About Us

Henry E. Bessire

Henry E. Bessire joined Brakeley, John Price Jones Inc. in 1980 and is one of five Managing Directors who own and manage the firm. He has particular expertise in working with cultural, educational and environmental institutions.

Mr. Bessire currently has consulting assignments with: The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; ideastream (formerly WVIZ/PBS and WCPN/NPR), Cleveland; Long Island University; Maine College of Art and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. (Former clients are listed on attachment.)

Mr. Bessire is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and an alumnus of Princeton University. After graduation, Mr. Bessire joined Princeton's Annual Giving staff and subsequently served as Assistant Director and Major Gift Coordinator for Princeton's first major capital campaign. Upon completion of that assignment, Mr. Bessire was appointed Director of Development and Vice President at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He managed its founding building campaign for $165 million and also conducted the Center's community affairs and art acquisition program.

Mr. Bessire was then appointed Vice President for Development at Princeton University, where for 10 years he directed fundraising from both private and public sources and participated in University planning and resource allocation. During his tenure at Princeton, Annual Giving tripled and a capital program of $125 million was achieved .

Mr. Bessire has served as a Trustee of Saint Augustine's College, Raleigh, North Carolina, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, McCarter Theatre Company of New Jersey and Princeton-in-Asia. He also has held the position of Senior Warden of Trinity Church, Princeton, Treasurer of All Angels' Church, Manhattan, and as Class Agent and Planned Giving Chairman of his Princeton University Class.

Mr. Bessire currently is a Trustee of The Helm Foundation and the Vineyard Conservation Society, Martha's Vineyard.

Mr. Bessire's avocational interests are centered in the performing and visual arts, including walking and observing architecture, and preserving environmentally endangered areas. American novels and biographies, political analysis and art criticism are the reading fields he particularly enjoys.