• Gideon Argov

    ​ ​Program Founder


    Founder of the Shlomo Argov Fellows Program. Gideon is an advisory director at Berkshire Partners, an investment firm based in Boston, as well as the chairman of the board of Servotronix, an automation company based in Petach Tikva Israel. He previously served as chief executive officer of Entegris Incorporated (2004-2012) and Kollmorgen Corporation (1991- 2000). Gideon is a member of the International Council of the Belfer Center at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

  • Dr. Alisa Rubin

    Founding academic director


    Dr. Alisa Rubin is the founding academic director of the Argov Fellows Program in Leadership and Diplomacy. She is also a senior lecturer at RU’s Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy. Alisa formerly served as a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and worked as an equity investment analyst, both in Boston and in Israel. She completed her Ph.D. in history and Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, her M.A. in international economics and finance at Brandeis University, and her B.A. (summa cum laude) at Yale University. Alisa specializes in international political economy and business-government relations. Her current research focuses on American higher education in the Middle East and the future of higher education in the 21st century. She is passionate about educating and mentoring aspiring leaders who seek to make a positive difference in the world.

  • Sapir Frieman

    Program Manager


    Sapir Frieman previously spent four years in the US as a Jewish Agency Israel Emissary at the University of Maryland and the University of Connecticut. In this role, she worked on strengthening the Israeli-American relationships on campus, created new communities, and supported the Jewish and non-Jewish students. Prior to her emissary position, Sapir served in the IDF Education Corps as a commander and was a head counselor in the “Bnei Hamoshavim” Youth Movement. She holds a B.A. in education with a focus on the integration of art in education and learning disabilities program from Tel-Hai Academic College. At Tel-Hai, Sapir was a member and then head of the Student Union Cultural Department, where she created diverse cultural events on campus.