2012 Infinity Award: Trustee

John "Launny" Steffens is the Founder of Spring Mountain Capital, LP, an alternative investment firm. Prior to founding Spring Mountain Capital, he spent 38 years at Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., where he held numerous senior management positions, including President of Merrill Lynch Consumer Market, Vice Chairman of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., and Chairman of its U.S. Private Client Group. Steffens served on the board of directors of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. from April 1986 until July 2001. He has served as Chairman of the Securities Industry Association and as a Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development. In 2001, he founded Vineyard 7 & 8, a boutique winery located on Spring Mountain in Napa Valley, California, and operated by the Steffens family. Steffens is currently National Chairman Emeritus of the Alliance for Aging Research, serves on the advisory boards of StarVest Partners and Wicks Communication & Media Partners, LP and is on the board of directors of HealthPoint Capital and Colony Financial, Inc. He is Chairman of the board of directors of Cicero, Inc. and was recently appointed to the Dartmouth Medical School Board of Overseers. Steffens received the 2010 Billie Jean King Contribution Award from the Women’s Sports Foundation. He earned a BA in Economics from Dartmouth University and completed the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Business School.