Meet the Skilled Volunteers for Israel Board of Directors
Saul Gamoran, Seattle, WA - President of Eastgate Partners. Mr. Gamoran has over 20 years of broad based experience in business, finance, distribution, sports and entertainment licensing ,media and technology services, and public service. As President of Renaissance Strategies, a consulting firm, he specialized in entertainment and sports licensing, securing numerous strategic partnerships for Fortune 500 companies. Institutional investors retained him to develop new revenue streams and distribution channels, establish strategic relationships, and turn around troubled companies in their portfolios. Mr. Gamoran served as Chief Executive Officer of Rivals.com during an exponential growth period. He secured strategic investments and partnerships, and strengthened and scaled the business in all metrics, including revenue, profitability, and cash flow. Under his leadership, Rivals launched a subscription service, nationally recognized as the first Internet premium content subscription program. He spearheaded a worldwide content distribution partnership with Yahoo, and negotiated the sale of proprietary technology and intellectual property to ventures in Japan, UK and the U.S. Prior to Rivals, Mr. Gamoran was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Play-By-Play Toys, where he provided leadership and strategic counsel to the largest toy distributor in the amusement industry. He initiated and achieved market penetration throughout Europe and South America. Mr. Gamoran began his career as a deputy prosecuting attorney in King County, Washington. He earned his law degree as well as a B.S. in Speech at Northwestern University.
Judy Kleppel, Philadelphia PA- an American trained physician, Dr. Kleppel has 10 years of experience volunteering in Israel in the areas of health and trauma. Judy brings hands on experience in negotiating and carrying out volunteer opportunities in Israel to the Skilled Volunteers for Israel Board of Directors. Dr. Kleppel has learned to network and continue her relationships with Israeli organizations when she returns to Philadelphia where she works as a Rehabilitation Physician. In addition, she performed community based fundraising for Israeli nonprofits from the USA based on her personal knowledge and enthusiasm for their mission.
As a volunteer and board member, Dr. Kleppel brings the knowledge and experience of what it takes to succeed and add value to an organization’s mission in another country. She expects to help Skilled Volunteers for Israel create opportunities for other people with professional skills to meet the needs of a range of organizations in Israel.
Karen Koven, Phoenix AZ – A certified public accountant, Ms. Koven’s professional experience includes accounting in the public and private sectors as well as teaching and administrative experience in public education. She has served on the boards of two Jewish organizations, has volunteered in Israel through the IDF program and volunteered with PresenTense during the summer of 2010, assisting that organization with upgrading their financial systems to QuickBooks and training agency staff.
Annette Hochstein, Jerusalem Israel - Annette Hochstein served as President of the Mandel Foundation-Israel from 2004-2010. She is a member of the founding group of Mandel Foundation’s endeavors in Israel, including the Mandel Leadership Institute. A policy-planner by training, she established the Institute’s policy studies department. Ms. Hochstein has contributed to major policy-analytic projects, including the West Bank Database Project and the Commission on Jewish Education in North America. She was trained in public policy at the New School for Social Research (M.A. degree), MIT (as Humphrey Fellow), and at the University of Michigan.
