Resume for Board Members

Ruvym Gilman

Ruvym Gilman is a graduated of NYU's College of Arts and Science as well as NYU's School of Law. Ruvym is a practicing attorney who currently serves as the AVP of Business Operations and Legal Affairs at Birthright Israel Foundation. Ruvym's passion for Judaism, for the incredible work of Chabad, and for the vision of TechTribe to bring inspiring Jewish content to individuals working in the tech and start-up worlds, can be traced back to his own Birthright Israel trip with Mayanot during Winter 2004-2005. Outside of business hours, Ruvym is a playwright and short story writer who is currently working on a film-version of his 2013 stage play Covers.

Meghan Lapides
SVP, Human Resources @Foursquare
Meghan focuses on all things 'people' at Foursquare, connecting the dots across the company between talent, process, policy, and technology. Prior to joining Foursquare, Meghan has help HR roles in communications, creative and technology-driven organizations, including Ogilvy & Mather, Kenneth Cole, Ketchum, and Grey.

Meghan has a bachelor’s from University of Maryland, holds both SPHR and SHRM–SCP certifications and earned a certificate in organizational development from Columbia University. A native New Yorker, Meghan lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and is passionate about music, technology, NYC, baking challah, and helping to make Judaism accessible to everyone.

Mordechai Lightstone

Rabbi Lightstone was ordained at the West Coast Rabbinical Seminary in Los Angeles, California. For the past nine years he’s served as social media director at Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, a Jewish educational and humanitarian organization based in Brooklyn, NY.

In recent years, he has hosted Shabbat meals and holiday gatherings for Jews in tech and digital media in New York City and at the SXSW festival in Austin, TX. Tech Tribe is the next step in creating a passionate Jewish community for people in the digital world.

Cal Nathan

Cal Nathan is a current partner at iDEKO productions, a New York City based event production company focused on creating interactive and innovative consumer experiences for the entertainment, corporate and hospitality industries.

Cal was successful at a young age in finance as a trader on the floor of the American Stock Exchange.  In 1998, Cal left Finance to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams and purchased a small special events company. From birthday parties and social affairs, Cal built NYFF Events into a leading events company serving national clients both domestically and internationally. NYFF brings an extensive inventory, skilled & technical know-how and a deep expertise in event executions to iDEKO clients.  Cal has produced hundreds of events on a national level for almost 20 years, and has built an organization of successful event professionals including leading technical and production talent over that time. He counts many of the largest US companies as his clients. Most recently, he was a founding partner and investor in www.allseated.com, a leading on-line event collaborative platform connecting thousands of event hosts, vendors and venues in the cloud. All Seated recently surpassed 10,000 events on its platform. Cal has also owned and sold a number of event venues in New York City, as well as a boutique marketing agency and a modeling/talent business.  Cal holds both an MBA and a BS in Marketing and Management from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Cal is passionate about Jewish life and is excited to use his knowledge and experience in the event space to help Tech Tribe craft powerful Jewish events.

Jeff Pulver

Internet Pioneer, VoIP; Entrepreneur, Investor, Strategist, Photographer, Speaker, Futurist. Helped shape the worldwide market acceptance of VoIP; Founder / co-founder of numerous startups including Free World Dialup, VON, Vivox, MoNage and Vonage. Veteran of the Tradeshow industry; producer, host, curator of events.

Known as a globally renowned Internet thought leader. In 1995 defined "VON" to stand for Voice/Video on the Net. From 1997 to 2008 he hosted/produced the VON Conferences. In 2009 started the #140conf events. Founded MoNage in 2016. His work in Washington is the reason services like: FaceTime, Messenger and WhatsApp are free. Has influenced the creation of numerous other startups. Currently exploring the intersection of: Computing, AI and Communications. Strategic advisor to a number of Block chain projects.

Mr. Pulver has been involved in advising and directing Tech Tribe in its early stages of development, and is excited to help it reach event larger groups and build a strong community.

Katie Weiss

Katie Weiss is Director of VC/PE at TriNet. She has served as mentor at PresenTense, an accelerator for Jewish social impact ventures.

She’s excited to help bring Tech Tribe’s vision for transcendent use of technology to the world of tech start-ups and digital ventures.

Marilyn Zayfert
Marilyn Zayfert is the president of illumiNET Media, which she founded in 2009 after observing the broad reach of social media. illumiNET builds and implements online media marketing strategies and campaigns, social media training, enterprise social media, and event promotion. Marilyn’s desire to help her community has led to a number of projects with non-profit organizations on Staten Island. Marilyn has been a Board Member of the Office of Jewish Community affairs, Jewish Outreach Institute,  The National Lighthouse Museum, and the Educational Theater Group IlluminArt Productions. She became best known for her outreach work via social media after Superstorm Sandy when she used her knowledge of leveraging social media communication to amplify awareness, raise funds and spread information about Staten Island and public events. Marilyn is also the founder and curator of the online blog Staten Island NYC Living. She lives in the Lighthouse Hill area.

She is excited about joining the board of Tech Tribe in order to bridge her passion for Jewish community and social media.