President Herzog Honors Sapir Trustee for Social Innovation

He’s a pioneer in cyber security. The business he founded serves 1000 companies in 30 countries. Nissim Bar-El’s greatest passion, however, is the struggle against poverty and inequality. Now he’s received the Presidential Volunteerism Award for his efforts.

Bar-El, a member of the Board of Trustees at Sapir College, believes entrepreneurship is a fast track to empowerment and social mobility, so he founded a nonprofit to help women in underserved communities start their own businesses. To date he has helped 5,500 women set up 3,000 business initiatives, changing lives, giving hope and boosting economic resilience across the county.

President Herzog granted him the award, along with 11 other leading social entrepreneurs, at a ceremony in Israel’s Presidential Residence. For Bar-El, social innovation is a way of life. At Sapir he chairs the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a multi-disciplinary facility where students with support from faculty and industry mentors, think outside the box, designing innovative ways to tackle social challenges. Bar-El represents the kind of leadership that has set the tone for Sapir College as a whole: hands on, visionary, and dedicated to people.

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