Leadership

Philip C. Keevil, MA (Oxon), MBA, FRSA, is the Chairman of the UK Focused Ultrasound Foundation and an Advisor to the Charlottesville, Virginia based Focused Ultrasound Foundation. Mr. Keevil has over 40 years of private equity and investment banking experience as well as extensive experience with not-for-profit entities. His particular expertise is in cross border M&A. In 2005 he became a Partner in Compass Partners Advisors LLP, a privately held, corporate finance and M&A advisory firm based in New York and London. From 2006 to 2014, he also served as Chairman of the Risk Advisory Group, a leading international risk, security and investigation consulting firm. From 1995 to 2005, he served as Citi’s Salomon Brothers’ Head of M&A in New York, and starting in 1997, he served as Head of EMEA M&A and Chairman of its European Equity and Fixed Income Commitment Committees. During that time, he advised such European corporations as ABB, GlaxoSmithKline, Holcim, Merck KGaA, Roche, Shell, Syngenta, Tesco and Volkswagen AG. Prior to Salomon/Citi, Mr. Keevil was responsible for S.G. Warburg’s corporate finance and equity capital markets businesses in North America. Before joining S.G. Warburg (now UBS) in 1987 as head of US M&A, he was a General Partner at Lazard Frères & Co. in New York and served as a Co-Head of its International Department. Mr. Keevil began his investment banking career in 1975 at Morgan Stanley in New York. Before business school, he worked for Unilever in England for five years as a member of its Management Development Scheme.

Mr. Keevil is a member of the Advisory Council of the London Symphony Orchestra and a Trustee of its American Foundation. He is a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the International Bankers’ and Poulters’ Companies, where he was Master in 2000. He served as a Director of BritishAmerican Business Inc. and Vice Chairman of its predecessor the British American Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Keevil was a founding member of the Business Advisory Forum of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and was a member of the European Advisory Board of Sponsors for Educational Opportunities (SEO). He has been a Governor of the City of London School for Girls and a trustee of St. Bernard’s School in New York and St. Andrew’s School in Delaware. Mr. Keevil is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Mr. Keevil holds BA and MA degrees with honors in Mathematics, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University, and an MBA degree from Harvard University with high distinction as a Baker Scholar.

Helen Pernelet is a qualified lawyer (solicitor) and Doctor of Governance whose professional career in the private sector has spanned the legal profession, investment banking, and strategic consulting within global banks and professional services firms. She has served on a number of high-level boards and committees within UK government departments, including at the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, as well as within the National Health Service and the non-ministerial departments of the States of Jersey (Channel Islands). These roles also included either chairing or serving on main boards, governing bodies and audit and risk committees.  Since 2006, she has also chaired or served on the boards of several UK charities, most of which have been involved with healthcare, and she is the former chair of the Epilepsy Society. Dr. Pernelet is currently a public governor of Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a trustee of The Meath Epilepsy Charity.

Born in 1946 in Liverpool. Open Scholarship in Modern Languages at Keble College, Oxford.  HM Diplomatic Service 1968-2006. Served in Lebanon, Paris, Luxembourg, Canberra, Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides), was Minister in the British Embassy in Madrid and Ambassador in Belgrade, Dublin and Rome. He was head of counterterrorism in the Foreign Office in the 1980s.

From January 1998 to February 1999 he was on a sabbatical as a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, writing and lecturing on his experiences in Yugoslavia.

Sir Ivor speaks fluent Italian, French and Spanish and very rusty Serbo-Croatian. His hobbies include Italian opera, theatre, photography and sport (skiing, golf). He was for many years a rugby referee and is now President of Oxford University Rugby Football Club.

Sir Ivor is an Honorary Fellow of Keble College Oxford and Trinity College Oxford.  He is  a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (FCIL), a Patron of the Venice in Peril Fund and was Chairman of the Council of the British School of Archaeology and Fine Art in Rome from 2007-2012.  He chairs the Trustees of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.

He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG) in 2000.

He retired from the Diplomatic Service in September 2006 on his election as the President of Trinity College, a post he held until 2017.  He is a Visiting Professor at St Mary’s College, London.

In 2009, he published, as editor and major contributor, the first new edition for 30 years of the classic reference book on diplomacy ‘Satow’s Diplomatic Practice’ (Oxford University Press). A further revised, centenary edition was published at the beginning of 2017. His book on his experiences in Yugoslavia during the Bosnian war and the Kosovo crisis, Conversations with Milošević, was published in 2016.

Professor Gail ter Haar, PhD, DSc, has worked at the intersection of focused ultrasound and physics throughout her career, leading the therapeutic ultrasound team at The Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) until her retirement in 2025. Her work has advanced ultrasound-based cancer treatment through device and protocol development, research into immune stimulation, and applications in liver and kidney tumours. She has also been involved in research into the use of focused ultrasound to resolve twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, a rare condition affecting unborn twins. In 2014, The ICR at the Royal Marsden Hospital was recognised as the first Focused Ultrasound Centre of Excellence in Europe.

Professor ter Haar is the founding President of the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound (ISTU). She trained in physics at the University of Oxford, earned a master’s degree in medical physics from the University of Aberdeen, and holds a PhD in physics and a DSc in clinical medicine from Oxford. She has received the Focused Ultrasound Foundation Visionary Award and the Institute of Physics Peter Mansfield Silver Medal.

Dr. Neal Kassell is the representative of the US based Focused Ultrasound Foundation, the sole member of the UK Focused Ultrasound Foundation. He is the founder and chairman of the US based Foundation and former Co-Chair of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia. He has published more than 500 scientific papers and book chapters, and his research has been supported by over $30 million in NIH and industry grants and contracts. A member of numerous medical societies in the United States and abroad, he has served on many standing and ad hoc committees of the National Institutes of Health and in an editorial capacity for a variety of academic journals. In April 2016, he was named to the Blue Ribbon Panel of Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Dr. Kassell is a founder of numerous private ventures including Interax, Inc.; the Virginia Neurological Institute; Multimedia Medical Systems, Inc.; the Neuroclinical Trials Center; the NeuroVenture Fund; and MedSpecialists.net. He has served on a number of corporate and not-for-profit boards, including Eclypsis Corporation; INC Research; the Prostate Cancer Foundation; Insightec, Ltd.; the Expedition Trust Company; Tuesday Evening Concert Series and Virginia National Bank, and is currently a director of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. He is a shareholder in Insightec, Ltd., where he also served on the board until 2012. Dr. Kassell received his undergraduate and medical education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Executive Director, UK

Helen joined the UK Focused Ultrasound Foundation in 2025 to spearhead further development of the UK organisation, raise awareness of the therapeutic possibilities of focused ultrasound and build advocacy for additional research. She has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare communications industry, most recently as SVP, Managing Director, International Agencies for Precision AQ, following on from her role as Joint Managing Director, Makara Health Communications. She has worked for a number of reputable PR agencies and has experience within the charity sector from her stint as a Senior Press Officer at Alzheimer’s Society. She is passionate about the power of communication and collaboration to drive change.

Secretary to Board of UK Trustees

Michelle Majorin serves as Secretary of the Board of Trustees for the UK Focused Ultrasound Foundation and as Data and Development Strategy Manager for the Foundation’s UK and EU programs. She also supports fundraising operations and donor engagement across the US Foundation. Since joining the Foundation in 2019, Michelle has managed donor and prospect data, tracked and forecasted donations, and ensured data integrity to strengthen international fundraising efforts. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and Business from the University of Colorado.

UK Scientific Programme Director

Professor Chrit Moonen serves the UK Focused Ultrasound Foundation as UK Scientific Programmes Director. He has spent nearly 30 years in the field of focused ultrasound, most recently as professor in the Division of Imaging at the University Medical Center (UMC) in Utrecht, the Netherlands. There, he participated in clinical trials exploring focused ultrasound for bone metastases, breast cancer, and histotripsy in combination with immunotherapy. Under his leadership, UMC Utrecht became the tenth Focused Ultrasound Center of Excellence. Prof. Moonen also serves as Scientific Programs Director at the US-based Focused Ultrasound Foundation.

Director of UK Finance

Skyler Kitchen serves as the Director of Finance for the UK Focused Ultrasound Foundation. He joined the Charlottesville, Virginia based Focused Ultrasound Foundation in February 2019 as Financial Analyst and became Director of Finance in August 2021. Previously, he worked as an investment operations analyst for an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer and as a project analyst for a global Contract Research Organization. Skyler earned a BS in Finance from Longwood University and an MBA from the Mason School of Business at William & Mary.