Jon Moynihan, Baron Moynihan of Chelsea

Jonathan Patrick Moynihan, (born 21 June 1948) is the Chair and co-Principal of Ipex Capital, the demerged high-technology venture capital arm of PA Consulting Group of which he was formerly Executive Chairman. Moynihan joined PA, an employee-owned firm of over 2,000 people, specialising in management and IT consulting, technology and innovation, in 1992, as CEO when PA was on the brink of bankruptcy. He retired at the end of 2013.

Early Life and career

Moynihan was the son of the doctor and charity administrator, Sir Noel Moynihan, and was educated at Ratcliffe College, where he won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford in 1967. He read Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology and graduated in 1970. After working for Track Records, War on Want and Save the Children, and then for Roche Products, he studied first at North London Polytechnic, obtaining an MSc in 1976, and then at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, obtaining an MS in 1977.

From 1977 to 1979 he worked for McKinsey & Company in Amsterdam, and then from 1979 to 1981 for the consulting firm Strategic Planning Associates in Washington. He was the president of Moynihan Strategy Consultants between 1981 and 1983, and from 1983 to 1992 he worked at First Manhattan Consulting Group. In 1992 he was appointed as CEO, and subsequently Chairman, of PA Consulting Group.

PA Consulting Group

In 1997 The Wall Street Journal published an article giving an extensive review of PA’s turnaround, focusing on Moynihan’s role in that. In 1999, London’s The Sunday Times published an article discussing PA’s further success, highlighting Moynihan’s contribution to that. PA grew to become, according to a recent article in the Independent "the most important firm you never heard of". A 2015 article in Consultancy News, about PA's recent acquisition by the Carlyle Group stated "Following arguably one of the most noteworthy turnarounds in consulting's history, PA under the leadership of former CEO Jon Moynihan (who also introduced the firm's fully employee-owned business model) regained its flair, laying the foundation for the firm's successful heritage over the past two decades". The stake by Carlyle, valuing PA at $1 billion according to the Financial Times, preserved PA's employee ownership ethos while giving Carlyle a 51% stake in the Group.

Moynihan created PA's venture capital arm.

Charitable and voluntary activities, and other personal data

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. He was 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. Moynihan was instrumental in encouraging a major benefaction to the School for the Ernest Butten Professorship of Management Studies. He helped found, and was first Chairman of, The Helen Bamber Foundation, a charity headed by Helen Bamber that works with refugee victims of human rights violations. In 2010 Moynihan was created a 'Distinguished Friend of Oxford'. From 2011-2016 he was a Fellow of Gray's Inn. Moynihan has been a Member of Council at the Royal Albert Hall since 2012 and was elected as its President in 2015. He is also a member of the Court of Imperial College London.

During the 2016 Brexit Referendum campaign he supported a "leave" vote and was on the Board of Business for Britain and of Vote Leave, where he chaired the Finance Committee.

Moynihan 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.