AFHU News

PAGE 46
AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY
AFHU NEWS VOL. 22 PAGE 47
Pacific Northwest Region
Introducing Erez Podoly, Pacific Northwest Region
HU Alumni Association Chair
Thanks to a matching grant from the AFHU Pacific Northwest
Regional Board, all donations made from November 26 through
December 31, 2018 were matched dollar-for-dollar up to
$25,000. This generous grant acted as a major incentive for
online donations.
AFHU’s Pacific Northwest Region’s
Newly Created Alumni Association Committee
The Pacific Northwest region recently created
a committee for its Alumni Association efforts.
Members include Erez Podoly ‘08, Eric Stein ’89, and
Chagit Ofir ’82. Working in tandem with the national
HU Alumni Association, the Pacific Northwest regional
alumni committee seeks to reach, serve, and engage
all Hebrew University alumni in the region with the
goal of fostering a lifelong intellectual and emotional
connection to the university, and to connect fellow
alumni in the region, around the country, and across
the globe.
Erez Podoly ‘08 was introduced to the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem (HU) as a young man. “I
remember a beautiful, black and white photo of my
mom, next to the National Library of Israel and her
stories about student life on HU’s Givat Ram campus
and in Jerusalem.” His mother’s experiences left a big
impression on him, and Erez hoped one day he too
would attend HU and have his own stories to tell.
Erez more than fulfilled those plans by receiving his
B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees at HU. A gifted student,
Erez received several awards and scholarships
including the Kaye Innovation Prize and the Israeli
Ministry of Science Eshkol Ph.D. fellowship. While
working on his Ph.D., Erez served as the Assistant
Executive Director of BioJerusalem, an initiative of
the Jerusalem Development Authority where he
helped bring biotech opportunities to the city.
After receiving his Ph.D., Erez began a postdoctoral
fellowship at Stanford University with Nobel Laureate
and HU Visiting Professor Roger Kornberg. During
his academic career, Erez co-authored many peerreviewed
papers and book chapters.
He is an experienced entrepreneur who integrates
the lessons he learned at HU into everything he
works on. He is the founder and former CEO of
ArcheroMetric and his current venture is Slive Inc.,
a start-up impacting healthcare through technologies
that monitor signals of diseases and other
physiological conditions.
Erez Podoly.
“Our main goal is to build a
community of alumni, which
shares roots and ideas that
were seeded early on in the
Hebrew University.”
-Erez Polody
Erez believes HU played a key role in his entrepreneurial
life – it expanded his knowledge base and offered
different perspectives. He said, “Today, I am able to
turn ideas into start-ups and contribute to shaping
our future society.”
Erez is excited to give back to HU as the chair of the
HU Alumni Association’s Pacific Northwest Region.
He is thrilled to support the university through
volunteerism and to build and strengthen the alumni
community in the area.