JTS Board of Trustees Elects New Members

July 3, 2019
Contact: Beth Mayerowitz, bemayerowitz@jtsa.edu

The Board of Trustees of The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) has elected four new members: Talya Bock, Matt Furman, Alan Klein, and Sharon Nelles.   

“We are pleased to welcome these four new members to our distinguished Board of Trustees,” said Alan Levine, chair of the board. “The wealth of experience they bring in the areas of business, law, philanthropy, and community service will undoubtedly enhance JTS’s leadership capabilities. We are also thrilled to be expanding our Next Generation category, which identifies young Jewish communal leaders and was introduced last year.” 

Talya Bock is a wealth management advisor and portfolio manager at Merrill Lynch in Washington, DC. She holds the certified financial planner, chartered special-needs consultant, and chartered retirement-planning counselor designations. Previously, Ms. Bock worked in private wealth management at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and in investment banking at BMO Capital Markets. She is a 2006 magna cum laude graduate of the Double Degree program and majored in Economic History at Barnard College and in Talmud at List College of JTS. Ms. Bock also holds an MA in Informal Jewish Education from the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of JTS. She is an active community volunteer and serves on the board of Hadar and as a trustee of the Tikkun Olam Women’s Foundation in Washington, DC.

Matt Furman is general counsel at Willis Towers Watson, a leading international advisory, broking, and solutions company focused on risk management, insurance, and human capital management. Previously, Mr. Furman served as a senior vice president, group general counsel—corporate & governance, and corporate secretary for Travelers. Mr. Furman also served as an attorney at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a law degree from Harvard Law School. Mr. Furman is a member of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee, where he serves as a member of its Executive Committee and chair of its Market Structure Subcommittee.  Until recently, he was a director of the Legal Aid Society. In 2013, he was a David Rockefeller Fellow at the Partnership for New York City.

Alan Klein is a partner with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where he is co-head of the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice and a member of the Executive Committee. A former co-chair of the International Bar Association’s Corporate and M&A Law Committee, he chaired the International Bar Association’s Annual International Mergers and Acquisitions Conference in New York City for seven years. Mr. Klein is president of the Board of Trustees of the Dalton School;  a member of the Board of Trustees for Montefiore Medicine, the umbrella organization for the Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine; the immediate past chairman of the Board of Directors  of Film Forum, the leading independent non-profit cinema in New York City;  a board member of Lawyers for Children, which provides legal and social work assistance to children in foster care in New York City; and an advisory board member of the LaGuardia and Wagner Mayoral Archives. He is a former member of the Board of Directors for Volunteers of America—Greater New York, Inc., and is a former trustee of the Citizens Budget Commission. Mr. Klein received his BA with honors in History from Haverford College and his JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

Sharon Nelles, managing partner of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP’s Litigation Group and member of the firm’s Management Committee, represents global companies and financial institutions and their boards in every aspect of critical company matters that implicate not only civil litigation but also related regulatory, congressional, and criminal investigations, and enforcement actions. She is currently active in diverse litigation, including #MeToo workplace investigations and the Volkswagen diesel matters. Her community involvement includes serving on the Board of Directors of the Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert, the National Breast Cancer Coalition, and Time’s Up. Ms. Nelles graduated from Boston College Law School, received an MA from New York University, and an AB from Mount Holyoke College.

About The Jewish Theological Seminary | JTS is a preeminent institution of Jewish higher education, training thoughtful, innovative leaders—rabbis, cantors, educators, lay leaders, and scholars—who strengthen our communities with a vision of Judaism that is deeply grounded in the Jewish past and thoroughly engaged with contemporary society. JTS also provides high-caliber lifelong learning and professional development to our alumni, adult learners, and Jewish communities throughout North America. Through its Library, JTS preserves and makes accessible to students and scholars throughout the world the greatest collection of Judaica in the Western Hemisphere.