The rockefeller university

by WYNNE PARRY

The university’s Board of Trustees elected two new members in October 2014: Weslie Janeway, a philanthropist with a long-standing interest in genetics, and Michael J. Price, an investment advisor specializing in the telecom and technology industries. With their elections, the university now has 45 voting trustees.

New trustees. Weslie Janeway (left) and Michael J. Price.

Ms. Janeway has an extensive background in philanthropy, frequently with an emphasis in science. She is president of the Pyewacket Foundation, which supports young investigators in the natural and social sciences as well as community and cultural organizations in New York City. She is currently vice chair of The Jackson Laboratory, and served for six years on its governance and nominating committee. She is also a member of the board of managers of the New York Botanical Garden, where she serves on the science committee, and has been on the boards of Dana Hall, New York Women’s Foundation and Cancer Care, where she served as treasurer. Along with her husband, William Janeway, she cofounded the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance, which funds research on financial economics. She is an honorary member at Robinson College at Cambridge and a Companion of the University of Cambridge Guild of Benefactors.

Ms. Janeway holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Barnard College and a master’s in politics from Brown University. When she and her husband moved to England in 2006, Ms. Janeway studied genetics at the University of Cambridge and she joined the lab of Roger Pederson, a stem cell scientist. During the academic year, Ms. Janeway lives in Cambridge, where she is a sabbatical visitor in the Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine, working with Mark Kotter, a neurosurgeon interested in adult central nervous system stem cells and their precursors. When in New York, she volunteers in Frederick P. Rose Professor Mary E. Hatten’s Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology making the vectors used to transfer genetic material.

She also coauthored the 2008 cookbook Mrs. Charles Darwin’s Recipe Book based on Emma Darwin’s personal notebook found in the Cambridge University library.

“I don’t think a career in academia has ever been easy, but being a scientist has become more and more difficult. Even the top people live from grant to grant. My husband and I have made an effort, one that has proven to be very rewarding, to give young investigators the freedom to do their work without constantly chasing funding,” Ms. Janeway says. “Rockefeller is the perfect place to become involved, because of the integration of science and medicine that occurs here.”   

Mr. Price is a senior managing director at Evercore, an independent investment banking advisory firm with more than $14 billion in assets under management. In addition to heading up Evercore’s corporate advisory business, Mr. Price leads the firm’s technology and telecom groups. He has advised on a number of the largest and most complex transactions in these industries.

“The individual motivation and responsibility required of lab heads at Rockefeller reminds me of how we manage Evercore. I believe the entrepreneurial culture fostered by this structure combined with the enormous resources of the university creates opportunities for transformational outcomes,” Mr. Price says. “Having the chance to watch these innovations closely is very exciting. I am proud to be associated with such an esteemed group.”

Previously, Mr. Price co-founded FirstMark Communications Europe and spent 11 years at Lazard, where he founded and led the firm’s global telecom and technology group. Prior to that, in 1998, Mr. Price co-founded FirstMark Communications International, which raised $900 million to build a fiber-optic network and local access networks covering over 100 cities in Europe.

Mr. Price received a B.S. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Before becoming a Trustee, he was a member of The Rockefeller University Council for 14 years. His wife, Vikki Price, shares his interest in the university.