I believe that if one adopts certain principles, which I constantly deploy in meetings and consultations with my clients, the likelihood of successfully facing greater challenges grows exponentially.

While I have led and mentored multiple organizations, large and small, I need to address the question of what makes my experiences, knowledge, and personality suitable for Corporate Business Mentoring (or CBM).

It’s not because of natural-born skills, that’s for sure. As a relatively short kid with asthma, slight dyslexia, and a terribly slow reading capacity, I had quite a few personal challenges to overcome growing up. I couldn’t participate in team sports, and I was at best an average and underperforming student.

Early on, I developed my own path which stuck with me, with improvements and modifications, for the rest of my life.  I realized that I would have to develop my own path, whatever that path may be.

By the time I was 20 (and while serving in the IDF as some sort of an analyst), I launched my work and study careers. I began learning Spanish and Bookkeeping, then studied Economics, Labor, Political Science, Management, Finance, International Marketing, and Law. Each one of these studies helped me in various steps of my career.  I became a teaching assistant to Professors in Political Science, Management, and Law.

I was fortunate to meet and work alongside many important and famous people:

• I met Shimon Peres as part of a peace initiative
• Worked with the person who formed the first Leverage buyout firm in Israel
• Gopher to the late Bob Simon, CBS’s 60 Minutes reporter
• Worked for several Israeli’s leaders
• A teaching assistant to Prof. P. Mali (Management by Objectives) and Professor A. Jacobson (Contracts Law)
• Interned with the Hon. Former Judge K. Conboy of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Represented a convicted felon on appeal through the Innocent Clinic (Cardozo School of Law)
• Reported to Sir Simon Stevens (former CEO of the NHS), and indirectly to Stephen Helmsley, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, among others

The person who really impacted my comprehension, focus, and compassion for people and situations, was the late Richard Leland Measelle (Dick), who was my mentor for a few years.  Dick came from humble beginnings (his father was a Ford factory employee) to become the Global CEO of Accenture. Spending time with him made me cherish and crystalize what a humble, successful person with an amazing career can be (nothing close to my upbringing).  Last but not least my brother, Adi Karev, who was extremely successful in his own right (Global Head of Oil and Gas for Deloitte Consulting and then E&Y), has always been there to provide what I was wanting.