Chris Lowney, formerly a Jesuit, was named a Managing Director of J.P. Morgan & Co. while still in his thirties and held senior positions in New York, Tokyo, Singapore and London until leaving the firm in 2001. He served successively on Morgan's Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Investment Banking Management Committees, accumulating extensive multinational experience at a company regularly ranked one of "America's Most Admired Companies" by Fortune magazine.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Lowney was a Jesuit seminarian for seven years. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Fordham University, where he also received his M.A. and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He is holder of honorary Doctoral degrees from St Louis University, Marymount Manhattan University, and from the University of Great Falls.

His first book, Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company that Changed the World was the #1 ranked bestseller of the CBPA and was named a finalist for a 2003 Book of the Year Award from ForeWord magazine. It has been translated into ten languages.

His second book, A Vanished World: Medieval Spain’s Golden Age of Enlightenment was nominated for La Coronica award. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly said, “This bold and compassionate articulation of medieval Spanish history, with its complex interactions among Jews, Muslims and Christians, speaks directly to contemporary international crises...This engrossing and illuminating book deserves the attention of a wide public."

In 2006, Mr. Lowney undertook (but could not complete!) a walking pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela to raise money for charities providing education and healthcare in the developing world by pledges to “Pilgrimage for Our Children’s Future,” a non-profit organization. To learn more about this pilgrimage or to support the organization, visit www.pocf.org.