Dr. Michael Gaffney & Jack Simony

Teaches at The Negotiation Institute

Since 1985 Dr. Michael Gaffney has provided in-house negotiation training, consulting, and facilitation services to over 500 organizations throughout North America and overseas. A graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, he worked for several years as a licensed officer and pilot aboard deep-sea and Great Lakes commercial vessels (Masters, Mates & Pilots, MM&P– ILA, and Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, MEBA District II). He later became an anthropologist (M.A. New School for Social Research, Ph.D. Ohio State University); and it was during a study of merchant seamen in Europe that Mike was introduced to the field of work redesign, employee involvement, and labor/management cooperation–his subsequent specializations. At the National Academy of Sciences, Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and most recently at The Negotiation Institute, Mike has focused his research and teaching on organizational change in industry, particularly with regard to the negotiation of change. To date, Mike’s ’15 minutes of fame’ consists of having been an expert witness in the civil trial of the grounding of the Exxon Valdez.

Jack Simony is Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of The Negotiation Institute, bringing with him decades of experience negotiating complex transactions in a variety of business sectors throughout the world. In addition to the Board of TNI, Mr. Simony is a portfolio manager and Co-Head of Litigation Finance and Credit at Platinum Partners, a hedge fund that originates loans in markets underserved by traditional sources of financing, including litigation, consumer finance, secure trade finance and real estate. At Platinum, Mr. Simony arranges complex credit facilities, finances equity investments and acquisitions, and structures multi-party corporate transactions. Prior to Platinum, he was the co-founder and CEO of Whitehaven Group, a pioneering company in the field of litigation financing, which he ran until 2008. Whitehaven invested in over 10,000 legal claims, and Mr. Simony was responsible for its litigation funding goals and its operations, new business development, acquisitions, and communications. He successfully directed Whitehaven to a nationwide enterprise. Earlier, Mr. Simony was a partner in Knightsbridge Equities, a trading/clearing firm that provided capital and technology to professional traders, hedge funds and family offices, which he successfully sold in 1999. Mr. Simony headed Knightsbridge’s proprietary trading desk and served on its committees for strategic planning and execution, capital market management, and risk management. Mr. Simony is a frequent speaker at finance, litigation, and academic forums around the world, and is involved in a number of non-profit organizations, including Human Rights Advocates International, a United Nations NGO, where he served a three-year term as the group’s representative to the UN. As a CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner), he is a certified expert in the field of fraud prevention. Mr. Simony serves as a Trustee for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is a member of The Army and Navy Club in Washington D.C. and active supporter of a number of philanthropic organizations. Mr. Simony earned a Masters in Financial Strategy from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, and a Masters in Business Administration from HEC Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris.