New York's Meditation Town Halls for Business Leaders, 2014 to 2017

Four New York town hall meetings on Transcendental Meditation for business leaders, 2014 to 2017: where they were held and who was on stage.

Between 2014 and 2017 the David Lynch Foundation and the Center for Leadership Performance held a series of forums in Manhattan on Transcendental Meditation for business leaders. They called them town hall meetings, and they put bankers, chief executives and doctors on stage to talk about their own practice. This article brings the four events together: where each one was held, who was listed to speak, and what is known about how it went. Job titles are given as they were at the time.

The page at this address changed with each event, so the earlier versions survive only in the Internet Archive.

February 11, 2014: the AXA Equitable Center

The earliest town hall in the site’s records took place on Tuesday, February 11, 2014, under the title “Meditation, Creativity, Performance and Stress.” The David Lynch Foundation hosted it in an auditorium at the AXA Equitable Center, on the West Side of Midtown. Institutional Investor put the audience at about 300 people.

Andrew Ross Sorkin of CNBC’s Squawk Box and The New York Times DealBook moderated. The evening ran as three panels, on business, on health and on women in work. The speakers included:

Ray Dalio (Bridgewater Associates, founder)
Dr. Mehmet Oz (television host, The Dr. Oz Show)
Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post Media Group, editor-in-chief)
Dr. Pamela Peeke (physician and television host)
Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell (New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, dean)
Dr. Norman Rosenthal (Georgetown University, psychiatrist)
Leslie Seymour (MORE magazine, editor-in-chief)
Bob Roth (David Lynch Foundation, executive director)

Money raised that night was set aside to teach TM to young people at risk and to veterans in New York. Dalio’s remarks drew the most coverage; our page on Institutional Investor’s report covers what he said.

March 16, 2016: the New York Times auditorium

By January 2016 the page at this address announced a second town hall for Wednesday, March 16, 2016, at the New York Times auditorium at 242 West 41st Street. Wine and food were set for 6 p.m., with the discussion at 6:45. Tickets were on sale. The listed speakers were Rick Goings, chairman and chief executive of Tupperware Brands; Stacey Bash-Polley of Goldman Sachs; Bill Koenigsberg, founder and chief executive of Horizon Media; Barry Sommers, chief executive of Chase Consumer Banking; Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, the Lenox Hill Hospital cardiologist who ran its women’s heart health program; Dr. Norman Rosenthal; Stephanie Ruhle, then a Bloomberg anchor; and Bob Roth.

The page was saved before the event. We did not find a report of how the evening went, so we can say only that it was scheduled.

September 14, 2016: the TimesCenter and a webinar

In August 2016 the page announced a daytime town hall for Wednesday, September 14, at 1 p.m. Eastern, on the TimesCenter stage and as a national webinar. Stephanie Ruhle was to moderate. The panel listed Barry Sommers, Bill Koenigsberg, Rick Goings, Scott Miller of G100 Networks, Heather Hartnett of Human Ventures, Dr. Rosenthal and Dr. Steinbaum. As with the March event, we found the announcement but no account of the day.

February 28, 2017: the Harold Pratt House

The last event in the series took place at the Harold Pratt House, 58 East 68th Street, on the evening of Tuesday, February 28, 2017. A reception at 6 p.m. came before a discussion at 7. Entry was free because a single donor, the investment manager Spencer B. Haber, covered the cost. By early 2018 the archived page marked the evening as sold out.

Perri Peltz, an HBO documentary maker, moderated. The panel was:

Benjamin Collins, founder of The Connex Group
Dr. Dennis Goodman, cardiologist
Mitch Horowitz, vice president and executive editor at Penguin Random House
Kevin Kimberlin, chairman of Spencer Trask & Co.
Dr. Norman Rosenthal, psychiatrist and author
Bob Roth, who by then led the David Lynch Foundation as chief executive
Orin Snyder, trial lawyer at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, Lenox Hill Hospital
Cyrus Vance Jr., Manhattan District Attorney
Dr. Hooman Yaghoobzadeh, Weill Cornell Medical College

This is the one later event with an outside record. A press release issued by Connex through PR Newswire on March 28, 2017, said the town hall had taken place and was sold out. In it, Collins said his firm valued open debate, and that people needed to listen to themselves as well as to each other.

Who came back

Three names recur. Dr. Norman Rosenthal was listed for all four events. Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum was listed for the last three. Bob Roth spoke in 2014, March 2016 and 2017, but was not on the published panel for the September 2016 webinar.

This page is general information, not medical advice. The Manhattan Business Review is not affiliated with the David Lynch Foundation or any Transcendental Meditation organization, and it does not sell courses. Transcendental Meditation and TM are trademarks of their owners.