Leadership
Prof. Dror Wahrman
President
Dror Wahrman is a cultural historian of early modern Europe with a long-standing interest in the nature of the transition from the early-modern to the modern, explored in the interfaces between the discipline of history and those of literature, art and material culture. His recent books include The Making of the Modern Self (Yale, 2004), Mr. Collier’s Letter Racks: A Tale of Art and Obsession at the Threshold of the Modern Information Age (Oxford, 2012) and Invisible Hands: Self-Organization and the Eighteenth Century (Chicago, 2015, with Jonathan Sheehan). He is currently completing a book-length interpretation of Der Thron des Grossmoguls, one of the most extraordinary art objects created in early modern Europe, which is expected to be published in 2022. Wahrman taught in the UK and the US (where he served as the associate editor of the American Historical Review and founded the Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies at Indiana University) before returning to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 2008. He came to the MTA after serving as Dean of Humanities of the Hebrew University (2014-2018).
Prof. Michal Parnas
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Michal Parnas is a theoretical computer scientist known for her work on property testing and sublinear algorithms, a field to which she has contributed fundamental results over the years.
She is also the co-author of a successful book in discrete mathematics used as the main text book in many universities and colleges in Israel.
She received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew university. Since 1997 she is a faculty member of the School of Computer Science in the Academic college of Tel-Aviv Yafo, where she has contributed significantly to the design and development of the study program.
Michal was the Dean of the School of Computer Science from 2011 to 2016. One of her initiatives as a dean was the enhanced class for students accepted to the School of Computer Science with low admission levels. Most of the students of the class completed the challenging Computer Science program successfully, and each year some are even elected as outstanding students of the school.
Mr. Elie Mersel
CEO
Elie Mersel is Former Director-General of the State Comptroller's Office. For seven years, He spearheaded the creation of the strategic plans and capacity building of the State Comptroller's Office and the Israel's Ombudsman, as well as the execution of review-based plans for all government ministries, municipalities, local authorities, security forces, government companies, and public entities (over 1,500 reviewed entities in total) including all high education institutes and universities in Israel. Elie has a holistic and vast experience in complex organizations and in a wide array of public and private companies and entities. Has significant overall management experience Leading innovation processes, professional development, Organizational changes, Infrastructure, information systems and cyber defense. He is Certified in Business Administration and in Public Administration, served as Board Member in several Colleges such as Levinsky College of Education, The Academic college at Wingate, The College of Management Academic Studies. He served as an Expert Member at The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) Audit Committee and as a member of CERN’s working group on governance of its pension fund. Honourable Member of the Institute of Internal Auditors. Headed the joint international state auditors conference on “Emergency Situation & Emerging Issues and Chaired the international congress for heads of Supreme Audit Institutions on “Cyber Security – National Threats & State Audit”. He was Member of the advisory board – IIA Israel & The Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Israel, Member of the advisory board for Audit Standards – Government Companies Authority. And was recently elected as a member “The Team of Directors” - for all Government Companies. He published several articles in the field of Risk Management, Audit and State Audit and served as Lecturer and Professional director of the M.A. Program in Law - specializing in internal auditing, at The College of Management Academic Studies; Lecturer in the field of Internal audit theory and Practice; Lectures in various forums in Israel and around the world, in the fields of auditing and control, information security and cyber threats, management challenges in the new media age, Innovation as a tool for motivating employees.
Elie is responsible for all the administrative activities of The Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo, As Director General and Chief Executive Officer for finance, budgeting, operations, physical and academic infrastructure, student administration, scholarships and dormitories, marketing and candidate administration, libraries and academic resources, human resources, and information systems.