John Weiser serves on the Senior Advisory Council of the United Religions Initiative, the world's largest grassroots interfaith organization. He graduated from Harvard Law School and served as a partner of Shearman & Sterling, a Wall Street law firm, before taking the post of General Counsel of Bechtel Group, Inc., an international engineering construction firm. He and his late wife Maria had nine children, one of whom died as a toddler; they have twelve grandchildren. He is currently married to Susan Cony who has six children, twelve grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Weiser is the author of a memoir, A Thousand Kisses: A Family's Escape from the Nazis to a New Life and Grasp the Nettle: Appreciating the Bold Life of Bishop William E. Swing.