John Joseph Raffaeli Jr. Honored as a Human Capital Expert and Philanthropist

    COROLLA, NC, December 13, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- John Joseph Raffaeli Jr. has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

As a human capital expert, Mr. Raffaeli served in senior human resources roles at four large, global organizations over the first 35 years of his career. Following the attainment of a Bachelor of Arts degree in social science from Waynesburg College and a Master of Science in industrial relations from West Virginia University, he undertook a number of plant, division and corporate-level roles at Continental Can Company between 1976 and 1990, culminating in his appointment to corporate general manager of human resources. Between 1990 and 1995, he assumed a senior human resources role at the legendary investment bank, Salomon Brothers, and was ultimately appointed to senior operating officer of human resources. While at Salomon Brothers, he engineered the first large-scale implementation of a managed health care network in the United States, which was featured in a televised segment on CNBC. From 1995 to 1998, Mr. Raffaeli was co-head of human resources for the Americas Region of UBS and was ultimately promoted to managing director. Between 1998 and 2011, Mr. Raffaeli served as senior vice president of human resources at Thomson Reuters. Throughout this distinguished career, his subject-matter expertise was in demand, as evidenced by his appointment to the board of advisors of the Journal of Health Care Benefits, as a contributing editor of the Managing Employee Health Benefits magazine and as a trustee of the Washington, DC think tank, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

Mr. Raffaeli's success as an education leader is especially notable due to its breadth. From 1992-2003, he served on the board of trustees of King and Low-Heywood Thomas School, a pre-kindergarten to grade 12 private day school. Between 2010 and 2020, he was a visiting lecturer at two British universities, St. Mary's University and the University of Chester, where he taught strategic management, organizational behavior and leadership, global business, project management and managing change to hundreds of international post-graduate students in the United States and in Thailand. He was also an MBA dissertation supervisor and a career school instructor in the state of New York and served on the board of directors of the University of Business and International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition, he assumed the role of acting executive director of the Mountbatten Programme in 2015 and is currently the vice chair of the board of directors of that institution.

Mr. Raffaeli's entrepreneurial career commenced in 2011 following his retirement from Thomson Reuters. Since then, he has been the co-owner and president of C3 Investment Holdings, LLC, which has vineyard, winemaking and real estate investments in Argentina, as well as a whisky business in Scotland. In November 2020, Mr. Raffaeli's Mendoza, Argentina wine operation, ARTINA, was named the Argentina Barrel Aged Winery of the Year by the New York International Wine Competition, granting double-gold (96 points), gold (94 points) and silver (92 points) medals to the three wines he entered into the competition. Additionally, the New York International Spirits Competition named his 25-year old scotch the Blended Scotch Whisky of the Year in 2021 and presented gold medals to all three of his scotch entries. In September 2020, he was quoted in the New York Times article, Dream Homes for Golfers and Wine Lovers, which featured his Argentina residential community, Algodon Wine Estates, in San Rafael, Mendoza Province.

As a philanthropist, Mr. Raffaeli is especially proud of his immersion in numerous charitable endeavors. He has served on nine nonprofit boards of directors, accumulating over 90 years of aggregate service. During this tenure he served as the Chair of three of these boards and as the Vice Chair of three of them. His commitment to helping others has been recognized, having received the Distinguished Service Award from King School in 1999, admitted to the 1865 Society at King School for cumulative gifts in excess of $250,000, named a Leader of the Movement by buildOn in 2016 and honored with The American Hero Award by the National Kidney Registry for his non-directed kidney donation in 2017 to extend the life of someone unknown to him.

To raise funding and awareness of ALS, Mr. Raffaeli produced a stage play, "A Lucky Life," in honor of baseball legend, Lou Gehrig, and his courageous battle with ALS. But, perhaps the most enduring expression of Mr. Raffaeli's philanthropy is the funding of five buildOn schoolhouses for underprivileged children in Africa, Nepal, Nicaragua and Haiti. When he and his family traveled to Mali, Africa in 2002 to participate in the construction of their initial schoolhouse, they were the first family unit to fully-fund a buildOn school, inspiring numerous similar acts by others. Upon Mr. Raffaeli's 2021 retirement from the buildOn Board of Directors after 18 years of service, a school in Mali, Africa was dedicated in honor of him and his family.

Inspired by the patriotic service and accomplishments of numerous members of his family, Mr. Raffaeli embarked upon a comprehensive study of his ancestry that resulted in the creation of a family tree with over 20,000 members. As a result, he is preparing a book that chronicles the lives of many in his family who were members of royalty, pioneers, statesmen, believers, healers, artists, industrialists and local heroes. This research also revealed six of his grandfathers who fought for freedom in the Revolutionary War, leading to his induction into the Sons of the American Revolution. One of these grandfathers was an officer and an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, which was founded in 1783 and is the oldest patriotic organization in the United States. Mr. Raffaeli was honored to have been inducted into this society in 2022 as a hereditary member of Captain John Hughes.

Mr. Raffaeli attributes his happiness and success to his family, who epitomized hard work, helping others and love of country. They were the inspiration for his quest to become a human capital expert, an education leader, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist and a patriot.

About Marquis Who's Who®:
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