Jon Moynihan, OBE (born 21 June 1948) is Executive Chairman of PA Consulting Group, the global implementation-oriented consulting firm, with some 3,000 personnel operating in more than 35 countries.
Moynihan joined PA Consulting Group in 1992, as CEO. In 1997 The Wall Street Journal published an article giving an extensive review of PA’s turnaround, focusing on Moynihan’s role in that.[1] In 1999, London’s The Sunday Times published an article discussing PA’s further success, highlighting Moynihan’s contribution to that.[2]
Jon also chairs Ipex Capital Ipex Capital, the demerged venture capital arm of PA, helping to bring leading-edge new technology capabilities to the market. To date, Jon has chaired all of PA's dozen or so ventures from inception through to disposition. Six of PA’s ventures have been sold to date, the most successful being Meridica Inc (maker of a novel drug inhaler), sold for $125m, and UbiNetics Ltd (3G mobile phone technology), sold for $132.5m.[3][4][5] The Ipex portfolio includes Aegate, an innovative leader in the field of drug authentication, formed to provide a global solution to the burgeoning problem of counterfeit drugs[6] Aegate; Zensify, providing a new way of creating and disseminating content on mobile phones, financed by advertising[7] Zensify; Crombie, developer of new PCB surface finish technology Crombie; and Autotxt, specialist in vehicle tracking and in-car telematics Autotxt. ProcServe continues to be a wholly owned business of PA Consulting Group, offering e-procurement solutions to both the Public and Private Sectors[8] ProcServe
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Jon Moynihan went to Grace Dieu Manor House School in England.
Moynihan was then educated at Balliol College Oxford (BA and MA in Psychology and Philosophy - PPP), North London Polytechnic - now part of the London Metropolitan University (MSc in Applied Statistics), and the MIT Sloan School of Management (MS in Business and Finance).
After leaving Oxford University, Moynihan worked for a year at Track Records, the management company for The Who and other rock bands. He then worked for some 18 months in India and Bangladesh, for War on Want and Save the Children. On his return to the UK, he worked at Roche Products Ltd, the UK arm of Hoffman-La Roche, as product manager for various anti-cancer, anti-epileptic, and anti-anxiety and insomnia drugs, including Valium and Mogadon.
After taking his degree at MIT, Moynihan worked first at McKinsey & Company in Amsterdam (1977–79), then at Strategic Planning Associates (which became Mercer Management Consulting, and latterly Oliver Wyman) in Washington DC (1979–81), and then as a partner at First Manhattan Consulting Group in New York, from 1981 to 1992.
Moynihan has been interviewed in and quoted by various publications, ranging from The Economist to the American Banker, Barrons and Newsweek. He has lectured on Strategy and on Leadership at Wharton; the University of Michigan; and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He authored a series of reports on global trends in Managing for Shareholder Value.[9] He authored a 70-page handbook on trends in Banking M&A in the United States.[10]
Moynihan has written extensively on executive compensation and incentives, arguing that top executives are usually inappropriately incented and thus often over-rewarded, commencing with an article exploring the causes of this on the Financial Times opinion page in 1993.[11]
In the UK newspaper The Independent, on 31 March 1999, Jon used survey findings to explore whether there is an optimal form of compensation scheme for top management that will maximise value for shareholders.[12]
However, in a letter to the Financial Times (FT) in 2007, he defended high level top executive reward when it is tied to high creation of shareholder value.[13]
The Economist wrote about PA's unique approach to top level compensation, and Moynihan's role in formulating that approach, in 1998, showing that PA’s approach, adopted by only some 10% of companies, led to superior creation of shareholder value.[14]
More recently he has written on the UK pensions crisis, for example in the FT in 2006 and 2007, arguing for more realistic analysis of the problem, and calling for more proactive approaches by regulators and the Bank of England[15][16]
He has challenged the litigation culture in the US in a letter to the FT titled: ”When a lawsuit can descend into economic lunacy for shareholders".[17]
He has written various articles relating to trends in the industry sectors of the various venture companies he chaired. See, for example, “It’s the Handset, Stupid”, a prescient call in The Wall Street Journal for products such as Motorola's RAZR and Apple's iPhone.[18] And in a letter to the FT he reviewed the negative consequences of the 3G mobile phone spectrum auctions during the 1990s, arguing that while large amounts were garnered for National Treasuries, the industry itself was badly damaged.[19]
In a lengthy 2007 letter to the FT he reviewed the causes of the UK’s Northern Rock crisis, arguing that while Northern Rock had to carry much of the blame, UK regulators were also at fault.[20]
In April 2003, the FT published an extensive report on UbiNetics, PA’s 3G Mobile Venture chaired by Jon Moynihan.[21]
A review of PA's successful Ventures programme, and Jon's role in it, was published in the FT in 2005.[22]
In 1999 he predicted the dot-com crash in a letter to The Wall Street Journal, entitled “The Doomed Cult of Equities”,[23] and in 2001 was interviewed in the Financial Times as to how to manage in the coming downturn.[24]
He contributed a still-referenced chapter, on Swap pricing and profitability measurement, to the first "Handbook of Currency and Interest Rate Risk Management".[25]
He revealed details of PA Consulting's unique approach to leadership development in an interview with the FT in 2005.[26]
He was quoted in The Times of London as having a distaste for brand advertising in the consulting industry.[27]
He has worked for some years to assist the campaign for ‘opt-out’ legislation on organ donation, funding opinion polls on the matter and contributing to public debate on the issue[28]
In 2007 the Financial Times wrote about Jon's hostile view regarding the pernicious influence of chocolate biscuits, and his successful and valuable campaign against them[29] A transcript from Jon's subsequent BBC radio interview on the same topic is available[30]
In March 2009 Jon appeared on MIT TechTV with a presentation on the future of the economy, discussing reasons for the financial crisis and predicting consequences, as well as outlining his positive view on the role of new technologies in bringing solutions.[31]
In the same month, Jon co-wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal about the Green Grid[32]
Moynihan is a Foundation Fellow of and, from 1995 to 2007, Chairman of the Campaign Board at Balliol College, which helped raise during his chairmanship some £35 million for the College and the Oxford Internet Institute. His leadership is considered important in transforming the College’s fundraising into a professional operation.[33]
He is a founder member of the Dean's Council, MIT Sloan School of Management.
He was a member of the Dean's Business Advisory Group at the Said Business School from 1999-2006. Jon was instrumental in encouraging a major benefaction to the School for the Ernest Butten Professorship of Management Studies.[33]
He helped found, and was until recently Chairman of, The Helen Bamber Foundation, a charity headed by Helen Bamber that works with refugee victims of human rights violations. Helen Bamber Foundation
Jon was awarded the OBE in 1994.
In 2010 Jon was created a 'Distinguished Friend of Oxford'.[33]
Jon is a citizen of the United Kingdom and is married to Patricia Underwood, the Coty Award-winning hat designer and Board member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.[34]