bill Woodson*

Co-Head
Cynosure Wealth Advisors

William I. Woodson (Bill) has spent his career advising wealthy families, closely-held business owners, and family offices across a wide range of wealth management disciplines, including investment management, taxation, estate planning, philanthropy, wealth education, and family office best practices. Bill is a frequent author on wealthy families’ issues and is quoted extensively in financial publications. Bill is the Chair of the Advisory Board for the Stanford University Global Family Office Initiative and a co-founder of the UHNW Institute, an independent non-profit that provides thought leadership and content helpful to families, family offices, and professionals. He is also the co-author of The Family Office: A Comprehensive Guide for Advisers, Practitioners, and Students, published by Columbia University Press.

Bill is currently the Managing Director and Co-Head at Cynosure Wealth Advisors. He was previously Head of Strategic Wealth Advisory and Family Enterprise Services for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Bill joined SVB from Citigroup, where he was a Managing Director and Head of the Family Office Group for Citi Private Bank. Before joining Citi, Bill was a Managing Director and Head of the UHNW and Family Office business for Credit Suisse.

Bill began his career in Big Four public accounting, where he spent a decade providing tax and related planning advice to wealthy executives, families, and closely-held business owners. He left public accounting to run the family office for one of his larger clients, a Hong Kong-based family with 40 employees and operations in Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Vancouver. Bill was a founding member of myCFO, an integrated wealth management, and technology firm started by several well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Shortly before the sale of myCFO to Harris Bank, Bill joined Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group and oversaw an integrated investment advisory practice for UHNW families and family offices ranging in net worth from $25 million to $2 billion.

Bill has a master’s degree in accounting from New York University’s Stern Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Irvine. He previously held designations as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Investment Management Analysts (CIMA). Bill was also a founding member and past President of First Graduate, a non-profit that helps students become the first in their families to graduate from college.

Robert Casey

Director of Research
The UHNW Institute

Independent Consultant

Bob is a consultant, research director and financial industry observer who has chronicled the evolution of wealth management. Consulting clients include major fund managers, accounting firms, and financial publishers.

Bob served as research director for the Family Wealth Alliance for more than a decade, conducting groundbreaking studies of family offices, multifamily offices and independent chief investment officer firms. He was cited in 2017 by Family Wealth Report for his Outstanding Contribution to Wealth Management Thought Leadership.

Bob is a former managing editor of American Banker. He was the founding editor of Your Company magazine (which became Fortune Small Business) and the founding editor of Bloomberg Wealth Manager magazine. He started his career as a newspaper reporter in Chicago and held newsroom management roles at the Daily Herald in Chicago, the News-Journal in Wilmington, The Philadelphia Bulletin, and USA Today.

Bob is a graduate of The Medill School of Journalism of Northwestern University and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has a Certificate in Financial Planning from New York University. He lives in Redding, Connecticut.

Rob Elliot

Board of Directors
Market Street Trust Company

Rob is actively involved with the family office community.

Prior to joining Market Street, Rob was most recently a Senior Advisor, and previously Senior Managing Director, with Bessemer Trust. During his tenure at Bessemer, Rob oversaw client account management and business development. Rob also was formerly with the Trust Division of American Security and Trust Company in Washington, DC.

Rob received a B.A. in Political Science and a J.D. from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar and the American Bar Association. Rob is Trustee Emeritus of The Foundation Center, New York City. In addition, he serves as a member of the Board of Regents of Winthrop-University Hospital, Long Island. Rob is a Director to Tweedy, Browne Funds, Inc. Rob was a founding advisory faculty member of the Institute for Private Investors, New York.

Market Street Trust Company is a client owned, shared family office providing comprehensive wealth management for multiple generations of its founding family, other select client families, and private foundations. Market Street has been stewarding family wealth since 1909 and continues to serve all clients with the same dedication and commitment with which they serve the founding family.

Jim Grubman

Faculty Chair
Owner
Family Wealth Consulting

Dr. Jim Grubman has provided services to individuals, couples, and families of wealth for over 40 years. With an international reputation as a valued family advisor, he is often consulted in situations of complexity where psychology, law, finance, medicine and business all come into play to varying degrees.

In recognition of his prominence in the industry, Jim has been honored with two major professional honors in 2024. One is the prestigious 2024 Family Wealth Report Lifetime Achievement Award in the wealth management industry. The other is the 2024 Richard Beckhard Practice Award from the Family Firm Institute, the top practitioner award granted each year to an individual who has contributed significantly to the fields of family business consulting and family wealth consulting. Jim is also a past recipient of the 2021 FWR Award for Outstanding Thought Leadership with his longtime collaborator, Dennis T. Jaffe, PhD.

Jim is the author of Strangers in Paradise: How Families Adapt to Wealth Across Generations, a now-classic book discussing how individuals and families adjust to the opportunities and challenges of wealth. He is also co-author (with Dennis Jaffe and Kristin Keffeler) of Wealth 3.0: The Future of Family Wealth Advising, a remarkable look at the history and future of the wealth advising field. In addition, he is co-author with Dennis Jaffe of Cross Cultures: How Global Families Negotiate Change Across Generations, describing the unique adaptations of wealthy families around the world in various cultures. His work has been discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, CNBC, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. He has published widely in the Journal of Wealth Management, the International Family Offices Journal, Journal of Financial Planning, the global family enterprise publication Tharawat Magazine, STEP Journal, and many other media.

A dynamic sought-after speaker, Jim has presented at national and international conferences including the STEP Global Congress, the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning of the University of Miami School of Law, TIGER21, the Family Office Exchange (FOX), and the Family Firm Institute, among many others. He was a collaborator on the Hundred Year Family Enterprise Project for Wise Counsel Research Associates, studying the practices of global families who have successfully made transitions through at least three generations. He has also served as academic director for the Family Legacy and Wealth Program at the John Molson Executive Centre of Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, as well as a similar program at Queens University in Kingston, ON, Canada.

Susan Winer

COO
Strategic Philanthropy Ltd.

Susan is a Principal and Co-Founder of Strategic Philanthropy, Ltd. She brings an eclectic professional background to the firm, as the Founder and President of Stratenomics, Inc., a consulting firm that helped closely held and family- owned businesses find solutions to market and operating challenges and before that as Vice President of the Chicago Board of Trade, the first woman in a senior position at the Exchange. Susan started her professional career as Assistant Midwest Bureau Chief for McGraw-Hill Publications where she wrote for 44 magazines in an eight-state region. Today Susan is still a prolific author and thought leader in the industry and has been part of the leadership team behind the Ultra High Net Worth Institute and serves on its Board of Directors.