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Founders & Collaborators
The Foundations' Network of Founders, Advisors & Contributors
Founding Members
Justin Stead is the Founder of the Aurelius Foundation, a community interest company with the vision to increase awareness and to share the principles of Stoic philosophy based on the four cardinal virtues of Wisdom, Justice, Temperance and Courage in the pursuit of happiness. The Foundation endeavours to share this philosophy across multiple spectrums of society including Business, Prisons and particular focus to help young people consider how they might plan their journey through life and support their considerations of how to live a life of deeper purpose that contributes to the greater good.
Stead is currently the Chairman of multiple international consumer brands: Desmond & Dempsey, Le Col, Baby Mori and Navy Grey. All businesses originate and operate from London and are backed by private equity/investors. Previously, he was the CEO of Radley London Aurum Holdings, now the Watches of Switzerland Group, which portfolio of brands includes Goldsmiths, Mappin & Webb and Watches of Switzerland from 2006 to 2014. He maintains Board roles with Radley London and Digital MR which is a leading AI technology data translation company.
John is a lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, a Visiting Fellow at King's College London and a member of Wolfson College, Oxford. He is also the author of 'The Art of Living: The Stoics on the Nature and Function of Philosophy', 'Stoicism', 'Hellenistic Philosophy' and 'Lessons in Stoicism'.
John is a founding member of 'Modern Stoicism', the group behind Stoic Week and Stoicon and a Founding Member of the Aurelius Foundation.
Pat is a well-known retired Australian professional tennis player who reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 4 in May 1988. He has a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 6 in August 1988 and a Wimbledon victory in 1987. Post retirement Pat has carved out a successful sports media career.
Joe Eastin is Chief Executive Officer of ISN. ISN is the global leader in contractor and supplier information management, based in Dallas, Texas. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Oklahoma State University (OSU) and a Master of Business Administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Sloan School of Management.
Joe serves on the Americas Board at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Board of Trustees at The Lamplighter School in Dallas and several boards at Oklahoma State University, including helping establish The Eastin/ISN Center for Career Readiness. He is an inductee into both the Oklahoma State Spears School of Business Hall of Fame and Oklahoma State University Hall of Fame. Joe has also served in multiple capacities with the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) Lone Star Chapter. In 2018, he was invited to join the prestigious Salesmanship Club in Dallas, a service organization dedicated to transforming children’s lives.
Following the completion of Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce degrees at Monash University, Melbourne, Guy Hume worked in the Insolvency and Restructuring division of Arthur Andersen for over four years. During that time he worked on engagements throughout Australia and in Asia, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1999.
In July 2014 Guy joined Nomura to Head the Financial Sponsors Coverage team across EMEA, following 7 years with Deutsche Bank in London in a similar role. He previously spent nearly 7 years with UBS, originally in the general industrials group in Melbourne and subsequently in the financial sponsors and leveraged finance team in London. During his career in investment banking, Guy has been involved in a wide range of corporate finance transactions across M&A, lending, equity capital markets and hedging.
Natalia Founded the Aurelius Foundation in partnership with her husband, Justin. The Foundation is a community interest company with the vision to increase awareness and to share the principles of Stoic philosophy based on the four cardinal virtues of Wisdom, Justice, Temperance and Courage in the pursuit of happiness.
She endeavours to share this philosophy to help young people consider how they might plan their journey through life and support their considerations of how to live a life that contributes to the greater good. Natalia is the ‘CEO of the Steads’, a devoted Mother and Wife. She is also a Philanthropist, Investor and keen athlete.
Dr Stephen Weiss
Doctor Weiss, who sadly recently passed away, was an educator, an author, a speaker and a unique humanitarian that everyone who met him realized they were in the presence of something quite rare and unique for his remarkable insights into the “human condition”. Someone who understood the frailties of the human condition but continually triumphed over adversity through Stoicism to live a highly positive and productive life while giving back to others always.
This remarkable human being, and WW2 veteran, saw the best of humanity and the worst of humanity and all throughout, he contributed time and time again to increase GOODWILL to ALL those he met within the professional life he led as a Psychotherapist or within his numerous presentations to business, education, and military communities globally. He is a recipient of the highest level of the Legion D’honneur for his services to the French Republic and many other awards for his service to humanity both on and off the battlefield since he left the horrific theatre of war in WW2.
Doctor weiss' legacy and guidance lives on through the Aurelius Foundation and we are certain he will live on through his teachings.
Foundation Advisors
Professor Christopher Gill is an Emeritus Professor of Ancient Thought, University of Exeter. He has had previous Classics posts in Yale, Bristol and Aberystwyth Universities and has various research fellowships (National Humanities Center, Leverhulme Trust, Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK). Chris has written books on ancient ideas of personality and self, ancient psychology, ancient psychotherapy and ethics, Stoicism, including Marcus Aurelius and Plato.
Michalis is the founder and CEO (@DigitalMR_CEO) of London headquartered DigitalMR Ltd, a tech company in artificial intelligence for data analytics and customer insights. He won multiple prestigious awards and has published numerous eBooks and articles. Michalis is a thought leader on the future of market research, AI, social intelligence and text & image analytics.
A graduate of T.U. Berlin in aerospace engineering, he received his business training through courses at Harvard Business School and LBS and has been in marketing research consulting since 1991. He has lived and worked in numerous countries since, including his home country Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Poland, USA and now the UK.
The fact that stoicism started in Cyprus by Zeno of Citium - who was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy - made it more personal to get involved with Aurelius Foundation and contribute.
Tim is a founder member of the Modern Stoicism Project Team and takes a lead role in the scientific research as Director of Research at Modern Stoicism.
He is an accredited Cognitive Behavioral therapist and a senior High Intensity psychotherapist in the NHS. He is also qualified life coach, counsellor and psychotherapist in private practice.
Tim is the author of several books including Wise Therapy: Philosophy for Counsellors (Sage, 2001), Achieve your Potential with Positive Psychology (Hodder, 2014) and 365 Ways to be more Stoic (John Murray Press, 2022) and has also published many articles on Stoicism.
Eve graduated from the Institute of Education and has taught Psychology for 25 years. She has been a qualified mentor of looked-after children for 10 years. Eve also works as an Employment Consultant with companies and individuals to support disabled employees into work and provide training about disability.
She runs an online course on Stoicism as part of a research project with the Modern Stoicism team. Eve is registered blind / severely sight impaired and credits Stoic teaching with being able to live well with disability.
Andy has worked for HM Prison Service since 1992 starting as a Prison Officer at HMP Pentonville in North London. He completed Physical Education Officer training in 1998 and transferred to HMP Huntercombe in 2002 where he was promoted to Physical Education Senior Officer (Sergeant equivalent) in 2003.
He became interested in Stoic Philosophy to help his best friend who suffered with depression and could quickly see the value in the Philosophy as it improved the quality of his life. He then decided to teach Stoicism to prisoners at Huntercombe.
Donald is a writer, cognitive-Behavioral psychotherapist and trainer. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH).
Donald specializes in teaching evidence-based psychological skills, and known as an expert on the relationship between modern psychotherapy (CBT) and classical Greek and Roman philosophy. Donald’s therapy practice specialised for many years in helping clients with social anxiety and self-confidence issues. His work, and that of his colleagues, has often featured in the media of different countries, including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
Kasey Pierce is an award-winning writer and copywriter/editor based in Detroit, MI.
Kasey is also one of the editors of Donald Robertson’s graphic novel, “Verissimus: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius”–a sweeping epic about the life of Marcus Aurelius (St. Martin's Press) and "365 Ways to Be More Stoic" (John Murray Press).
Michael "Mick" Patrick Mulroy is the former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, serving under Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary Mark Esper. He is also a retired CIA Paramilitary Operations Officer from the Special Activities Center and a retired United States Marine reservist.
He is now the Co-founder of the Lobo Institute, a Co-President of End Child Soldiering, a member of the Board of Advisors of Vandenberg Coalition, and FAMIL USA, on the Board of Directors for Grassroots Reconciliation Group, a nonprofit to help rehabilitate child soldiers, an ABC News National Security and Defense Analyst and, a Senior Fellow for the Middle East Institute.
Mick is a lifelong Stoic, writing and talking on the subject especially as it applies to the military and national defense, and on the Board of Advisors of the Plato’s Academy Centre. He has a bachelor’s degree from Augusta University and a law degree from Samford University. He is married, has one son, two daughters, four goddaughters, and three godsons, and lives in Whitefish, Montana.
Key Contributors
Hollie is the Executive Assistant to Justin Stead (Aurelius Foundation Founder) in all areas of his business and personal life. She was introduced to Stoicism by Justin and the philosophy resonated with her instantly. Hollie Manages the Foundation alongside Sukhraj.
Sukhraj is a Director at the Aurelius Foundation and supports the Foundation’s mission in promoting awareness of Stoic thought. Having applied Stoic thought in navigating Life’s hurdles and successes, Sukhraj is committed to providing others the opportunity to consider how Stoic theory and principles can enhance our Life experience and demystify what living well means to us. In her professional career, Sukhraj practises as a Solicitor at a London city law firm and in her free time enjoys reading and learning to play the cello.
Dhruv's been consoled by and practising Stoicism since his efforts to overcome depression during his undergraduate degree.
Having worked in industry for two years, he is currently studying for a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Cambridge, where in his spare time he enjoys vipassana meditation, some activism, and helping students set up Aurelius Foundation societies at their universities.
Lori discovered Stoicism in her final year of university, when she took Dr. John Sellars’ module ‘The Good Life in Ancient Philosophy’, which combined practical and theoretical elements of Stoic teachings. She has subsequently been exploring Stoicism in her search for a meaningful life, and finds it to be a useful guide.
To complement her philosophical pursuits, she enjoys yoga and meditation.
Ross works within the public sector as a counter-extremist practitioner and is also a National Security Masters graduate from Kings College London. In addition to his interest in Stoicism, he enjoys running, writing and practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
As someone who is navigating the journey of life, Stoicism has become much more to Jay than just a mere philosophy. It has become a beacon of guidance through the highs and lows of life. Stoic perspective helped Jay see a custodial sentence as an opportunity for personal development, teaching him to focus on what he could control and let go of the rest.
This Stoic mindset equips Jay with clarity and strength to face life's complexities with a strong foundation. Driven by a deep-seated desire to contribute positively to his community, Jay founded Brockley Founders, a Community Interest Company, to address the needs of his fellow teammates and the wider community using Stoic principles and values to support mental-health and wellbeing. True fulfilment lies not in avoiding obstacles, but in the relentless pursuit of virtue and self-improvement, both individually and as a community.
John Harlow is a qualified Mountain Leader, Rock Climbing, and Survival Instructor with over six years of experience in outdoor education. John has gained a First Class degree in philosophy and teaches Stoicism and Stoic resilience in adversity through his expertise in hostile situations and environments.
John leads the Aurelius Foundation Stoic Survival course which is set go live in 2022. You can find out more information here.