Tamid Group

The TAMID Group (formerly '"TAMID Israel Investment Group"') is a nonprofit, apolitical, and areligious organization in the United States that organizes internships in Israel for American business students and hones their skills through hands-on interaction with the Israeli economy. TAMID offers a comprehensive education curriculum, pro-bono consulting for Israeli startups and capital market investment research.

TAMID was founded in 2008 by two students at the University of Michigan.^[1] The organization currently operates on 30 campuses and continues to expand.

Overview

TAMID Group is a non profit organization currently being incubated at the Israel on Campus Coalition's office in Washington DC. TAMID is an organization that connects business-minded college students in the United States with the Israeli economic ecosystem. TAMID seeks to create and empower the next generation of American entrepreneurs, business leaders, influencers, and investors to Israel through education, hands-on experience, and meaningful professional opportunities.

More specifically, TAMID's on-campus and student-led programs include an educational program, a student-run Investment Fund, student-run Consulting Projects, and the TAMID summer fellowship in Israel.

History

TAMID was originally conceived by University of Michigan students Sasha Gribov and Eitan Ingall. As freshmen in 2007, Gribov and Ingall began mulling over the idea of launching a student-led group that focuses on investing in Israel. Garrett Levenbrook soon joined in founding the group, and by 2008, they worked to build an executive board. By 2008, TAMID recruited its first ever membership class. During the 2009-2010 school year, the organization achieved a number of important goals: TAMID launched its investment fund, completed its first round of consulting projects, and organized its first Summer Fellowship program in Israel.

In 2010, TAMID completed its first leadership transition. Brett Siegal assumed the position of Executive Director.

In 2011, TAMID restructured the organization of its executive board. The Executive Director position was divided into Executive Director of Business Development and Executive Director of Programming, held by Max Heller and Allison Berman respectively. Also in 2011, TAMID established its first round of expansion with four new chapters at Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, Pennsylvania State University, and University of Illinois.

In 2012, TAMID expanded to four new chapters: Brandeis University, University of Miami, University of Maryland, and University of Southern California.

In 2013, TAMID national student leadership underwent further restructuring. The TAMID National Operating Board and Presidents Council were formed by Jared Fleitman (founder and president at the USC chapter) and Dan Smith (president at the Michigan chapter), who took over as National Co-Chairmen. The National Operating Board generates proposals for new national initiatives focused on improving programming as well as operations, logistics, and technical infrastructure. The Presidents Council consists of the presidents of each active TAMID chapter, who provide upward feeedback, vote on proposals, and implement TAMID curriculum at each of their respective campuses.

Also in 2013, TAMID further expanded its reach by establishing six new chapters at Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh University, University of Florida, Emory University, and New York University^[2] and hired its first full-time staff, located in Washington DC.

In 2014, TAMID expanded to nine new chapters at Columbia University, Boston University, UCLA, Yeshiva University, Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Baruch College, and Indiana University including its first international chapter at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

In 2015, TAMID further expanded to six new chapters at Yale University, Northeastern University, Johns Hopkins University, Queens College, George Washington University, and Washington University, St. Louis. In the same year, student leaders together with the TAMID Board hired TAMID's second full-time executive director, Yoni Heilman. The TAMID Group staff eventually grew to five.

Founders

Program

Education

TAMID’s Education program is designed to be the first formal exposure to business concepts with the Israeli economy for new members and to build a sense of kavanah (genuine interest) amongst new members in the space. Once completing their first semester of education, new members are then able to select the Consulting Track or Investment Track (or both) and continue their engagement in the organization.

Topics covered by education may include:

• Overview of the Israeli Economy/”Start-up Nation”
• Introduction to Venture Capital and Angel Investing
• Introduction to Stocks and Public Finance
• Tech Commercialization and Building Economies of Scale
• Marketing and Communication for Israelis
• Best Practices in Consulting
• Case Studies: ”The Dark Side of Start-up Nation”
• the TAMID Business Plan Competition

Fund

In 2010 TAMID members raised money to launch a TAMID investment fund. The fund meets on a weekly basis during the semester, during which student teams provide market updates, pitch stocks and vote on whether a pitch is worthy of pursuing as an investment. The fund is intended to improve students' financial literacy and to give students exposure to Israeli industries and securities. Currently, this fund is operating as a simulation while a new, national investment strategy can be created.

Consulting

TAMID Consulting is a student-run consulting practice where students work with Israeli companies on various projects in the US. Members are assigned to teams to work on consulting projects for Israeli company. Students work in small teams of 5-6 students on projects for their respective company. The consulting teams work in close contact with their startup companies and present deliverables to the start-up at the conclusion of the semester. Past projects include, market research, strategies, and analysis as well as product research and analysis. TAMID consulting teams have worked on projects for top Israeli start-ups including: Samba.me, Onavo, WIX, Zula, and BillGuard.

Fellowship

The TAMID Fellowship is an 8-week summer internship program that provides outstanding TAMID leaders with the opportunity to work with fast-growing startups and high-profile multinational companies in Israel. TAMID fellows live and collaborate with their peers from other top universities in a fun and challenging environment complete with travel within Israel, beaches, delicious food, and networking within the startup community in Tel Aviv. Applicants must be active members at one of TAMID's 30 campus chapters. The experience is heavily subsidized, with flights, housing, and additional programming costs covered by the organization. TAMID fellows have interned in a variety of industries including finance, software, venture capital, energy, and more. Past companies that students have interned at include, Onavo, IDC Elevator, Psagot Investment House, Asquith Israel Merchant Bank, The Portland Trust, Giza Venture Capital, UpWest Labs, OurCrowd, Grove Ventures, and Deloitte, among many other companies. Upon returning to school, TAMID expects that its fellows will be prepared for leadership positions in the organization.

References

External links

• Official site
• Jpost.com
• Clevelandjewishnews.com
• Jewishjournal.com