The New York Stem Cell Foundation

Marlene Hess is a philanthropic consultant and the former Managing Director of Global Philanthropic Services JPMorgan Private Bank (J.P. Morgan Chase).  She has advised clients from the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia and has helped create innovative programs and non-profit organizations. She also advises on not-for-profit operations, governance and outreach.  Ms. Hess has created many conferences and symposia for clients and not-for-profit leaders across the U.S., as well as in São Paulo, London, Frankfurt, Paris and Prague.  She has been an attributed source for background and quotation in Barron’s, The Economist, The Financial Times and American Banker.   

Also formerly Director of Not-For-Profit Relations for Chase, she enhanced the bank’s philanthropic activities and formed extensive partnerships between the corporate and non-profit sectors to benefit the larger community. She created a range of campaigns to raise public awareness about community issues, including the award-winning “Child Vaccination Program,” which Chase spearheaded in partnership with the Children’s Defense Fund and the New York City Department of Health.  Since inception, this public/private campaign has grown to include over sixteen corporations and hundreds of community participating groups, increasing child vaccination rates from less than 50 percent to over 80 percent. 

Ms. Hess serves on the boards of the Museum of Modern Art; Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet; Lenox Hill Hospital, where she is Vice Chairman of the Board; The Rockefeller University; The Central Park Conservancy; and The International Women’s Health Coalition. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Women’s Forum.   She also serves on the Advisory Committee of Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. 

Ms. Hess is also a former member of the Harvard College Board of Overseers’ Committee to Visit the College.  She has served on the Capital Commitment Committee Taskforce of the New York City Partnership’s Financial Recovery Fund to aid in the rebuilding of lower Manhattan. In addition, she is a former director of the American Theatre Wing; and former trustee of the Episcopal School, St. Bernard’s School, the Trinity School, and Women In Need, a non-profit organization for homeless women and their children, all in New York City. 

Ms. Hess was a graduate and a former trustee of Mills College, California.  She and husband James D. Zirin reside in New York City with their two children.