Members of the TAU Alumni Organization’s Advisory Committee meet Howard Wolf of Stanford University for a collegial talk

At the initiative of Sigalit Ben Hayoun, head of the Tel Aviv University Alumni Organization, Howard Wolf, Vice President of Alumni at Stanford University and President of the prestigious Stanford University Alumni Association, hosted a collegial and reciprocal discussion on the important role of university alumni.

12 July 2020
Howard Wolf

The unique zoom event was opened by Amos Elad, TAU Vice President for Public Affairs, Resource Development & Alumni Affairs, and was attended by members of the TAU Alumni Organization‘s Advisory Committee, TAU alumni themselves, naturally, including Anat Starik-Dahan - Co-CEO of Tamares Hotels , Udi Danino - Founder and CEO of SAIPS, Udi Dahan - CEO of UBS-Wealth Management in Israel, Ran Fuhrer - Vice President Business Development with the Neopharm Group and member of the Board of Directors of Bezeq, who is an alumnus of both TAU and Stanford, Tomer Blustein - Founder of Pink Park And VP of Business Development for a Bayit Bakfar, Karen Schwok - Owner, Founder and CEO of Lucid Investments, and Keren Shaked - owner and CEO of B-Pro.

 

 Wolf, who knows a few words of Hebrew, spoke about his Jewish roots and his visits to Israel, and was invited for a drink on his next visit. He revealed that surveys conducted in the United States show that there is a growing lack of trust in American institutions, including universities.

 

"The problem is mainly with young people, who express a great deal of doubt in institutions and organizations. Therefore, we must be very transparent and open in our communication when we tell our alumni about what is happening at Stanford. If we know that a negative story is going to come out in the media, we know now that we must communicate the story to our alumni in real time, with transparency and credibility, and if necessary – to apologize”.

 

"All over the world, many universities sweep problematic cases under the rug, but if you want a sustainable relationship with the alumni you must build trust and confidence, and that can only be done through transparency and apology. Credibility is an important thing."

 

Asked by Sigalit Ben Hayoun, head of the Tel Aviv University Alumni Organization,about the Generation Z era, as well as Generation Y to some extent, which will soon become alumni, Wolf said: "We harness them for the benefit of the university in a new language, with new, modern, technological, digital and relevant tools, and we set out to meet them wherever they are. It is very different than the ways we used to operate… Our job is to make sure our alumni stays in touch with each other, as well as with us, and the more they do so – the bigger the chance of them becoming donors of the university in the future”.

 

Wolf ended the meeting with a message in Hebrew: "Tikkun Olam" can exist in many ways, one of which is through us, because at the end of the day we are here to make the world a better place.

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