Our Team
Managing Team
Yonatan Schoen
Director, Head of Research
Yonatan is co-director of Maximum Impact and leads the research in the program and Effective Altruism Israel in general. He’s an experienced economist and data specialist specializing in performing cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit evaluations and assisting organizations in evaluating and measuring their impact.
Previously, Yonatan worked in the research division of the Bank of Israel, where he specialized in evaluating government intervention programs in welfare, education economics, and healthcare using big data sources. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in the PPE program and a Master’s degree in Research Economics, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Ezra Hausdorff
CEO, Effective Altruism Israel
Ezra is the co-director of Maximum Impact, leading the philanthropy efforts in the program, additionally Ezra is the CEO of Effective Altruism Israel. Ezra have extensive experience in policy, research and management, Ezra previously served as a policy economist for the Innovation Authority’s strategy department and as an economist for consulting firm ERCG.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Economics and Humanities from the Hebrew University, where he graduated from the selective Amirim honors program. Active in social causes, Ezra helped operate the first coronavirus testing lab at Hadassah Ein-Kerem hospital, volunteered with Gesher Association and led educational programs with the Jewish Agency.
Judges Panel
Claire Walsh
Director of Policy, J-PAL Global
Claire works as a senior director of policy at the J-PAL research institute affiliated with MIT. As part of her work, she oversees the management and implementation of RCT studies around the world, and is considered an expert in drawing evidence-based conclusions in the field of education, poverty and promoting positive change. Claire has rich experience working in a variety of non-profit organizations, in the fields of education, global poverty, and running international programs to eradicate climate change.
Dr. Assaf Kovo
Chief Economist, Innovation Authority
Dr. Assaf Kovo currently serves as the Chief Economist of the Israel Innovation Authority. Previously, he held roles as a senior economist in the Prime Minister’s Office and National Economic Committee, where he worked on projects evaluating the effectiveness of government agencies. Kovo also spent over six years at the Antitrust Authority. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Hebrew University and has deep expertise in impact assessment as well as Israel’s technological industries. Kovo has published extensive research on these topics.
Karolina Sarek
Co-founder and program manager, Charity Entrepreneurship
Karolina founded and serves as co-director of the Charity Entrepreneurship organization, an incubator for effective non-profits at the highest level around the world. On top of that, Karolina manages the animal rights department at EA Animal Welfare Fund and is a member of the board of directors of a variety of international charities and organizations. Carolina is an expert in evaluating effectiveness and has extensive knowledge and experience in establishing and managing effective associations.
Dr. Dan Stein
Chief Economist at IDinsight, Founder of GivingGreen
Dr. Dan Stein manages the team of economists of the international research body IDinsight, which uses research and data tools to maximize the effectiveness of social programs and organizations. In addition, Dan founded GivingGreen, an organization that deals with finding the most effective non-profits in the world in the fields of climate change, energy and environmental quality. Dan holds a PhD in economics from LSE, where he specialized in the areas of microfinance and evaluations. He previously worked as an economist at the World Bank, where he specialized in evaluating the impact of intervention programs, particularly in the fields of agriculture and forestry.
Dr. Analia schlosser
Senior lecturer at the Economics School, Tel Aviv University
Analia is a senior lecturer at the School of Economics at Tel Aviv University and a member of leading international research groups. Analia is a world-renowned expert in evaluating the effectiveness of various social intervention programs, and manages the research unit for evaluating the effectiveness of public policies in Israel. Her main research areas are education economics, labor economics, family economics and economic development. Has a doctorate in economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2007), and a post-doc from Princeton University.
Ahinoam Zigel
Director of Economic Consulting and Research, SFI Israel
Ahinoam Zigel manages the economic consulting and research field at the Social Finance Israel group. Previously, she served as a project manager in the economic department at the BDO consulting company, where she led complex macroeconomic studies and specialized in examining the national viability of projects for business companies, government ministries and social organizations. Earlier, Ahinoam interned at the United Nations headquarters and the Pitango Group’s impact investment fund. She holds a master’s degree in human rights studies from Columbia University in New York.
Consultants
Michael Bloch
CEO of Israel Impact Partners, senior partner at McKinsey
Luke Freeman
CEO, Giving What We Can
Sella Nevo
Senior Data Scientist, RAND.
Founder and Former manager of the Carmel Group at Google for the use of AI for humanitarian purposes. CEO and co-founder of Probably Good.
Founder and Former manager of the Carmel Group at Google for the use of AI for humanitarian purposes. CEO and co-founder of Probably Good.
Past Partners