How to Give to MEET

Dear MEET Friends,

MEET’s yearlong program is at full speed, with Palestinian and Israeli students working on eight group projects, and exciting developments in MEET’s alumni program including the development of an alumni web portal, professional development workshops, and a project mentored by Googlers at the MEET Venture Lab. Preparations for the summer program (beginning June 24) are underway with the successful recruitment of 17 MIT instructors and student recruitment taking place in the Jerusalem area, Ramallah, and Bethlehem, and for the first time in the Nazareth area. Later this year, MEET will expand by opening a new hub in Nazareth. We are also very pleased that Zach Leverenz has taken on a new role as a member of the MEET Board of Directors and that Noa Epstein has joined MEET as our new CEO. We invite you to read all about these developments below.

Zach Leverenz, MEET Board member     Noa Epstein, CEO and Co-Director

Letter from Zach Leverenz to the MEET community

Dear Friends,

After two years at MEET, a number of personal and family circumstances will require me to return to the US, and I have therefore stepped down as MEET’s CEO on March 20. While I am disappointed to leave the MEET family in Jerusalem, I have joined the MEET Board of Directors, where I’ll continue working hard to push forward all the important initiatives underway.  

The good news is that the Board and I have been working together to find an amazing replacement to take over the day-to-day leadership of MEET, and we have been very fortunate to bring on board Noa Epstein as as CEO and Co-Director.

Noa has the right skill sets, values, and experience to take MEET to the next level in reaching our intended impact. She will join a very strong veteran team in Jerusalem and at MIT to ensure MEET’s continued growth and success.

Importantly, Noa will be leading MEET from a position of organizational strength. MEET is currently achieving against all our ambitious programmatic and organizational goals, including an increase in annual funding of over 60% in 2011 and the recent launch of an exciting program expansion to Nazareth. In addition, we have already secured the majority of the 2012 budget, and as a critical mass of MEET alumni begins to form in the region, our new alumni program is already connecting graduates to jobs, universities, start-up projects, and to one another.

It will be very difficult to leave Israel and Palestine, where I have been fortunate to meet so many wonderful people equally dedicated to creating a more just and peaceful Middle East. However, I will not be leaving MEET, and remain committed to pursuing MEET’s goals for 2012 and beyond in my role as a board member.

Thank you,

Zach

New CEO & Co-Director: Strong Local Leader Joins MEET

We are extremely excited that Noa Epstein, an outstanding local leader, has joined MEET as the organization’s new CEO and Co-Director. MEET is fortunate to have such a fantastic professional to help lead the organization as it enters its next phase of growth and impact.

Noa has hit the ground running. She possesses the right background, skills, values, and experience to take MEET to the next level and help achieve the organization’s mission and intended impact.

Noa is an Israeli citizen who has extensive experience in leading cross-border projects and business development in the Middle East. In a recent consulting project she led for Google, Noa created a strategy for Google’s investment in entrepreneurial technology ventures in the Middle East. She has worked as a Parliamentary Assistant and was Program Manager at Peace Now, recruiting volunteers and leading countrywide programs. As Manager of the Mediterranean Department at the Peres Center for Peace, Noa fostered strategic regional partnerships with NGOs, businesses, and government bodies.

Noa holds a first class MBA from the University of Cambridge where she studied d as a Gates scholar. Noa is also a graduate of the Red Cross Nordic United World College (UWC) in Norway, an international school presided by Nelson Mandela and Queen Noor of Jordan, and holds a B.A. in International Relations (summa cum laude) from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She speaks five languages, including Arabic, and is passionate about building a better future for Israelis and Palestinians through promoting pragmatic cooperation through education, business, and technology.

New bi-national leadership structure

With ambitious expansion plans and MEET’s growing prominence, the MEET Board of Directors recently affirmed the importance of local leadership and has created a new bi-national executive leadership structure. Two co-directors, a CEO and COO (Chief Operating Officer), will jointly manage MEET’s day-to-day operations. We are currently seeking a Palestinian candidate to fill the new COO position. In the meantime, Noa Epstein will lead MEET with the help of the board.

New MEET Lab in Jerusalem!

A new Lab space and partnership with the Jerusalem International YMCA, with a significant gift from HP of new computers.

At the end of February MEET’s yearlong program moved into a new office space next to the iconic Jerusalem International YMCA (JIY) building on King David Street. A beautifully renovated two-storey carriage house adjacent to the JIY is now home to the MEET Lab and the MEET Alumni Venture Lab. The location of the new lab on the east-west seam and the bi-national and multi-cultural community at the JIY provides an inclusive and safe environment, as well as strengthens our preexisting relationship with the JIY. MEET and the JIY envision a high-impact, mutually valuable partnership that will leverage the unique expertise of both organizations in delivering transformative programming and resources to Jerusalem and the region. For example, we imagine leveraging the skills and expertise of MEET alumni to deliver computer literacy programs to the JIY community.

To match our new lab, MEET will soon receive an entire cluster of new and improved computers! We owe a huge “thank-you” to HP for their generous donation. HP will become the officially recognized sponsor of MEET’s new lab and will outfit the space with state of the art machines. Stay tuned for information about the launch event of the new MEET HP Lab!

MEET Expands to the North

The new industrial park in Nazareth being built by Stef Wertherimer.

Now in its seventh year of operation, MEET is positioned to scale its program and deepen its impact. In 2012 MEET is expanding the program to the North by establishing a second program site in Nazareth. The expansion will increase the size of MEET’s student body from 100 currently to over 200 students by 2015. This expansion will be made possible to a large extent by a matching grant from The Charles H. Revson Foundation.

Beginning this year, the MEET program will be delivered using a “central hub” model with the yearlong program sessions taking place in the North and the Jerusalem hubs simultaneously, and the summer program delivered to all MEET student under one roof at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

We are currently recruiting the first class of Arab and Jewish students from the Nazareth-area. On June 24, the inaugural class of Year 1 students from Nazareth will join their classmates from the Jerusalem hub for the start of the 2012 summer program. 

Stef Wertheimer will support the launch of MEET’s Nazareth hub and host our Lab and office in the new Industrial Park he is building in Nazareth. Through establishing strong partnerships with local organizations and stakeholders in Nazareth, MEET seeks to become an important part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the North.

MEET the Challenge!

Leverage your investment in MEET with a match from The Charles H. Revson Foundation

We are very excited to announce that MEET’s long time supporter The Charles H. Revson Foundation has awarded us a two-year challenge grant worth $525,000 to support our expansion to Nazareth and Alumni Program. A condition of this grant is that MEET must first raise $325,000, which then will be matched by the Revson Foundation.

Every dollar that MEET raises to expand our program to Nazareth will be matched 1:1 by the Revson Foundation. We will need to raise $142,000 this year to receive $142,000 from the Revson Foundation. Gifts that we raise for the Alumni Program will be matched 2:1 – up to $33,000. This means that in 2012 MEET must raise $66,000 in gifts to support alumni activities! Next year MEET will have the opportunity to raise the remaining balance.

If you, or someone you know, would like more information or to make a gift to help MEET reach this year’s matching challenge goals, please email Philip Weiser, Director of Development. Thank you!

MEET recognized as a non-profit in the U.S.

MEET reached an important milestone in February when it received the 501(c)(3) non-profit designation from the U.S. government. Donors can now make tax deductible gifts and grants directly to MEET in the U.S. For more information about how you can support MEET please email Philip Weiser, MEET’s Director of Development.

Special Event: Engaging business leaders at the EU Ambassador’s residence

In October 2011, MEET was privileged to address business leaders and European Union government officials in Tel Aviv. Ambassador Andrew Standley, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Israel, and his wife, Judith, hosted an evening event in honor of MEET at their residence in Herzliya. It was a lovely evening and we were grateful for the chance to present MEET to an esteemed group of people interested in our mission. We owe a very special thank you to the Standleys and a MEET volunteer women’s group that helped organize the event.

The event centered on an engaging presentation by MEET students and alumni. MEET students, Shira Asa-El, Laureen Giacaman, Yuval Yogev, and Amin Manna, presented the MEET model and shared their experience of being students at MEET. Following their presentation, MEET alumni Liel Greenberg and Anwar Jabr spoke about the ways in which MEET has impacted their lives and continues to empower them through their current pursuits. Liel is enrolled in a pre-army leadership program in the South and Anwar has been offered an internship opportunity at a leading architectural firm in Paris: Odile Decq Benoit Cornette (ODBC). This special event lead to new connections and increased philanthropic support for MEET. Thanks to the contributions of our stellar students, alumni, and MEET volunteers the event was a real success.