BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Overview
The Open University of Israel is the largest university in Israel, educating over 53,500 students on its state-of-the-art online higher education learning platform and at its 70 physical campuses spread all across Israel. The Open University’s core values are based on academic excellence, an open admissions policy, social justice and the inclusion of all citizens of Israel. Not only does the Open University include the most diverse student body in Israel – ultra-Orthodox, Arab Israelis, Ethiopians, Druze and the handicapped – but it also educates active duty IDF soldiers at campuses located at top IDF intelligence bases and also has a program for Israel’s best and brightest high school students who wish to enter academia at an early age. It is also the largest educator of STEM students in Israel. Among Israel’s most vital institutions, the tremendous positive impact of the Open University on Israeli society is immeasurable. American Friends of the Open University of Israel is a registered 501c3 organization that provides critical support to the Open University of Israel.
Stuart Chizzik – Executive Director, Development
Stuart Chizzik joined the American Friends of the Open University of Israel in May 2024 as Executive Director of Development. He brings a love for Israel and its people and deep experience in philanthropy, gift planning, and nonprofit management. Previously, he was Director of Development and Major Gifts at the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Chief Development Officer at The Arnold P. Gold Foundation. He also worked at The Kraft Center at Columbia University and the Center for Jewish History. He earned an MBA from George Washington University and a BA in economics and international relations from Tufts University. Stuart is an avid tennis player and lives with his wife and three children in Tenafly, NJ.
Our Board Members
Eran Broshy – Chairman
Eran serves as chairman of the American Friends of the Open University of Israel. He is also a member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT’s governing board), and serves on the national Board of Governors of the American Jewish Committee. In his business career Eran is an accomplished, strategically focused board director and private equity operating executive working broadly across the healthcare space, with a demonstrated 35+ year track record of building high-growth public and private healthcare businesses.
He previously served for over a decade as chief executive officer and chairman of inVentiv Health (Nasdaq: VTIV, now part of Syneos Health), and prior to that was a managing director and partner at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the global strategy consulting firm. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.Sc.), Stanford University (M.Sc.), and Harvard University (M.B.A.).
Kenneth S. Abramowitz – Board Member and Secretary
Kenneth Abramowitz is a Managing General Partner and co-founder of NGN Capital, a healthcare venture capital fund. He previously was a Managing Director with Carlyle Group, and earlier in his career was a healthcare analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. for 23 years, 1978-2001. He was awarded the Number 1 analyst in Medical Devices and/or Services for 15 years by the Institutional Investor magazine, in the Wall Street Analyst Hall of Fame in 2009 with a rank of 15 out of 15,000 analysts.
Ken has been a staunch supporter and contributor to various organizations that are fighting to preserve liberty and to protect Israel and America, serves on the boards of the Israel Independence Fund, American Friends of Likud, and Israel Center for Social and Economic Policy (ICSEP). Ken is the founder of savethewest.com and the chairman of Citizens for National Security. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Business School.
Henri Zvi Bolimovsky – Board Member
Henri Boll is an industry expert with more than 30 years of successful experience in full lifecycle recruiting and business development. Henri Boll is the CEO of Artsorigin and serves on its board of directors. Before being named CEO Henri was PRESIDENT / FOUNDER/CEO of, 123 DONE, COLORS UNLIMITED, and ADVANCED PHYSICIAN FORMULAS. Henri Boll Built a world-class company from a start-up bringing in 600% ROI.
Born in Israel, served in the Israeli army and fought in the 73 Yom Kippur war, Henri Boll is active in the Jewish, and Israeli communities and is on the board of a number of non profit organizations all supporting Israel. He is happiest with his wife Randy raising their two kids Herbie and Adina in New York city, Florida, and the Hamptons.
Pedro Lichtinger – Board Member
Pedro Lichtinger is the Chairman and CEO of Starton Therapeutics. He is an industry executive with a 37-year career in biotechnology and a proven track record of managing and developing business, executing strategic alliances, and building commercial and R&D capabilities.
He is the former President of Global Primary Care and President of Europe at Pfizer Inc with 16 years’ experience, and the former CEO of Asterias Biotherapeutics and Optimer Pharmaceuticals. He holds an MBA degree from the Wharton School of Business and an engineering degree from the National University of Mexico.
William Nazaret – Board Member
William Nazaret is the epitome of entrepreneurship and achievement. The son of a working-class young widow, William became CEO of several public and private companies in the US and overseas in mobile and internet spaces. After obtaining a Ph.D at U.C. Berkeley in 1983, he held a brief stint as a faculty member at MIT which was followed by a prolonged and productive career in private industry which started at AT&T Bell Labs in 1985. By 1993 he had already co-led a successful IPO (ECCS:NASDAQ) followed by an incursion in the first commercial deployment of a High-Speed Broadband service in the US (Time-Warner RoadRunner).
In 1998 he left the cable industry to start what would be a highly successful string of startups in the mobile industry starting with DIGITEL (the first GSM operator in the Americas). As a CEO of the company he led the transformation of a $1 million initial investment into a multi-hundred million dollar exit for his shareholders when it was sold to TIM in 2003. In 2006 he exited his last venture as CEO in the MNO space with the successful sale of DIGICEL El Salvador to DIGICEL Group Caribbean. In 2009 he became the CEO of the first quadruple-play (voice, mobile, data and TV) operator in the Americas (MAXCOM-MEXICO). Since 2012 he is the lead partner in WINA VENTURES his own Angel Investment Fund.He is very active in education, social charity and artistic patronage endeavors as a way to help others achieve the kind of dreams he himself had when he was a child.
Shimon Shkury – Board Member
Shimon Shkury is the President and Founder of Ariel Property Advisors. As President he oversees all investment sales, capital services and research initiatives that the company undertakes. He also co-manages Arlington Equity Group, an international debt and equity platform which has a focus on Joint Venture Equity and Debt Advisory. Arlington specializes in advising clients through the bond issuance process in Israel.
As part of Ariel’s commitment to social responsibility, Shimon and the firm support a number of nonprofits and community organizations. In honor of his late brother, Shimon created the Guy Shkury Scholarship for Excellent Academic Achievement and Determination to financially support promising students at the Open University of Israel. Shimon is a graduate of the Open University of Israel, and has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Shay Solomon – Board Member
Shay Solomon is the Global Executive for Cyber Security Knowledge and Business Development at Check Point Software Technologies LTD. (NASDAQ: CHKP), a leading provider of cyber security solutions to governments and corporate enterprises globally. A passionate and self-driven person, he is in charge of managing Check Point’s Cyber Security Education in more than 60 countries while driving professional education to more than 70,000 students, ranging from CXO, practitioners, and End users. With an educational background in the field of Business from The Open University of Israel and Executive programs at the universities of Stanford, Harvard, and Reichman. Shay brings exceptional managerial, organizational, and interpersonal skills to the AFOUI. Shay has over 20 years of vast experience working at different executive levels of organizations while focusing on generating growth and innovative Cyber Security directions.
Shay initiated SecureAcademy™ which provides a worldwide cyber security education through partnerships with more than 125 higher learning institutions across the world. These partnerships share a common goal: to promote and enhance educational and career opportunities for students worldwide while helping close the world’s gap in Cyber Security Skills. Shay was an active volunteer in the ERAN association Israel’s Emotional first aid service. In addition, he is a Judge at Unistream who works to promote innovative, entrepreneurial, and technological thinking among underprivileged youth.
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz – Board Member
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz is the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He has been a congregational Rabbi for over 30 years, and previously served pulpits in Montreal, Quebec and Mount Vernon, New York.
He has always been deeply engaged in community affairs, and currently serves on the leadership team of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, and on the board of directors of the American Jewish Committee-NY. When he lived in Montreal, Rabbi Steinmetz served as a Vice President of the Montreal Federation, and held executive positions in the Montreal Hillel and the Canadian Jewish Congress. He writes a weekly column for The Jewish Journal, and has written for many other publications, including The Washington Post, The Daily News, The Globe and Mail, La Presse, Haaretz, and The Jerusalem Post.
Stephen Yaffe – Board Member
Stephen Yaffe is the President of Jezam Capital Inc., an entrepreneurial investment and management company. His long and varied career was built on understanding the special qualities, traits, and opportunities for each of his business interests. As Chairman and CEO of Techmire Ltd., a precision engineering and manufacturing company, he led the Company through its IPO in 1986, the development of global markets for its products, and subsequent sale in 2001. During the last twenty years, he invested and provided management and advisory services to the start-up, financing, and sale of various companies in publishing, digital media, real estate, environmental services, and contract manufacturing.
Stephen Yaffe is a graduate of Concordia University in Montreal (BA ’72), The Ivey School of Business at Western University in London, Ontario (MBA ’74), and in 2022, a certificate program in Corporate Governance at The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. He is an avid but average tennis player, enjoys biking and hiking, and hopes to resume travelling extensively now that the COVID pandemic is under control.