Our Founders:
Roger Daltrey & Pete Townshend

Elizabeth Barry is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Delta Systems, Inc. in Streetsboro, OH.   She has been a board member of the company since 1995, becoming President in 2005, and she assumed the additional role of CEO in 2007.

Elizabeth is the recipient of several prestigious awards – most recently in Crain’s Cleveland Business as Crain’s Notable Women in Manufacturing.    In 2016 she received the Streetsboro Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Recognition Award.   She was also recognized by Smart Business magazine in 2011 in “Women Who Excel” and received the “Leading Edge Award” from Entrepreneurial Edge in 2010 and the “Image Award” from the Streetsboro Chamber of Commerce in 2008. 

She is also a member of the following organizations:  Governor’s Executive Workforce Board; Portage Development Board; Ohio Manufacturing Association Workforce Leadership Committee; Streetsboro Chamber of Commerce; Cleveland Museum of Art Business Advisory Group and the Women’s Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art; Board of Trustees, Rainbow Babies and Children’s Foundation; Board of Trustees, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society; and the Women’s Council of the Union Club of Cleveland.  Elizabeth is also an active alumna of Middlebury College serving as an Alumni Interviewer.

Her son Matthew Barry, was diagnosed with Pre B-Cell ALL Leukemia at age 19, and received care at one of TCA’s partnered hospitals, University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.

Rick French is chairman & chief executive officer of French/West/Vaughan (FWV), one of the nation’s largest independently-owned public relations, public affairs, advertising and digital media agencies. He is 2017 inductee of the North Carolina Media & Journalism Hall of Fame; has twice been named PR Agency Professional of Year; and is listed among the 300 “Most Influential Communicators in the World,” by PR Week.  But that’s only part of Rick’s resume: he is also a noted film financier and producer who serves as Managing Partner of Prix Productions; he co-owns the Daytona Tortugas, the Advanced A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds; and holds board seats and private equity investments in a half-dozen other media, sports and entertainment ventures. He is a national trustee of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum in Cleveland, Ohio and the London-based Buddy Holly Educational Foundation.

Rebecca Rothstein is a Managing Director, Private Wealth Advisor at Merrill Lynch Private Bank & Investment Group. Rebecca and Ron, her husband of many years, have four sons and live in Beverly Hills, CA. Rebecca became involved with Teen Cancer through her friendship with musician Roger Daltrey: “It’s always been Roger’s dream to bring the teen cancer cause to America, and I’m honored to help him achieve that vision.”

After an early career in the William Morris office in London working in business affairs, meeting and working with many of the movie and rock stars of the mid to late 70’s, he went back to music, his first love and signed a songwriting deal and had songs recorded by various artists, at the same time he worked closely with Jeff Wayne writer and producer of the multi million selling musical version of HG Wells’ The War Of The Worlds and various other music companies consulting on business affairs and music publishing, including Trinifold Management. In 1983 he became a Director of Trinifold and later Managing Director. Over the past 30 years he has worked closely with CEO Bill Curbishley on all the company’s artists and now co manages The Who and looks after several other artists on the roster. He has also worked extensively on The Who and Led Zeppelin catalogues exec producing several documentaries and live concerts. He became involved with Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK in 2000 when The Who performed with special guests at the Royal Albert Hall and has worked with the charity as a patron ever since.He hopes to help Roger Daltrey and the Board establish the charity as a major force for good in the USA.

Howard Jaffe is an attorney and serves on the boards of nonprofit companies. A long time passionate fan of The Who, he approached Roger Daltrey about founding a charity in America similar to the ideas and success of the Teenage Cancer Trust in the United Kingdom. Howard became part of the team that organized and launched Teen Cancer America and hopes to expand the charity to cover the entire United States so every teen battling cancer has a place in a hospital to simply be a teen.

Dr. Glenn G. Taylor is a board certified orthopedic surgeon and a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery. He is a founding member of Neurosurgery, Orthopedics and Spine Specialists of Waterbury, Ct., one of Ct.’s most highly regarded specialty practices. Dr. Taylor is a former Chief of Staff at Waterbury Hospital, ranked as one of Connecticut’s top hospitals by U.S. News & World Report in 2012. Educated and trained in England at King’s College, London and St. George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London and at Yale New Haven Hospital and Newington Children’s Hospital in Connecticut, Dr. Taylor is experienced in both British and American hospital and health care systems. This special expertise facilitates dialogue and liaison between physicians and hospitals wanting to develop teen and young adult cancer centers here in the U.S. and established programs in the U.K.. Glenn and his wife, Maria, are committed and honored to work with Roger and Teen Cancer America in this wonderful cause.

Jeff Ward is Chief Strategy Officer for First Citizens Bank, the official sponsor of Teen Cancer America in the Southeastern US. Jeff and his colleagues throughout the bank are excited to introduce TCA – First Citizens’ most comprehensive philanthropic effort ever – to people across our markets. The bank’s goal is to spread the word about TCA’s mission and help fundraise and sponsor new medical centers coming on board, primarily in the Carolinas.

Zachary Cohen is a recent graduate of Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Business where he received his degree in Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises. He is deeply involved in managing his family’s Transportation and Logistics Company, New England Motor Freight, which operates inmore than 30 offices in 15 states throughout the Eastern U.S. In spite of his young age, Zach has been active in many philanthropic causes. His membership on the Syracuse University Student Philanthropy council helped support the creation of the University’s Scholarship in Action program, whose goal is to transform the lives of both current and future SU students. In addition, he has worked to support special education groups such as Cerebral Palsy of New Jersey, by working with administration and
student body of the CPNJ Horizon High School, which caters to the needs of those challenged by the disease. It’s his concern for others and his desire to support causes that impact children and young adults that brings him to Teen Cancer America.

Deborah Montaperto began her career on Wall Street in 1986 and joined Polk Wealth Management in 2008. Prior to joining the team, Deborah was a Managing Director in Citigroup’s Investment Banking division, where she was responsible for fostering important client relationships among Institutional Clients Group and Global Wealth Management, focusing on the delivery of investment banking transactional services to existing clients.
Deborah is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and holds several securities licenses including the Series 7, 63, 65, 31, 3 (Commodities and Futures) and 24 (Supervisory Principal).

She has been recognized from 2010-2014 by Barron’s as one of the Top 100 Women Financial Advisors and by Registered Rep.’s Top 50 Wirehouse Women in 2011. Deborah currently serves on the Morgan Stanley PWM Advisory Council. She graduated with a B.A. cum laude from Tufts University and earned an M.A. degree from the Villa Schifanoia in Florence, Italy.

Maria Taylor is a native of Connecticut and a 26-year veteran of the luxury real estate market in Connecticut’s tiny Northwest Corner. She consistently ranks in the top 3% of the brokers in her firm. Additionally, she has earned the respect of her peers and the community at large through her expertise in the restoration and renovation of neglected vintage properties. Maria also selflessly dedicates her time to an outstanding roster of charitable efforts, including service as a veteran board member on the Saint Mary’s Hospital Foundation in Waterbury, as an active committee member of the Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition, and as a past board member of the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra. Maria brings a facility and an energy for raising the awareness and the resources to make this initiative a resounding success in the USA.

Darren Strowger is the co-founder of the Cloud service company, Excell. By joining IT service and software, Excell provides a number of tech services, including audio visual services, business centers, could and data capabilities, network connectivity, security and more. Darren was a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust for fifteen years, and has lent great contributions to Teen Cancer America.

Mr. Kaplan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Douglas Emmett, Inc. (DEI), an office and residential REIT listed on the New York Stock Exchange. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of DEI. He co-founded Douglas Emmett Realty Advisors in 1991, which grew during the 1990’s into a large manager of institutional real estate funds and is the predecessor to DEI. Douglas Emmett went public in 2006 in what was then the largest REIT IPO in history. Currently, the Company has approximately 600 employees.

Mr. Kaplan is on various boards at UCLA, including the UCLA Board of trustees. He is a dedicated environmentalist and is on the board of the Los Angeles Waterkeeper, an environmental organization devoted to cleaning the Santa Monica Bay. He is also on the board of Teen Cancer America, a charity devoted to improving the lives of teenagers and young adults with cancer. A native of Los Angeles, Mr. Kaplan received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and his MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA in 1986. He lives in Pacific Palisades, California with his wife and their three children.

A highly successful music and film producer and band manager, Bill Curbishley is best known for managing the Who. He founded Trinifold Management in 1974 to handle The Who and later expanded to include other major acts including Judas Priest, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Bill was heavily involved in the stage show of “Tommy,” which went on to garner five Tony awards on Broadway. His further involvement with the Who led to his producing the movies “Quadrophenia” and “McVicar.” Bill also produced the film, “The Railway Man,” based upon an Eric Lomax story about his capture and torture by the Japanese on the Burma-Siam railway during World War II. Bill’s involvement with teen cancer comes about through his long-time friendship with Roger Daltrey.

Dr. Gerald Grant is a board certified pediatric neurosurgeon and Fellow of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the American College of Surgeons. He specializes in the surgical management of pediatric brain tumors and is Division Chief of Pediatric neurosurgery and Acting Associate Professor at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford. He is also an Air Force veteran with extensive neurosurgical experience abroad in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Dr. Grant had the opportunity of training for a year in neurosurgery at Atkinson Morley’s Neurosurgery/Neurology Hospital in London and therefore is very familiar with the noble mission of the Teenage Cancer Trust. He is passionate about advocating for the teenagers with cancer with the primary goal of improving their survival and quality of life on a daily basis. After personally touring Teenage Cancer Trust units in London Dr. Grant was impressed with the impact of these units had on the teenagers and young adults afflicted with cancer as well as the passion of Roger Daltrey and his team in this effort. Dr. Grant is honored to work with such a dedicated team to leverage all the great things that Teenage Cancer Trust has done for teenagers and young adults with cancer in the UK to help build Teenage Cancer America.

As UCLA Health Senior Director of Development, Becky Mancuso-Winding oversees a number of priority patient programs that attract national media attention, which include UCLA Operation Mend, Daltrey-Townshend Teen & Young Adult Cancer Program at UCLA, UCLA Alzheimer’s Dementia Care Program, and UCLA People-Animal Program (PAC).

With a strong conviction to do something more personally fulfilling in her career, Becky transitioned from the entertainment industry to healthcare in 2009, making the connection to UCLA Health through her twelve years of serving on the Board of Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, where she was very involved in a number of pediatric healthcare initiatives and was instrumental in starting the ongoing annual fundraiser, Mattel Party on the Pier. Throughout her career, Becky has held numerous executive positions in the film and music industry, but is best known for her pioneering work as one of the industry’s first credited feature film music supervisors, having crafted award winning soundtracks for over forty music oriented films, including Urban Cowboy and Footloose. She was a producer on a number of award winning television specials that included Sesame Street’s Elmopalooza for ABC, The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Sesame Street for ABC, Elmo Saves Christmas for PBS and Cinderella featuring Dorothy Hamill and the Ice Capades for ABC.