Palms for Life Fund - Board of Directors

Board of Directors

Hannah Laufer-Rottman
Ms. Laufer is a former employee of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) where she served for almost 30 years. She has traveled extensively in poor countries and has had first hand experience dealing with poor communities. She has managed anit-poverty projects and large feeding programs as well as humanitarian operations in Burkina Faso, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Her experience includes school feeding programs (food for education), vulnerable groups’ projects, advancement of women, rural development and assets creation. She launched one of the first WFP school feeding programs in the Latin American region in Ecuador, in 1986. On the humanitarian side, she secured and managed immediate response efforts to victims of earthquakes, floods, and social and political conflicts. In 1997, she was appointed Director for Ecuador and held this position for five years. During this assignment, she strongly advocated for universal coverage of social programs and successfully negotiated a $24 million donation from the US government which she leveraged to secure an additional $10 million in government counterpart funds, thus allowing the feeding of 1.5 million poor people in the country. In her latest position in New York, she established numerous new partnerships with large US corporations and foundations and with her team, securing over $6 million in grants. Ms. Laufer is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese and also speaks Italian, Yiddish, Hebrew, German and Dutch, and is an excellent networker and public speaker. Ms. Laufer is President of the Board and Executive Director of Palms for Life Fund.

Jody R. Weiss
Ms. Weiss is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wisdom Says, Inc., a corporation which manufactures and markets cosmetic products and donates all of its after tax, distributable income to charitable causes relating to women’s health and human rights issues. In addition to having outstanding business skills and understanding fundraising, Ms. Weiss has been a volunteer director on other charitable boards and a strong supporter of financially disadvantaged women, and women with illnesses both in the United States and in developing countries around the world. Ms. Weiss has traveled extensively in the Far East and Latin America. Ms. Weiss has also worked with Ms. Laufer in her former position with the World Food Programme where she helped raise funds for humanitarian operations and other feeding programs and helped organize Walk the World 2005. As a director of Palms For Life Fund, Ms. Weiss will oversee the management of the organization and is initially serving as the corporate Secretary.

Eduardo Mirsky
Mr. Mirsky works in the financial services industry with a major international firm. He currently resides in San Diego, California having moved recently from Miami, Florida where he resided for approximately 8 years. Eduardo is married and has two adopted children. He was born in Ecuador and raised in Canada where he attended McGill University in Montreal. Eduardo has been in the financial services industry for over 20 years, mostly working with Latin American countries. His employment experience has included Citibank, Royal Bank of Canada, Republic National Bank of New York, Prudential, Wachovia and more recently UBS. He is a highly trained and experienced professional in the fields of finance and investments. His lengthy career has taken him through many countries that suffer the ills of poverty and underdevelopment. On many fronts, Eduardo has taken time to give back to these impoverished societies through acts of charity and personal sacrifice. Palms for Life Fund is one of his most recent efforts. Eduardo is intimately familiar with the needs of poor countries such as Ecuador. He has lived the experience personally, not only having been born there, but also having lived with the people of Ecuador for many years. Mr. Mirsky is the Board’s Vice President.

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