Project Healthy Minds: Is Mental Health The Next Big ESG Issue?

Recorded On: 04/01/2022

What can firms be doing to promote and support the health and well-being of their employees as teams navigate the return-to-work process and hybrid work environments? Mental health and wellness experts take participants through a coaching session on leading mindfully.

Marty Griffin (Moderator)

Vice President Operations, Northeast Retirement Services

Martin Griffin brings more than 25 years of financial services operations and distribution management expertise, working with organizations across operations, product development, finance and strategy to grow their business. Mr. Griffin oversees operations at Global Trust Company / NRS. Mr. Griffin over his career has had progressive responsibilities working in operations management at global asset management firms and global banks.

Prior to joining NRS, Mr. Griffin held a number of leadership positions in operations, and business development. Most recently he was Vice President at State Street Bank & Trust with the Institutional Transfer Agent working with varied alternative investment managers. Prior to State Street he was Vice President at Amundi Pioneer Investments, initially overseeing Sales Operations and then focused on Business Development on the national level focusing on strategic partnerships. Earlier in his career Mr. Griffin’s roles included Director of Broker Dealer Services at BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, and varied operational roles at MFS Investment Management.

Sabastian V. Niles

Partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Sabastian V. Niles is a Partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz where he focuses on rapid response shareholder and stakeholder activism, proxy fights and preparedness, takeover defense and corporate governance; risk oversight, including as to ESG, cybersecurity and crisis situations; U.S. and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, buyouts, investments, divestitures and strategic partnerships; and other corporate and securities law matters and special situations.

Sabastian advises worldwide and across industries, including technology, financial institutions, media, energy and natural resources, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, construction and manufacturing, real estate/REITs and consumer goods and retail.

Sabastian has been recognized repeatedly by Chambers USA as one of the highest-ranked Corporate/M&A Takeover Defense attorneys (with clients noting: “His care of the company is extraordinary”), by Lawdragon as a leading U.S. dealmaker and as a BTI Client Service All-Star.

He has counseled boards of directors and management teams on self-assessments, engagement with institutional investors and proxy advisory firms and navigating activist situations involving Paul Singer/Jesse Cohn/Jeff Rosenbaum/Elliott Management, Jeff Smith/Peter Feld/Starboard Value, Bill Ackman/Pershing Square, Barry Rosenstein/JANA Partners, Carl Icahn, Daniel Loeb/Third Point, Scott Ferguson/Sachem Head, Arnaud Ajdler/Engine Capital, David Einhorn/Greenlight Capital, Glenn Welling/Engaged Capital, Jeffrey Ubben/Mason Morfit/ValueAct, Jonathan Litt/Land & Buildings, Keith Meister/Corvex, Mick McGuire/Marcato, Nelson Peltz/Ed Garden/Trian, Relational Investors and Tom Sandell/Sandell Asset Management, among many others.

In addition to serving as Consulting Editor for the New York Stock Exchange’s Corporate Governance Guide, Sabastian writes frequently on corporate law matters and has been a featured speaker at corporate strategy and investor forums and guest lecturer at leading law and business schools.  His speaking engagements have addressed topics such as EESG, Corporate Purpose and Stakeholder Governance; M&A Trends; Shareholder Activism; The New Paradigm of Corporate Governance; Hostile Takeovers; Strategic Transactions and Governance; Board-Shareholder Engagement; Confidentiality Agreements in M&A Transactions; Negotiating Strategic Alliances with U.S. Companies; Current Issues in Technology M&A; Corporate Governance: Ethics, Transparency and Accountability; and Developments in Cross-Border Deals.

Sabastian is a director of the non-profit organization Literacy Partners and of the Harvard Law School Association of New York City. He received his juris doctorate from Harvard Law School, where he co-founded the Harvard Association of Law and Business and won the U.S. National ABA Negotiation Championship representing the Harvard Program on Negotiation. He received B.S., B.A. and B.S. degrees in Finance, Economics and Decision & Information Sciences, respectively, from the University of Maryland, where he won two National Championships and four Regional Championships in intercollegiate mock trial.

Phil Schermer

Founder and CEO, Project Healthy Minds

Phillip Schermer is the Founder and CEO of Project Healthy Minds, a millennial/Gen Z-driven non-profit startup focused on tackling one of the defining issues of our generation: the growing mental health crisis. Project Healthy Minds is building the world’s first digital mental health marketplace to democratize access to life-changing services, partnering with public figures to destigmatize mental health, and creating standards for businesses to better support employee mental health.

Project Healthy Minds has been spotlighted in numerous national media outlets such as NBC’s The TODAY Show, The Hollywood Reporter, PEOPLE Magazine, CNN Business, Variety, The Atlantic, WWD, AdAge, Yahoo!, and Morning Brew, among others.

Phillip has been a featured speaker at leading public health conferences, industry summits, and universities, including the National Academy of Sciences Annual Colloquium, Billboard Music Summit, Kennedy Forum, the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Duke Fuqua School of Business, PRWeek’s “PRDecoded” conference, and more. Phil also sits on a National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative, and is an advisor to stigma researchers at Columbia University and Yale University.

For the past eight years, Phil has worked in finance in New York City. Prior to that, Phil worked in the Obama White House as an intern for the National Economic Council, for Warner Brothers Entertainment on the movie set of The Dark Knight Rises, for Summit Entertainment on the movie set of Perks of Being a Wallflower, and for Live Nation on U2’s 360 tour.

While in college, Phil founded MUSIC Matters, a student-run non-profit at the University of Michigan that built one of the first social impact lifestyle festivals in the US. Today, Phil serves on the MUSIC Matters Board of Advisors.

Phil graduated from the University of Michigan’s Honors Program with a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE).

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Project Healthy Minds: Is Mental Health The Next Big ESG Issue?
04/01/2022 at 11:00 AM (EDT)  |  Recorded On: 04/01/2022
04/01/2022 at 11:00 AM (EDT)  |  Recorded On: 04/01/2022