Volunteer Spotlight: Tal Slobodkin, WG'08
Tal Slobodkin, WG'08
Co-President, Wharton Club of Israel
What Is your greatest achievement since graduating from Penn/Wharton?
My greatest achievement (so far) since graduating is starting my own VC in 2014. Upon graduation, I joined Cisco in their corporate development team, and with Cisco later moved back to Israel and led all the investments and acquisitions efforts on the ground. After a few very active years I had the opportunity to join the re-starting of StageOne Ventures, a leading Israeli VC. We have raised a $65m fund together and so far invested in 10 exciting companies, all in the innovative enterprise software space.
What motivates you to volunteer for Wharton?
Wharton has always been close to my heart - I owe much of the success in my career so far to Wharton, the wonderful education I received, the exceptional experience and the amazing network I'm now part of. Being able to give back to school through the local alumni club, as well as to continue to promote and develop the local Israeli brand is what motivates me in my everyday volunteering.
What is your vision for your club?
We, my co-president Eyal Gura and myself, feel the Wharton Israel Club should be the central hub for everything Wharton in Israel. We see it as the place for alumni to interact, exchange ideas and find career and volunteering opportunities. We also see a close tie to the applications and admissions process to Wharton - we would like to assist potential candidates as they go through the process of applications, admissions and later in their journey through school as well as their job placement process. Finally, we see the club as the entity representing Israel and Israeli innovation to the global Wharton network.
How do you keep people motivated?
We believe providing value to our fellow alumni is the best tool to keep people engaged and motivated. As we all share the same vision of the Wharton Israel Club, we work closely together to reach the goals and increase the involvement of the growing alumni base.