Jarrett Lilien

Jarrett Lilien is President & COO at WisdomTree Investments, Inc. He is also the Founder and Managing Partner of Bendigo Partners. Jarrett has enjoyed a long career in financial services, running both retail and institutional businesses. He has lived and worked in Tokyo, Hong Kong, London and New York. Jarrett was co-founder and CEO of TIR Securities, a global institutional stock broker, which was subsequently sold to E*TRADE Financial. At E*TRADE, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for building the premier online financial services franchise. Jarrett is currently Chairman of the Board of The Barton Group and Board Treasurer of The Baryshnikov Arts Center.

Dr. Daveed Frazier

Daveed D. Frazier is a board certified orthopedic surgeon with advanced training in spinal surgery and correction of spinal deformities. An assistant clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Frazier is also a respected lecturer, accomplished researcher, and published author on spine disorders and treatment. Dr. Frazier graduated cum laude from Harvard Medical School and joined the institution’s long history of distinguished speakers when selected to address his 1990 graduating class. He went on to complete a combined surgical internship at the New England Deaconess Hospital and an orthopedic residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition, Dr. Frazier serves as assistant clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, and adjunct assistant clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. In recognition of his many accomplishments and prevention-focused approach to patient care, Dr. Frazier was twice named New York Super Doctor by the New York Times Magazine. More recently, he was featured on the cover of The Network Journal. His humanitarian efforts include service on the board of directors for FilmAid International—a charitable organization offering assistance to displaced persons worldwide through the power of film.

Richard D. Parsons

Richard D. Parsons Richard D. Parsons is the former Chairman of Citigroup and also serves as a Senior Advisor to Providence Equity Partners. Formerly, from 2002-2008, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TimeWarner, Inc. In its January 2005 report on America’s Best CEOs, Institutional Investor magazine named Mr. Parsons the top CEO in the entertainment industry. Prior to becoming CEO of TimeWarner, Mr. Parsons served as President of the company. Mr. Parsons received his undergraduate education at the University of Hawaii and his legal training at Union University’s Albany Law School. Mr. Parsons’ civic and non-profit commitments include service as Chairman of the Apollo Theater Foundation, as Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and on the boards of Howard University, the Museum of Modern Art, and the American Museum of Natural History.

Michael Devins

MICHAEL DEVINS is partner in Sidley’s Insurance practice in New York. His practice focuses primarily on corporate transactions in the insurance industry, including the acquisition, divestiture, and merger of insurance and reinsurance businesses, as well as reinsurance and renewal of rights transactions, redomestications and company formations. In addition to transactional matters, Michael represents insurance and reinsurance companies in connection with regulatory matters. He has significant experience representing private equity and other non-traditional purchasers and sellers of insurance companies and insurance-related assets. Michael has been recognized by several industry publications, including IFLR1000 (2020-2021) where he is listed as a Notable Practitioner and The Legal 500 US (2012) which notes that Michael “has an encyclopedia-like understanding of the insurance M&A landscape and the legal framework for getting deals done.” Prior to joining Sidley, Michael was counsel at another global law firm in its M&A and Insurance Industry groups. Prior to law school, Michael served as a policy advisor to the premier of the Canadian province of Manitoba. He is a frequent writer and speaker on insurance industry and M&A topics. Michael serves on the Board of Directors and as finance and operations chair of the Jazz Foundation of America.

Steve Jordan

Steve Jordan has helped expand the vocabulary of modern music, not only as a drummer, but also as a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. In 2021, Jordan replaced Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts on the Stones’ 13-date U.S. tour. Following Watts’ death, he continues to play with the Stones both live and in the studio.
He has recorded with the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Steve Wonder, B.B. King, Sonny Rollins, Sheryl Crow, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Aretha Franklin, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, the Pretenders, Stevie Nicks, Norah Jones, James Taylor, Diana Krall, Sting, Billy Joel, Don Henley, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and the original Saturday Night Live Band, and he was a founding member of the World’s Most Dangerous Band for Late Night With David Letterman.

As a Grammy-winning producer and Emmy-winning musical director, Jordan has made albums for Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos, John Mayer (which includes winning Pop Vocal Album of the Year for Continuum), John Mayer Trio, Robert Cray, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Los Lonely Boys, John Scofield, Buddy Guy, Booker T., Solomon Burke, Boz Scaggs, Hubert Sumlin, Tom Jones, Patty Scialfa, and Beyoncé. His most satisfying work is the collaboration with Meegan Voss and their band, the Verbs.

He received an Emmy for his musical direction in Movies Rock in addition to working on Fashion Rocks, several Kennedy Center Honors and the 2004 Democratic Convention. He has worked as musical director/producer on films Lightning in a Bottle and Cadillac Records, and consulted on Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Jordan is currently producing Solid Soul, a documentary on the musical legacy of record producer Willie Mitchell. Steve and Meegan Voss are the founders of the independent recording company Jay-Vee Records, home to the Grammy-nominated album by Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm and their band, the Verbs. They are also the Co-Artistic Directors of the Jazz Foundation of America.

In recent years, Steve has produced Keith Richards’ album Crosseyed Heart and John Mayer’s The Search for Everything, and is working on the Verbs’ new LP Garage Sale and new albums by Sheryl Crow, Josh Groban and Bettye LaVette.

Additional production credits include Rod Stewart’s Soulbook, John Mayer’s Battle Studies, the Verbs’ Trip and Cover Story, Boz Scaggs’ Memphis and A Fool to Care, Robert Cray’s Hi Rhythm as well as Cray’s In My Soul and his live project 4 Nights of 40 Years Live. Jordan was musical director for the 61st, 62nd, 64th, 66th, 67th, and 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as musical director for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research Annual Gala, in addition to touring with Eric Clapton.

Wendy Oxenhorn

Wendy Oxenhorn

In 2000 Oxenhorn took over the executive directorship of the Jazz Foundation of America (JFA), which provides assistance to elderly professional jazz, blues and R & B musicians in need.[10] At the time, the organization had $7,000 in its accounts and handled 35 clients per year. In 2001 Oxenhorn conceived and produced what became the major annual JFA fundraising event: “A Great Night in Harlem.” Named after the famed Art Kane photograph, A Great Day in Harlem, Oxenhorn’s Great Night in Harlem Concert at the Apollo Theater has been a hugely successful annual fundraising event, which would not have been possible without Lauren Roberts, a co-worker and Jarrett Lilien, the former E*TRADE president, who offered to bankroll the cost of the Apollo Theater and has since become the organization’s President.[11] The inaugural event was emceed by Gil Noble, and featured performances by dozens of prominent jazz musicians. The concert also helped attract prominent board members, including Quincy Jones, their current chairman; Richard Parsons, Agnes Varis, Elvis Costello, Danny Glover, Michael Novogratz and Lou Reed. The benefit concert raised $350,000 in its first year, 13 days after 9/11.[12] Oxenhorn’s fundraising efforts vastly expanded the program to over 500 cases per year and by 2005 the JFA became a national organization with a staff of four.

Oxenhorn’s work at the JFA has included post-Katrina relief efforts for displaced musicians, re-housing and creating instant employment to hundreds of New Orleans musicians and their children, thanks to the support and generosity of Jarrett Lilien and E*TRADE and the famous Met Opera philanthropist Agnes Varis, who has since been known and loved the world over as “Saint” Agnes.[9] Agnes Varis’ support allowed Oxenhorn to create the Agnes Varis Jazz in the Schools Program. This program makes it possible for hundreds of elderly musicians to introduce jazz, blues and live music for the first time, to over 80,000 public school children a year. The Agnes Varis Program has kept hundreds of musicians afloat for the past ten years since Katrina, allowing them to pay their own rent. The Foundation’s efforts are credited with bringing over 1000 displaced musicians back to New Orleans after Katrina by re-housing families and creating immediate employment. Oxenhorn also acquired over a quarter million dollars worth of donated new top shelf instruments to replace what was lost in the flood for hundreds of NOLA’s most beloved musicians. As human rights journalist, historian and jazz critic Nat Hentoff explained, “Wendy Oxenhorn launched Jazz in the Schools to also preserve the legacy of jazz by enlisting elder masters of jazz and blues who are in need of work to play educational performances introducing these public school children to jazz. Since then, the performances have included venues like children’s hospitals and nursing homes.”[13] Hentoff also writes: “Wendy Oxenhorn, the foundation’s executive director—is the most determined, resilient, and selfless person I have ever known—she has emphasized to me “It’s a privilege to be of service to people who spent a lifetime making our world so beautiful with their music and giving us all they had.”[14] Time Warner Inc. Chairman Richard D. Parsons said in an interview that Oxenhorn’s ability to help artists quickly was a big factor in his decision to donate both his own money and corporate funds. “On the basis of an article I read in the NY Times, I just sent the foundation a check, Parsons said, adding that he subsequently met Oxenhorn. “She is `sui generis,’ as we say in the law. She is one of a kind. When she sets her heart on something, she is fearless in pursuing it.[9]

Actor Michael Imperioli, who got involved with the Jazz Foundation after being moved by the spirit of the foundation’s work, believes that her role in the industry is thoroughly unique. “I’m surprised that she hasn’t been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and lauded in some public way – not to single out any one person, but she deserves to be on that sort of platform,” Imperioli told ABC News. “People should really know this person,” Imperioli said. “She should get a Congressional Medal of Honor as far as I’m concerned. She gets an immense amount of joy from helping people. I’m a Buddhist, [and] in my religion, we call that a bodhisattva—someone who actually dedicates their lives to serving and helping others and that’s who she is.”[15]

Since 2001 Oxenhorn has generated over 70 million dollars and the organization now assists 7000 emergency assists a year and continues to save the homes and lives of thousands of musicians in crisis.

Hank O’Neal

During a forty-year career in music, Hank O’Neal formed two record companies (Chiaroscuro Records and Hammond Music Enterprises); built two recording studios (WARP and Downtown Sound); produced over 200 jazz LPs/CDs and, in conjunction with his business partner Shelley M. Shier and their production company HOSS, Inc., produced over 100 music festivals (The Floating Jazz Festival, The Blues Cruise, Mardi Gras At Sea, Big Bands At Sea and others from 1983-2002); published a number of books and articles on jazz; photographed most of the giants of jazz from the second half of the 20th Century; exhibited these photographs regularly; and served on the boards of various non-profit organizations that serve the jazz community, including the Jazz and Contemporary Music Program of The New School (1985 to present), the Jazz Foundation of America (1993 to present), The Jazz Gallery (1995 to present), and the National Jazz Museum In Harlem.

Jimmy Owens

Jimmy Owens is a trumpet and flugelhorn player, composer, arranger, educator, and music consultant. He possesses a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts. Since 1969, his group Jimmy Owens Plus has performed concerts, taught, and lectured at all levels from elementary school through college. An active member of various boards and panels, he has served on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the American Arts Alliance, the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE), and the faculties of the State University of New York and The New School.

Quincy Jones

Trumpeter, composer, arranger, conductor, producer, executive and entrepreneur Quincy Jones is one of the most influential figures in the music industry. Over a span of five decades, Jones has earned a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, winning 27, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. He is best known as the producer of the album Thriller, by pop icon Michael Jackson and as the producer and conductor of the charity song “We Are the World”. In 1968, Jones and his songwriting partner Bob Russell became the first African-Americans to be nominated for an Academy Award in the “Best Original Song” category. In 1971, Jones became the first African-American to be named musical director/conductor of the Academy Awards ceremony. Jones was also the first (and so far the only) African-American to be nominated as a producer in the category of Best Picture (in 1986, for The Color Purple). He was also the first African-American to win the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995. He is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the most Oscar-nominated African-American, each of them having seven nominations. While Jones has found success in nearly every facet of entertainment, it may very well be his humanitarian work that is his defining statement. At the 2008 BET Awards, Quincy Jones was presented with the BET Humanitarian Award.

Sandy Jordan

Sandy Jordan is a professional graphics artist and has worked a lengthy stint as Executive Art Director for the Bill Lutz Group. She is the widow of one of the U.S.’s greatest jazz artists, Clifford Jordan, and has been an integral part of the jazz community for many years. She is a member of the National Academy for Recording Artists (NARAS).