Nicholas Pardon is the Founder and Chairman of Pardon, a family office and venture studio operating at the intersection of arts, media, and lifestyle, and the Founder of Optimism. What distinguishes how he builds is where he begins: as an artist whose foundational practice is collage — the art of finding meaning in fragments, assembling new wholes from what already exists. That sensibility shapes how he thinks about culture, capital, and the institutions he creates. Both Pardon and Optimism reflect the same conviction: that art and enterprise belong together, and that the most enduring organizations are built when imagination, connection, and purpose are treated as strategy, not decoration. That belief finds its most tangible expression at Cannery Village in Newport Beach — a campus where arts, community, and wellness converge. Nicholas lives and works between Laguna Beach and West Hollywood, California.

As Pardon’s Head of Finance, Liz brings multifaceted professional experience and an entrepreneurial spirit, all of which make her uniquely suited to help steer Pardon’s collection of portfolio companies through their stages of growth. Over the course of her career, she has worked in public accounting at EY, led teams at high-growth startups, and even built her own cookie company. As a passionate storyteller, Liz merges metrics with engaging narratives to help teams understand their financials and drive better business performance. She holds a master’s degree in Accounting and a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Wake Forest University, as well as her CPA and CMA. She resides in Denver.

Alex is Pardon’s Chief of Staff, working closely with Nicholas to ensure that the organization’s intentions and initiatives move from vision to execution with precision and consistency. He operates across all of Pardon’s ventures, with a particular focus on Optimism and its intelligence platform — bringing to that work a sharp analytical mind developed through roles at Greenwich Associates and The CARLab, the automotive analysis and consulting firm where he rose from analyst to manager. A Babson College graduate with a degree in entrepreneurship, Alex came to Pardon having already built the operational instincts that complex, multi-venture organizations demand. Raised in Connecticut and now based in Newport Beach, he remains a devoted automotive enthusiast — someone who understands, perhaps better than most, that great performance is always a function of great engineering.

Charlo Walterbach is Pardon’s Head of Studio, leading the design team responsible for brand and identity development across the organization’s growing portfolio of ventures, publications, and experiences. A multimedia artist and designer originally from Mexico and long based in Denver, Charlo brings to that work a practice rooted in the belief that design — like art — should do more than communicate; it should connect. His own work, dense monochromatic compositions built from symbols, letters, and line, has been exhibited nationally, earned him a TEDxMileHigh keynote, and led to collaborations with Amazon, United Airlines, and Nextdoor, for whose New York Stock Exchange listing he produced a live mural at the exchange. At Pardon, that same sensibility — rigorous, joyful, community-minded — runs through everything the studio makes.

Justin oversees the portfolio of properties and advises on investment decisions across the Pardon Family Office’s current holdings. To this work he brings more than six years in commercial real estate, where he developed the operational precision and project management discipline that complex, multi-stakeholder environments demand. His background as a real estate executive translates directly into the kind of meticulous, trust-building partnership that the Pardon portfolio requires. He has deepened that expertise through Harvard’s course on family office operations, bringing both field experience and institutional perspective to his role. An Orange County native, he holds a Bachelor of Science in English from the University of California, Irvine, and currently lives in Irvine. What drives Justin is a genuine passion for the operational layer that makes ambitious work possible — the systems, the precision, and the steady hand that let every other part of the organization move with confidence.

Eduardo advises Pardon on external messaging, shaping how both organizations show up in the press and at live events. This builds on a career dedicated to translating ideas into stories and experiences people want to be part of. As Pardon’s Head of Arts, he supported the Pardon Collection, Cannery Village Gallery, and Collé, as each deepened ties with local communities, while guiding brand voice and communications across Pardon’s ventures. Before Pardon, he spent 13 years as creative director and CEO of the experiential design firm Imagination, following early chapters at MTV, in book publishing, and in film. He lives between Los Angeles and Venice, Italy.

Nathaniel advises Pardon on its current and future investments, supporting the Pardon Family Office in realizing the full value of the ventures it has invested in, and on talent across the organization. It’s work that follows the throughline of his career: assembling the right people and designing the systems that let organizations perform at their best. He co-founded the Pardon family office with Nicholas Pardon in 2021, serving as Managing Director and guiding its first phase of venture development. As CEO of Super Age, he led the brand’s expansion into fitness and live experience, launching Super Age Games and The Standard, its training protocol. Earlier, he co-founded ReWork, a recruiting firm acquired by Koya Leadership Partners. He lives in the Hudson Valley.

Shauna Shapiro, PhD, is professor,  internationally recognized expert in mindfulness and compassion, best-selling author, and clinical psychologist. She has published over 150 journal articles and authored three critically acclaimed books, translated into 19 languages. Her work has been featured in American Psychologist, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Oprah, and NPR. She has presented her research to audiences including the World Council for Psychotherapy, Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Summit, the Danish Government, and Fortune 500 companies like Google, Cisco Systems, and LinkedIn.