Michael is the Head of Movement Building at JVL.

Michael’s plant-based journey began in his 20s when a doctor gave him some bad news: He needed to start taking pills to lower his cholesterol. Instead, Michael cut meat from his diet, then went vegan, and hasn’t worried about his health ever since.

A seasoned organizational leader, Michael’s 20 year career began in finance at Key Bank and Morgan Stanley in Cleveland, OH doing equity research. His international background has enabled him to scale global initiatives that affect change around the world. Michael’s family immigrated from Leningrad to Akron, OH when he was ten years old, and he has retained some (albeit broken) Russian.

A dual Israeli-American, Michael lived in Jerusalem for half a decade where he ran a parliamentary forum in the Knesset conducting dialogue with the diplomatic corps on obstacles to peace in the Middle East. He then returned to the US to work at institutions of higher education, transnational corporations like Warner Music Group, and nonprofit organizations like Jewish Community Centers.

Michael has served in the government at the State Department where he conducted intelligence analysis and wrote presidential briefs on Ukraine and Eastern Europe. He was also a committee staffer in Congress at the US House of Representatives, overseeing Defense and State Department roles in post-invasion Iraq.

He studied economics at the University of Cambridge, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and Marketing from Miami University of Ohio, and a Master’s Degree in Strategic Planning and International Relations from Georgetown University. In his free time Michael enjoys alpine skiing, swimming, chess, and has studied Tanakh for more than a decade. Michael splits his time between two capitals that he calls home: Washington, DC and Jerusalem.