Advisory Board v3

Mr. Malcolm Hoenlein

Malcolm Hoenlein is the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a position he has held since June 1986. He is the founding executive director of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Hoenlein received his B.A from Temple University and his Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught international relations and served as a Middle East specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI). In addition, he served on the editorial staff of Orbis, FPRI’s journal of international affairs.

Mr. Hoenlein is the recipient of many awards and tributes from organizations and individuals, including State of Israel Bonds, President Ronald Reagan, American ORT, Brandeis University, Jerusalem College of Technology, and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. He played a key role in organizing the massive National Solidarity Rally for Israel in Washington, D.C. on April 15, 2002. A recent poll ranked him as the most influential Jewish leader.

Hoenlein is associated with and serves on the boards of many communal, educational and civic organizations including the Council on Foreign Relations, America-Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Uzbekistan-U.S. Chamber, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, Jerusalem’s Sha’arey Tzedek Medical Center, the Fairness Project and One Family. He is Chairman of America’s Voices in Israel and Co-Chair of Sharing for Life. He serves on the Board of Directors or Advisory Board of several companies, including Bank Leumi USA. He is also the Director of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals since 2001.

Howard Friedman

Howard E. Friedman is a Founding Partner of Lanx Management LLC, a hedge “fund of funds.” He was the Co-Founder, Publisher & CEO of Watermark Press, Inc. (1986-1998) until its sale to Cendent Corp. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). As President of AIPAC in 2007, Washington Life Magazine listed Mr. Friedman as one of the 100 most powerful people in Washington.

He has served as the Campaign Chairman of the Associated Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, President of the Baltimore Jewish Council, and as President of JTA-The Global News Service of the Jewish People. Mr. Friedman serves on a number of boards, among them The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He is married to Judge Karen Chaya Friedman and has four children.

Shelley Hébert

Shelley Hebert is The President of Hillel at Stanford University. Previously, she was Executive Director for development of the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life, the largest capital project in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish community, which she led from land acquisition through entitlements to ground-breaking. The $300 million, 430,000-square-foot, mixed-use development is the first to fully integrate independent and assisted living for seniors with a Jewish Community Center and offices for other nonprofits. The Taube Koret Campus opened in fall 2009.

Ms. Hebert was previously Executive Director for Public Affairs at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, where she served as senior strategist for brand development, marketing, media relations, communications, and outreach for the $2 billion new Stanford Hospital project. Ms. Hebert was also Director of Business Development for Stanford University, Vice President of Marketing and Chief Administrative Officer for an early-stage venture capital firm and External Affairs/Communications Director at two of the nation’s leading pediatric teaching hospitals, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford and Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle.

An active member of the Palo Alto area Jewish community, she is currently on the advisory boards of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture, the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University, and the Jewish Chaplaincy at Stanford Medical Center. She is a 1976 graduate of Stanford University and attended the Jacob Hiatt Institute in Jerusalem in 1973.

Raanan Agus

Raanan is the global co-head of the Goldman Sachs Investment Partners group in the Investment Management Division (IMD) and a member of the IMD Client and Business Standards Committee. He joined the firm in 1993 as an associate in Equities Arbitrage. Following that role, Raanan co-headed the Principal Strategies group in the Securities Division in 2003, and later became head of the group until the end of 2007. He was named managing director in 1999 and partner in 2000.

Raanan earned an AB from Princeton University in 1989 and a JD/MBA specializing in finance from Columbia University in 1993.

Isaac Applbaum

Isaac Applbaum is a founding General Partner of Opus Capital, an early stage venture fund, focusing his efforts on finding Israeli-based investments for the firm. Previously, Isaac was a Partner and Managing Director for Israel at Lightspeed Venture Partners an early stage venture capital firm with over $2 billion under management. Prior to joining Lightspeed, Mr. Applbaum was the founder and CEO of Concorde Solutions Inc. (CSI). In 1998 Mr. Applbaum sold CSI to Bank of America becoming a Senior Vice President at the bank with responsibility for running the bank’s E-ventures group and an advisor to the strategic investments group.

Mr. Applbaum currently serves as a Senior Advisor for Philanthropy to the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat. Mr. Applbaum is President of the Board of the California Israel Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, is on the board of directors of: The Koret Israel Economic Development Funds, the Shalem Institute, the Modern Bank and is on the National Council of AIPAC. Mr. Applbaum is a member of the Young Presidents Organization.

Bruce Taragin

Bruce is a Managing Director of Blumberg Capital in San Fransisico. He has 20 years experience as a venture capital investor, entrepreneur, technology investment banker and corporate attorney. Prior to joining Blumberg Capital in 1998, Bruce co-founded and held several senior management positions within technology companies including Charles River Computers. Bruce also structured and managed early-stage technology transactions at Hambrecht & Quist, Mayer Brown & Platt and Bankers Trust Company. A native of New York, Bruce earned his BA in Finance and Communications, cum laude, from Yeshiva University, and his MBA and JD from Fordham University.

Bruce serves as a member or observer on the Board of Directors of DoubleVerify, Nolio, Lenddo, Puravit, Revionics, Yap.tv, Any.do, Appboy and Sonar. He also serves on the board and the investment monitoring committee of the Jewish Community Foundation of Northern California.