RMS: What Was Your Experience with JHP in NY & Your Background with the Program?

Benjamin G. Mayer: "I first got involved with JHP when I was working at Tishman Speyer in New York. I was asked by my close friend Ephraim Levin (UPenn Chabad Rabbi at that time) to participate in a JHP program focused on connecting NYU students to leading business professionals in NY. When I arrived at the event, the room was filled with nearly 100 students and over a dozen mentors like myself and all the mentors took turns speaking about their careers before breaking out into smaller groups to allow the students to network. The enthusiasm and quality of the kids really made me realize how great an idea JHP was in that it provides students with a great platform to meet professionals and forge key relationships in the most impactful time of a student's development, namely, the onset of their professional careers."

RMS: What has been accomplished in Florida so far?
 
Benjamin G. Mayer: "When I came down to Florida after co-founding a Miami and New York-based private equity firm, LEÓN, MAYER & Co., with my close friend and former
Wharton Classmate, Andro Nodarse-León, I knew that Florida was a perfect market for the JHP program." 

"Firstly, there is a huge and diverse Jewish community, secondly, there is a strong university presence, and thirdly, Florida and the northeast have always been tightly connected markets on the professional and personal fronts.  We put a team together that includes Seth Heller, a Miami-based real estate professional, and three campus schluchum (Chabad House rabbis), Berl Goldman (University of Florida), Mendy Fellig (University of Miami) and Levi Friedman (Florida International University). JHP Florida was thus formed with the guidance of Menachem Schmidt and his staff."

"To date, JHP Florida has built a strong operating platform to position itself for successful event programming in the three schools mentioned above.  We've already held a JHP Florida summer program (Summer Internship Leadership Series or SILS) focused on mentoring college students going into summer internship roles by linking them up with professionals in the field in which they're performing such internships.  It was a great program that helped those students perform well in the internship role and allowed them to seek guidance from senior professionals on what they should be focused on within their internships to maximize their chances of top performance and receiving job offers upon the conclusion of their summer positions."

"We've also held a JHP Florida Shabatton at the University of Florida where over 300 kids participated and learned more about the program over the course of a weekend in Gainseville. This has provided us with great momentum and access to talented students that will be involved with JHP Florida as student leaders working to launch additional JHP Florida events this year and building the organization's infrastructure."

"JHP Florida will leverage its selected student leaders' ability to recruit hopefully a large number of Jewish students as participants in our programs. These are Jewish students that otherwise may not be involved in Jewish organizations at all and that is one of the main objectives of our program, too, to involve more Jews in Jewish-themed events across campuses. JHP Florida has very broad appeal to all students given its approach of combining a professional theme within the framework of strengthening ties to Judaism."

Benjamin G. Mayer
LEÓN, MAYER & Co.
848 Brickell Avenue, Suite 1010
Miami, FL 33131
Office: (305) 358-7720
Mobile: (917) 805-4525
Fax: (305) 358-7727
bmayer@leonmayer.com
www.leonmayer.com

Thank you,

Gene Armour
Editor