Our Team
We're a group that loves to travel, meet new people and visit exciting places. We've collectively traveled through 73 countries, spent 6.3 years volunteering around the world and bravely defeated one fierce alpaca.
We speak 8 languages (6 of them by Thy alone), we run 190 miles a month (and by "we" we mean Alon) and we really don't like eating eggplant (no offense to eggplants). One of our happiest moments was when an appreciative sanctuary in South Africa named a newborn ape after our community manager.
We really love what we do.
Orit Strauss
Founder & CEO
A lawyer by profession, Orit practiced commercial law for over a decade. Founding the GivingWay network was a natural continuation of Orit's interest in international volunteering, an interest stemming from the year she spent volunteering on the Thai-Burma border back in 19.... well, a long time ago.
Contact Orit at: orit AT givingway.com
Alon Elish
Founder & CTO
Alon is an experienced entrepreneur with over two decades of technical and product related experience in the web and mobile fields. The GivingWay network is the perfect beneficiary of Alon’s extensive technical skills and passion for doing meaningful work.
Contact Alon at: alon AT givingway.com
Gigi Levy-Weiss
Founder
Gigi is a seasoned entrepreneur, leading angel investor and mentor, working with numerous tech companies from early-stage startups to large-scale corporations.
Gigi is also an avid supporter of many social enterprises and NGOs across various sectors, including Israeli-Palestinian co-existence, performing arts, social development and women empowerment and as part of such activities serves as an active board member at MEET (Middle East Education through Technology).
Lisa Zigel
Head of Marketing
Lisa is an experienced marketer with many years experience at SaaS B2B and B2C companies. More importantly, Lisa spent several years looking for a company that truly wanted to do something meaningful. So when the opportunity to head up the marketing department at GivingWay came along, she was on it like white on rice.
Contact Lisa at: lisa AT givingway.com
Brittney Hofbauer
Community Manager
Brittney always knew she wanted a career which combined her desire to help others, explore the world and make a difference. She received her Bachelor and Master of Social Work in Toronto, Canada and has worked as a Child Protection Worker, Crisis Counselor, Project Manager and Internship Coordinator.
During her 20's, she travelled to over 40 countries, where she volunteered with numerous initiatives. She continues to have a desire to discover new cultures, communities, gain perspective and connect with new people and ideas.
Her experiences and love for creativity have led her to work with GivingWay where she hopes to create change and influence others to do so around the world.
Contact Brittney at: brittney AT givingway.com
Thy Doan
Customer Support Manager
Thy's multicultural background and ability to speak many languages have opened a lot of doors for her. She has a passion for human beings that she has developed through years of med school, travelling and volunteering.
Her inner desire to help people has led her to work with minority communities all over the world, from the Amazon to the Middle East. Joining the GivingWay family was just natural for Thy!
Contact Thy at: thy AT givingway.com
Ben Carp
Developer
Working for Giving Way is a great opportunity, as it combines the joy of programming with making an actual real world difference.
Ben studied philosophy and management and was a teaching assistant in Tel Aviv University. He lived for a few years in Thailand, where he volunteered for two years in a local NGO. Ben always enjoyed mathematical-logical fields, and in recent years he entered the world of programming
Contact Ben at: ben AT givingway.com
Dr. Brigitte Mohn
Advisory Board Member
Born in 1964, Dr. Brigitte Mohn is the daughter of Bertelsmann Stiftung founders Liz Mohn and the late Reinhard Mohn (1921–2009).
She studied political science, art history and German philology at the universities of Bamberg, Munster and Augsburg, earning a Master of Arts in 1991 and subsequently a doctorate.
In 2001 she received an MBA from the Otto Beisheim School of Management in Koblenz and the Kellogg Institute in the United States. From 2001 until June 2014, she has served as chair of the German Stroke Foundation’s Executive Board.
She has been Chair of the Board of Trustees, German Stroke Foundation, Gütersloh since June, 2014. In 2002, she also became director of the Health program at the Bertelsmann Stiftung. She has been a member of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board since January 1, 2005.
Aside from her duties with the German Stroke Foundation and the Bertelsmann Stiftung, Dr. Mohn is a member of the supervisory board of the Bertelsmann Management SE, the Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and of the Rhoen-Kinikum AG and a member of the Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbh.
Norie Quintos
Advisory Board Member
Norie is the former long-time executive editor of National Geographic Traveler, overseeing the print and digital team and winning the Travel Magazine of the Year award from the Society of American Travel Writers in 2015. She was also an editor at U.S. News and World Report and Caribbean Travel and Life. Currently Norie serves as an Editor at Large for the Washington, D.C.-based National Geographic Travel magazine, contributing content and representing the award-winning brand.
Currently Norie is a consultant for the travel industry on editorial packaging, communications strategy, media relations, custom content, and storytelling. She helps emerging destinations and travel companies find and tell their stories, through communications audits, itinerary development, seminars and training, editing projects, and market representation. She is an AdventureEDU educator, leading seminars, offering training, and developing online courses for adventure travel operators. She has lived abroad, speaks several languages, and is involved in a couple of travel startups and nonprofits.
She bikes, hikes, and tweets @noriecicerone. When not traveling, she resides in Alexandria, Virginia.
Casey Fenton
Advisory Board Member
Casey is the original founder of CouchSurfing and serves as its Founding Chairman of the Board. CouchSurfing is the pioneer of online sharing economy, with over 15 million users worldwide. Casey is also the founder of Mastly, a performance-based equity tool to help startups reach their goals, as well as the founder of Sovolve, an organization committed to creating practical, fun and user-friendly solutions to accelerate social change.
Natalie Jesionka
Advisory Board Member
Natalie Jesionka is a lecturer of Sociology and Anthropology at Rutgers University Newark. As an undergraduate, she founded the PRIZM Project, a human rights education organization for young women. Natalie also worked to shed light on untold human rights stories researching and reporting on issues such as refugee rights and human trafficking.
Natalie served as a Fulbright Scholar in Thailand, researching stateless Hill Tribes and examining the origins of human trafficking. The work led to a partnership with Shine Global, an Oscar Award-winning non-profit production company, on the upcoming documentary film The Wrong Light.
Natalie has served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA and penned the column "Travel Mirror” for The Daily Muse, focusing on best practices in volunteering and international development. She serves as the Editor of Shatter the Looking Glass, an online magazine that focuses on ethical travel. In 2014 she was awarded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans to further her research in counter-trafficking efforts around the world.
Benny Arbel
Advisory Board Member
Benny is a serial tech entrepreneur and digital marketing expert, as well as the former CEO of MyThings and of Comverse's mobile content division.
Recently Benny co-founded and serves as CEO of Inception VR, the leading destination for virtual reality entertainment content.
Brittney and the Fierce Alpaca
