New Tel Aviv University Program will strengthen local leadership in Israel
A new program at Tel Aviv University for Israel’s mayors and municipal leaders promises to improve the quality of local leadership throughout Israel. The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership will train Israeli mayors and their top deputies to provide better, more efficient, and more responsive leadership to the communities they serve.
The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership, scheduled to begin in October 2022, is based on the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, which was established in 2016 by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University with the goal of building up the capabilities of city mayors and their teams. The program in the United States invests in a new generation of city leaders, advances knowledge and reinforces the field of city leadership at large. The program has trained 196 mayors and 318 city officials from 25 countries in the past five years.
Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th mayor of New York City, says, “Mayors are on the front lines of every crisis, whether it’s terrorism or a pandemic. The Bloomberg Harvard program has proved phenomenally successful, and now we’re glad to team up with our partners in Israel on a new program that builds on our success and will help local leaders across the State of Israel.”
Prof. Ariel Porat, President of Tel Aviv University, concurs, pointing out that “The quality of sanitation, transportation, welfare, education, and health services mostly depends on the performance of the local municipality. This new program aims to improve the management of local authorities in Israel, thereby enhancing the quality of life of Israelis throughout the country.”
In 2018, Israeli entrepreneur and philanthropist Yossi Sagol began working to develop an Israel-based program similar to the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, to be funded by the Sagol family jointly with Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership is the first-ever initiative inspired by the Bloomberg Harvard program and will be based at Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management under the direction of outgoing Dean of Management Moshe Zviran.
Prof. Zviran, who is also Chief Entrepreneurship and Innovation Officer at TAU, says that there are approximately 260 mayors and heads of local councils in Israel who will benefit from this program. The program’s first cohort will begin with 20 participants who will benefit from a mixture of frontal sessions at Tel Aviv University and online lectures on a wide variety of subjects. The physical meetings will focus on faceto-face leadership, negotiating skills, and leadership and management skills. The online sessions will cover topics such as cybersecurity and disaster recovery for cities and municipalities.
The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership will help develop municipal leaders’ skills through:
• Executive Education: Mayors and senior leaders will receive instruction on how to build leadership and management skills from the Coller School of Management and other Tel Aviv University departments. The mayors will conclude the year with additional training and networking hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University in New York City and Boston.
• City Innovation Projects: Each mayor will receive innovation training and support to address an urgent issue facing their city, with coaching and technical assistance from Hazira, an Israeli national program that establishes and guides innovation teams in local government across the country.
• Summer Fellowship Program: Tel Aviv University students will take part in a 10-week summer fellowship program in participating mayors’ offices throughout Israel.
• Local Government Alumni Network: The program will forge a local leadership network that will bring together all program participants and eventually alumni – mayors, municipal chiefs of staff and other senior city leaders – to share and adopt best practices and innovative policy ideas. The network will also serve as a platform for continuous education for participants and alumni.
• Research Program: The program will convene scholars from Tel Aviv University to conduct applied research on a wide range of topics relevant to effective leadership and management in cities.
Zviran explains why municipal leaders can benefit from formal administrative training. “All local leaders require similar skills and capabilities. Some mayors and municipal leaders don’t have the proper administrative background when first elected.” Zviran adds that particular challenges, such as dealing with disaster situations, including national security threats, cybersecurity issues and earthquake preparation, are somewhat more relevant to Israeli municipalities.
Prof. Zviran adds that while Israel’s national government presents a high profile in state and security issues, the average Israeli citizen has more significant encounters with local government officials. “Local government is very important everywhere in the world,” he says, “but in Israel especially, it has great importance. Our dayto-day contact is with the local municipality. Therefore, the management and leadership skills of local leaders are very important for citizens’ wellbeing.”
Prof. Zviran says that the program has generated a great deal of interest among mayors and municipal leaders in Israel. He adds that the first program will include mayors of smaller and intermediate-sized cities and towns, as well as mayors who are new on the job and have little administrative experience.
The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership will admit up to 20 mayors each year. Selected mayors will also invite two key members of their team to participate in the program. The first class of mayors will be announced in fall 2022. All expenses for the program participation of municipal officials will be covered by Sagol-Bloomberg philanthropic funding through Tel Aviv University.