Vadim Blumin is an Educator and a Social Activist. Currently the director of the Mandel Program for Excellence at The Jewish Agency for Israel, he was formerly a content and training specialist at Makom, the Strategic Content Unit of The Jewish Agency, and headed its Education Department in St. Petersburg, Russia. Prior to that he was the Executive Director of "1+1: Association of Immigrant Youth" a nonprofit for and by Russian-speaking teens and young adults, focused on leadership and community development, alongside innovative frameworks for youth at risk throughout Israel’s periphery. Alumni of the GVANIM program for pluralism and leadership, as well as the JDC-ELKA (Institute for Leadership and Governance) training program for NGO's directors-generals. He is one of the founders of the "Generation 1.5: Russian-speaking Israelis", a Board Member of the New Israel Fund, and of 'BeFree Israel' ('Israel Hofsheet') progressive movement. Vadim lives in Ramat Gan with his husband, Roman, and their daughter, Danielle.

Karin Lagziel holds a BA in Communication Education and Political Science with honors from Ben-Gurion University. She holds an MBA in Business Administration, specializing in Social Leadership from the Mandel Foundation.

In her previous position, Karin served as director of education programs for the humanitarian organization IsraAID in Dominica. As part of her role, Karin led the creation of a national emergency education program in partnership with UN agencies and the Ministry of Education, Dominica is the first island in the Caribbean to have a national program of the Ministry of Education and emergency educational programs are implemented in all schools.

Karin has a rich background in developing partnerships between the social and business sectors, integrating and using advanced technologies. In the past, Karin led the penetration of learning technologies into the Haredi sector in Israel as part of the “Virtual School” project of the Institute for Educational Technology. She formerly served as Partnership Director collaborating with the Israeli Ministry of Education to provide opportunities and workshops to enhance public speaking skills for disadvantaged youth. Karin was part of a team that acquired the Tel Aviv franchise for a social organization called “Fun” to talk about what has recently been taboo in entrepreneurship, failures. Today Karin serves as a Senior Emissary from the Jewish Agency in Manhattan, promoting relations between Diaspora Jewry and Israeli society.