Jon Moynihan
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Jonathan Patrick Moynihan, Baron Moynihan of Chelsea, (born 21 June 1948) is a British businessman, venture capitalist and
life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...
. He served as the CEO and executive chairman of
PA Consulting Group PA Consulting Group (formerly Personnel Administration) is a professional services firm that works with public, private and third-sector organisations. It was founded in 1943 by Ernest E. Butten, Tom H. Kirkham and Dr David Seymour, who used a ...
from 1992 to 2013.


Early life

Moynihan was born on 21 June 1948 in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
to Sir Noël Henry Moynihan and Margaret Mary Moynihan (). His father was a general practitioner and a former president of the charity
Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...
. Moynihan was privately educated at Ratcliffe College in
Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
, and then studied at
Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...
, matriculating in 1967. He is a foundation fellow of Balliol. He worked for
Track Records Track Record (a.k.a. Track Records) was founded in 1966 in London by Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, then managers of the rock group The Who. It was one of the first British-owned independent record labels in the United Kingdom. The most succ ...
and then the charities War on Want and Save the Children in India and Bangladesh. Between 1972 and 1976, Moynihan worked at the healthcare company Roche Products. He has additional master's degrees from the
Polytechnic of North London The University of North London (UNL) was a university in London, England, formed from the Polytechnic of North London (PNL) in 1992 when that institution was granted university status. PNL, in turn, had been formed by the amalgamation of the No ...
and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
.


Career

His first consulting job was at
McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...
in 1977 in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
. He left the company to join Strategic Planning Associates in Washington in 1979. Moynihan then founded his own company, Moynihan Strategy Consultants, later merging it with First Manhattan Consulting Group. In 1992, he was appointed as CEO of the consultancy
PA Consulting Group PA Consulting Group (formerly Personnel Administration) is a professional services firm that works with public, private and third-sector organisations. It was founded in 1943 by Ernest E. Butten, Tom H. Kirkham and Dr David Seymour, who used a ...
, and later chairman. At the time of his appointment, PA was "effectively bankrupt". At the company, he transitioned the ownership of the firm from a trust to an employee-owned model. Moynihan wrote a charter of ethics that was mandatory for employees to sign up to. He was credited for turning around the company in the 1990s. Moynihan retired at the end of 2013 as chairman, having run PA for some 22 years, but remained as chairman and a principal of its venture capital arm, Ipex Capital. In 2015, American private equity firm
The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...
obtained a 51% share in the company, valuing PA at $1 Billion. In 2020, PA was re-sold to Jacobs Engineering at a value of $2.5 billion. From 1995 on, he founded, chaired and brought to success numerous startup companies. As a journalist/author, Moynihan has been published extensively on topics such as trade, economics, health and football.


Political activities


Euroscepticism and Brexit

Moynihan supports
Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...
. Prior to the 2016 referendum, he was a member of the
eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies and seek refor ...
campaign group Business for Britain and sat on its board. While at Business for Britain, he was chairman of the editorial board, and came up with the name for Business for Britain's 1,000+ page argument for Brexit, "Change, or Go". He was the chairman first, of the campaign committee; then of the finance committee, and a member of the board of the official pro-Brexit campaign organisation, Vote Leave and was their final Chairman. Moynihan is the chairman of the pro-Brexit right-wing
think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
Initiative for Free Trade.


Support for Liz Truss

Moynihan was the main fundraiser of
Liz Truss Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth da ...
's leadership campaign in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, which led to Truss becoming prime minister in September 2022. Moynihan was against the view that a budget could not be produced without an accompanying
Office for Budget Responsibility The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is a non-departmental public body funded by the HM Treasury, UK Treasury that provides independent Economic forecasting, economic forecasts and independent analysis of the public finances. It was formal ...
(OBR) forecast. He said: "This whole idea that you have to get the tick of approval from the OBR, which has been consistently wrong in its financial forecasts is, in my view, anti-democratic." The bypassing of the OBR was said to be one of the causes of the failure of Truss's and Kwarteng's September 2022 mini-budget, which attempted to rip up decades of "Treasury orthodoxy". In a commentary Moynihan asserted that the prime cause of market disruption at the time was the
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...
's bungling.


House of Lords

Moynihan was nominated by Truss for a
life peerage In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...
in her list of resignation honours. He was created ''Baron Moynihan of Chelsea, of Chelsea in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea'', on 6 February 2024.


Other

In June 2019, he donated £100,000 to
Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...
during the
2019 Conservative Party leadership election The 2019 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered when Theresa May announced on 24 May 2019 that she would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June and as Prime Minister of the Unite ...
. He is chairman of the education reform campaign organisation, Parents and Teachers for Excellence. He has campaigned for the Electoral Commission to be abolished.


Voluntary activities, and honours

He was appointed an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(OBE) in the 1995 Birthday Honours for services to business. Moynihan is a foundation fellow of, and was, from 1995 to 2007, chairman of the Campaign Board at,
Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...
, which helped raise during his chairmanship £35 million for the college and the
Oxford Internet Institute The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research, combining social and computer science to explore information, communication, and technology. It is an integral part of the University of Oxford's Social Science ...
. In 2010, he received a Distinguished Friends of Oxford award. Moynihan is a fellow of
Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...
. He served as the president of the
Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...
from 2015 to 2019. He co-founded, with Helen Bamber, and was the founding chairman, of the Helen Bamber Foundation. He proposed for the Brompton and Marsden Hospitals to merge with other health organisations on the Chelsea Medical campus site. In 2021, Moynihan was named as one of UK's "Top 75 Catholic leaders" by the ''
Catholic Herald The ''Catholic Herald'' is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly magazine, founded in 1888 and a sister organisation to the non-profit Catholic Herald Institute, based in New York. After 126 years as a weekly newspaper, it became a magazine ...
''. He is on the Advisory Council of the Free Speech Union.


Personal life

Moynihan is married to Patricia Underwood, a milliner who won a
Coty Award The Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards (awarded 1943–1984) were created in 1942 by the cosmetics and perfume company Coty to promote and celebrate American fashion, and encourage design during the Second World War. In 1985, the Coty Awards we ...
in 1982.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moynihan of Chelsea, Jon Moynihan, Baron 1948 births Living people Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford British Eurosceptics Conservative Party (UK) donors Conservative Party (UK) life peers Life peers created by Charles III Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Ratcliffe College Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Members of Gray's Inn 20th-century British businesspeople 21st-century British businesspeople British management consultants Alumni of the University of North London 21st-century British politicians Politicians from Cambridge Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford