Expertise.
Experience.
Values.

Amanda Parness

SAB Member, Former Managing Director at CDPQ

Amanda has worked in the investment industry for over 25 years. For over 20 years she worked as a Managing Principal at GoldPoint Partners, New York Life Insurance Company’s private equity investment arm, investing over a billion dollars through and alongside some of the best mid-market private equity funds in the US. She has experience investing in funds, term loans, subordinated debt, preferred stock and common equity most often in leverage buyouts and growth equity situations. She has held active board observer positions in mid-market companies. As a former private equity investor, she brings a buyer’s lens to management consulting and sell side assignments. Amanda is a very creative problem solver, looking for practical solutions that suit the situation at hand.

Ambassador S. Fitzgerald (Fitz) Haney

SAB Member, Former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica

Ambassador S. Fitzgerald (Fitz) Haney (ret.) served as US Ambassador to Costa Rica from 2015-2017. Amb. Haney has lived and worked on five continents and communicates effectively in four languages. He is currently a Managing Director at Lyrical Partners, LP a New York-based asset management firm. Most recently, Ambassador Haney was Head of Strategic Development in Viola Group, Israel’s largest tech investment house. Prior to his ambassadorship, Fitz was Head of EMEA business development and client services for Pzena Investment Management, a $40B global asset manager. Fitz also previously worked throughout Latin America in strategy, marketing and operations for Fortune 50 US multinationals including, Citibank, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble. Ambassador Haney earned a B.S. in international economics and a M.S. with distinction in international business and diplomacy from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Washington, D.C. Fitz has served on a number of non-profit and community boards. He also placed 2nd in Season 4 of Dancing with The Stars - Costa Rica. Ambassador Haney currently lives with his wife Dr. Rabbi Andrea Haney and their four children in Ra’anana, Israel.

Andy Walter is a business results-driven professional with extensive experience in strategy, development, execution, and operations across Global Shared Services, Analytics, and IT. He led the Commercial Services & Delivery Organization (over 1500 IT and multifunctional professionals) for Procter & Gamble’s Global Business Services (GBS). He was responsible for IT & Shared Services for all Global Business Units and Markets around the world. His team was accountable for developing cutting-edge digital capabilities for Procter & Gamble to win “where it matters most,” with Consumers, Shoppers, and Retailers. This included all eBusiness, Consumer Services, BI/Analytics, Sales Force Solutions, Project Delivery, Business Process Services, and A&D / Company restructuring efforts. He has over 20 years working on Boards and in Board level advisory roles. As a member of the PathFactory and True Essence Foods private Board of Directors, he is an independent director advising on company strategy, Cyber-security, and execution across industries. As a Strategic Advisor and Investor, he focuses on disruptive innovators in Digitization, Sustainability, Platform Models, and Advanced Analytics domains. He is author of Waiting Is Not an Action. A business leadership book for executives across industries with focus on Disruptive Innovation, Strategy, and Career Development. His passions include Vintage Racing and Touring classics as co-CEO (with Laurie, his wife) of L&A Touring Design. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Cincinnati. Andy and Laurie reside in Cincinnati, Ohio USA.

Arthur Stark concluded a 40 year career as President of Bed Bath & Beyond in 2018, upon being unanimously elected as Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. During his tenure, Bed Bath & Beyond became a multi-channel retail conglomerate with annual revenue of $12 billion and with 1,500 locations and 60,000 employees in all 50 states plus Canada and Mexico. Mr. Stark is Founder and Chairman of Stark Enterprises LLC, a strategic advisory and venture capital practice advising the founders and CEOs of a broad range of companies concerning business development, market positioning, organizational design, strategy and funding. Mr. Stark serves on the Senior Advisory Board of Jefferies, the global investment bank, and various other companies and organizations.

Brad Bloom has been an investor in the private equity industry since 1978, including as a cofounder of Berkshire Partners LLC in 1986. Berkshire Partners is a multi sector private equity firm with AUM in excess of $20 billion, currently investing its 10th private equity fund of $5.8 billion. Berkshire also manages a $5 billion public equity fund through its Stockbridge investment group. While he has been involved in all aspects of the firm since its early days, he has had a particular interest in consumer and retail investments, and has served on many portfolio company boards in connection with the firm's activities. After serving as a managing director for over 30 years, Brad is currently a senior advisor to the firm. During the past decade, Brad has developed a particular interest in early stage companies and venture capital partnerships, both in the United States and in Israel. He is currently focused on investing in sectors and companies involved in future technologies and developments, such as climate change, food security, and quantum technologies. In the nonprofit arena, Brad has served on a wide range of boards over the years and is currently the chairman of the board of governors of the University of Haifa. He previously chaired the boards of Milton Academy in Massachusetts and Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston. He received his AB and MBA degrees from Harvard University. Brad has been active in alumni and governance roles at Harvard over the years, including serving on the finance committee of the Harvard Corporation, Harvard's governing body.

Dr. Samer Haj-Yehia is a leading executive and public figure with a global track record. Currently, he is the Executive Chairman of Vintage Investment Partners, a global VC with $4 billion AUM, Chairman of the Audit Committee of Lemonade, America's top-rated insurance company, and Senior Off-Counsel at Herzog, a leading and internationally-known law firm in Israel. Dr. Haj-Yehia was until recently Group Executive Chairman of Bank Leumi, Israel’s oldest and largest bank and one of the largest and oldest banks in the Middle East. Under his leadership, 2019-2023 (he previously served as a board member since 2014), Leumi became the largest and most efficient bank in Israel (and one of the most efficient in the world), doubled its net income and profitability, underwent technological transformation and innovation, and upgraded its corporate culture and ESG policy; it also merged its US entity and restructured its UK operation, and raised funds through multiple instruments in the global markets. Dr. Haj-Yehia was the first Israeli-Arab board member and has been the only Israeli-Arab chairman of a publicly-traded Israeli company, and is the youngest chairman of Bank Leumi. He works extensively with regulators and state officials worldwide, and has been leading major M&A deals and business development globally. Dr. Haj-Yehia has been an adjunct professor of business and economics at Reichman University since 2015 and a member of the WEF’s Community of Chairpersons since 2020. Dr. Haj-Yehia has been a guest speaker at international conferences, including the AEA in the US, the WEF in Switzerland, Finance Week in the UAE, and FII in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the only Israeli). Dr. Haj-Yehia has extensive executive chairperson and board member experience across multiple industries, including at Bank Leumi (2014-2023), BIG Shopping Centers Group (2018-2019), Strauss Food and Beverages Group (2017-2019), the National Council for Higher Education (2017-2019), and Hadassah Medical Center (including overseeing its recovery plan) (2015-2019). He also served as a member of public and government committees, including Search Committee for the Head of the Government Companies Authority as well as the Advisory Committee for Awarding the Presidential Award for Volunteering. Dr. Haj-Yehia also consults entrepreneurs and boards of startups. While in the US, Dr. Haj-Yehia practiced investment management, trading, and fintech innovation at Fidelity as VP of Financial Engineering and at GMO as Global Trading Strategist in 2006-2013, provided court expert opinions in high-profile cases and strategic consulting for major deals at Analysis Group and Deloitte in 2004-2006 and 1999-2000, respectively. He also interned in law at the Tel-Aviv-based Herzog law firm in 1999-2000. He published influential research on currency options, liquidity premium, and Bank of Israel’s foreign exchange policy. He served as the Undergrad Supervisor at the Economics Department of the Hebrew University and taught at several eminent international universities. Dr. Haj-Yehia won numerous prestigious grants and awards for excellence in teaching and influential research, including Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from Harvard, Reichman, and the Hebrew universities as well as IASP/Fulbright, the Bank of Israel’s Gaton Prize for Best Empirical Research in Israel, and MIT’s George Schultz Fund Grant. Dr. Haj-Yehia holds from MIT a PhD in economics (where he majored in macroeconomics and financial econometrics); from the Hebrew University - an MBA in banking and finance (with thesis, summa cum laude, class valedictorian), an LLB in law, MA in macroeconomics and international trade (with thesis, magna cum laude), and a BA in accounting and economics (magna cum laude); and from Tel-Aviv University - a postgraduate diploma in auditing and accounting. He is admitted to Israel Bar and is a CFA charterholder.

Eric C. Johnson (“Rick”) retired from The Hillman Company, a private investment company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the end of 2020. Mr. Johnson joined The Hillman Company in 1998 and for the final 16 years of his career served as its Chairman and Chief Financial Officer. He continues to serve as a Hillman Company Board member and as a trustee for various Hillman family trusts that control the Company. Mr. Johnson spent the first 15 years of his career with PNC Bank in a variety of positions within corporate banking. His last role at PNC was as Senior Vice President, National Corporate Banking. Mr. Johnson’s current involvement with non-profit organizations includes being Chair of The Dietrich Foundation and Chair of the Board of Visitors at Duke Divinity School. Formerly, he was a director/trustee of the Pittsburgh Public Theater, the Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchard Hill Church, Sewickley Academy, the Strategic Investment Fund and The Hillman Foundation. Mr. Johnson received an B.A. in Economics from Duke University in 1981 and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1983.

Mark Dubowitz is the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan policy institute. Mark is an expert on Iran’s nuclear program and global threat network, and is widely recognized as one of the key influencers in shaping policies to counter the threats from the regime in Iran. In 2019, Iran sanctioned Mark and FDD, calling them “the designing and executing arm of the U.S. administration” on Iran policy. In 2022, Russia sanctioned Mark for exposing the malign ties between Russia and Iran. Mark has advised the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and testified more than twenty times before the U.S. Congress and foreign legislatures. A former venture capitalist and technology executive, Mark has a master’s degree in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and JD and MBA degrees from the University of Toronto. Raised in Toronto, he is an American citizen, and has lived in Washington, D.C. since 2003.

Saul Singer

SAB Member, Best-Selling Author

Saul Singer is the co-author, with Dan Senor, of a new book, The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Troubled World. Walter Isaacson wrote of the book, “How has the tiny country of Israel, beset by external foes and internal strife, stayed so resilient? This book offers big ideas for how all of us, not just Israelis, can tackle the central challenges of our times.” Reviews and articles about the book have appeared in the New York Times, New York Post, Time, Commentary, Times of Israel and other publications. The book has been featured in TV interviews on CNN, CBS, CNBC, Fox, among others. The Genius of Israel follows the author's best-selling book Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. The book was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller and has been translated into over 35 languages. The title “Start-Up Nation” has become synonymous with Israel itself. Singer has keynoted at conferences in over 20 countries, including in Beijing, Sydney, Singapore, London, Paris, Berlin, Oslo, Nairobi, and São Paulo. Before moving to Israel in 1994, Singer worked a decade as a staffer to Members of Congress and for the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Banking Committees. In Israel, he was the Editorial Page Editor and a columnist at the Jerusalem Post. Today, in addition to writing and speaking, he advises select companies and nonprofits. Singer lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three daughters.