Jul 27, 2007 — Twelve Yeshiva University (YU) undergraduate science students are taking advantage of an exciting opportunity. They are spending the summer doing research with top scientific scholars at the university’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) in the Bronx. It is one of two programs that allow undergraduates with interest in science to participate in ongoing research projects.

“The eight students in the Roth Scholars program and the four students in the University Summer Research Scholars program are paired with scientists at Einstein to gain experience conducting cutting-edge scientific research,” said Barry Potvin, PhD, professor of biology at YU and chairperson of the Roth Summer Research Fellowship Committee. The annual ten-week program, sponsored by the Ernst and Hedwig Roth Institute of Biomedical Science Education at Yeshiva University, provides each student with a stipend and campus housing

“Each program has its own funding, and both allow undergraduate science students the chance to experience high-level research with university scientists,” Dr. Potvin said. The students work in teams alongside graduate and post-doctoral students.

Sarah Guigui, of Marseille, France, a student at YU’s Stern College for Women, said working in the lab of Anne Bresnick, PhD, an associate professor of biochemistry who studies the molecular mechanisms regulating cell motility and cell division, exposed her to the day-to-day life of working in a lab. “I plan on pursuing a medical career and will be applying to medical school this summer. Working with Dr. Bresnick has made me realize that research is a viable option within my medical career goals,” the biochemistry major said.

According to Dr. Potvin, although most of the students are considering medical careers, this experience often piques their interest in research, and pushes them to apply to MD/PhD programs.

Ashrei Bayewitz, of Teaneck, NJ, is working in the lab of Bridget Shafit-Zagardo, PhD, professor of pathology, studying central nervous proteins in mice that hold particular significance in Alzheimer’s disease.

Nilly Brodt, a biology major from Montreal, is working with Tom Meier, PhD, studying a mysterious organelle (a discrete structure of a cell having specialized functions) found in human uterus tissue for only four days of the ovulation cycle.

Each year a few of the students continue their research at AECOM, or use the experience as a way to form professional relationships with other researchers so they can participate in similar work at labs closer to YU’s midtown Beren campus or its Washington Heights Wilf campus.

Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, Innocence Project cofounders, have launched a national campaign to prevent wrongful convictions.

Jul 26, 2007 — With new DNA tests proving that Byron Halsey did not commit the brutal sexual assault and murders of two young children in New Jersey for which he was convicted in 1988, the Innocence Project at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law won exoneration in July for its 205th client.

Halsey narrowly escaped the death penalty at the time of his conviction, which was overturned in May.

DNA testing on several key pieces of evidence used to convict Halsey indicated the guilt of another man, Cliff Hall, already in prison for several other sex crimes in New Jersey and who testified against Halsey during his trial.

Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, cofounders of the Innocence Project and codirectors of the national organization, said the exonerations “are the greatest data set ever on the causes of wrongful convictions in the United States and yet just the tip of the iceberg,” since so few cases involve evidence that can be subjected to DNA testing.

The Innocence Project launched a month-long national campaign to address and prevent wrongful convictions after it won its 200th exoneration in April.

“The first 200 DNA exonerations have transformed the criminal justice system in this country. These exonerations provide irrefutable scientific proof of the causes of wrongful convictions, and they provide a roadmap for fixing the criminal justice system,” Professor Scheck said.

A primary goal of the national campaign is to support the formation of innocence com­missions, state entities that identify causes of wrongful convictions, and develop state reforms that can improve the criminal justice system.

Six states already have such commissions, and seven more states are currently considering legislation to create them.

Jul 24, 2007 — It is with deep sorrow that the Yeshiva University community mourns Dr. Lana Schwebel, dear friend, colleague and spirited teacher, who died on July 7, two days after an automobile accident while traveling with a group of tourists along the shores of Lake Baikal in southern Siberia.

“Dr. Schwebel was a natural for Stern College,” says Karen Bacon, PhD, The Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean of Stern. “Her intelligence and zest for life, her commitment to Torah Judaism, and her honest approach to her academic discipline were reflections of our mission as a college and of our aspirations for our students. She was admired and beloved for so many reasons.”

Formerly an assistant professor of religion and literature at the Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School, Dr. Schwebel had been an assistant professor of English at Stern College since 2006. She is survived by her parents, Philip and Lilly Schwebel, and her sisters Elizabeth Wind (and Shalom) and Pamela Swickley (and Gary).

Ann Peters, a colleague of Dr. Schwebel’s in the English Department, says of her late friend and fellow teacher: “She was not only an expert on literature, but on dance, theater, New York restaurants, modern art, China, obscure Russian orthodox religious practices—really, there seemed to be nothing she hadn’t explored. Yet, she never passed on information in a way that made you feel she was showing off. Her teaching came out of a generous need to communicate.”

Another colleague, Dr. Laurel Hatvary, describes Dr. Schwebel as “brilliant, funny, loving, creative, deeply spiritual, thoughtful, and always curious.”

“She was thirsty for life,” Dr. Hatvary says, “for new experiences, new people, new landscapes. She wanted to encompass the world. Iceland and China last year—Siberia this. Wherever there was new life, she drank it in and felt it through.”

Dr. Schwebel, who held a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Barnard, taught Survey of English Literature, Love and War in Medieval Romance, Elementary Latin, Women in Medieval Literature and Masterpieces of World Literature. Dean Ethel Orlian remembers Dr. Schwebel, as “a witty, vivacious, adventurous young woman who made the literature come alive.”

Stern College student Tikva Hecht says that taking a course with Dr. Schwebel “was a life-changing experience.”

Sadly, as Dean Bacon says, “We do not have adequate words or understanding to explain her death.”

But she reminds us, “We do have the collective will to remember her always.”

Jul 20, 2007 — President George W. Bush has nominated New Jersey attorney Shalom David Stone ’84Y, for a seat on the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals. If the appointment is confirmed, Mr. Stone—who graduated magna cum laude from Yeshiva College, and three years later earned a law degree from the New York University School of Law—would fill the vacancy created when Samuel A. Alito Jr. became a Supreme Court justice early last year.

As a Third Circuit judge, Mr. Stone, 44, would hear appeals from the federal district courts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands.

For the past seven years, he has been a partner in the Roseland, NJ, law firm of Walder, Hayden & Brogan, representing clients ranging from the Discovery Channel and Film Garden Entertainment to individual criminal defendants. Before joining his current firm, Mr. Stone was an associate in the Newark, NJ, law firm now known as Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross.

As an attorney, he has appeared frequently in court, briefing and arguing appeals and motions in complex litigation, trying cases on both the state and federal levels. He has specialized in commercial litigation, real estate matters, and white-collar defense work.

As a writer, he has published articles in the New Jersey Lawyer, the Insurance Litigation Reporter, and has authored a chapter for the American Bar Association’s report entitled “The Scope of Federal Discovery in the Federal Courts.”

He has also served as chair of the Federal Practice and Procedure Section for the New Jersey State Bar Association, and as a member of the Lawyers’ Advisory Committee for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Furthermore, he has volunteered to represent indigent defendants and is a regular lecturer for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, an organization that provides ongoing training for lawyers throughout New Jersey.

Mr. Stone’s first interest in law, he recalled, was sparked while taking two undergraduate courses at YU: Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties, both taught by Rabbi Michael Hecht, now the pre-law advisor at YU.

As a private citizen, Mr. Stone, who is married to Dana Ilyne Stone and has three children, is active in his synagogue, Temple Beth Ahm, where he is a regular Torah reader for the congregation. He is also a member of the Nature Conservancy, an organization dedicated to protecting the environment through land purchases.

His nomination for the Circuit Court still has several steps to go through, including garnering support from the US Senate.

Dr. Michael Ginzberg, the new dean of Sy Syms School of Business

Jul 16, 2007 — Dr. Michael Ginzberg, a nationally prominent expert and prolific author on management information systems and the international aspects of business, who helped build both the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics and Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management into world-class institutions, has been named dean of Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University.

The appointment of Dr. Ginzberg, who served from 2000 to 2006 as dean of Lerner College, where he was also the Chaplin Tyler Professor of Business, was announced today by Yeshiva University President Richard M. Joel and Mort Lowengrub, vice president for academic affairs. The appointment is effective immediately.

“Sy Syms School of Business is part of a very serious undergraduate enterprise at Yeshiva University—one which, through its commitment to excellence, creativity, and collaboration, plays an integral role in our mission of upholding and promoting the ideals of Torah Umadda [the confluence of Torah and secular knowledge],” said President Joel. “In Dean Michael Ginzberg, we have not only an educator of rigor and experience, but someone who both respects that mission and who knows the value of dreams.”

Added Dr. Lowengrub: “Following an exhaustive and rigorous national search, we are privileged to have Dr. Ginzberg as our new business school dean. His outstanding amalgam of skills, his creative vision, and his dynamic leadership abilities will serve us well as we move forward on securing the school of business’ position among the top echelon of undergraduate business schools in the US.”

Dr. Ginzberg, a resident of Hockessin, DE, has been serving since 2006 as a pro bono special consultant to the president of Tulane University in New Orleans, helping develop a strategy and implementation plan for a new school of science and engineering.

He said he is excited about coming to Sy Syms because of its “unwavering commitment to preparing students not just for the challenges and complexities of today’s business world but also to be industry leaders of unquestionable ethics and principles.

“Because of the school’s dual curriculum, combining a comprehensive business education with the strongest undergraduate Jewish studies program in the country,” Dr. Ginzberg said, “Syms students are imbued with the skills and values necessary to make significant contributions in their professional pursuits, their communities, and society at large.”

Dr. Ginzberg was also attracted to the deanship because it provides an ideal opportunity to build the school, which he said has “enormous potential.” To this end, he will focus in the immediate future on securing accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, enhancing existing undergraduate programs, establishing a comprehensive honors program, and exploring the introduction of selective graduate programs.

Dr. Ginzberg has amassed an impressive record in accomplishing such goals at other institutions. At the University of Delaware, his tenure as the Lerner College dean was highlighted by the establishment of the John Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, securing the endowment to name the school, strengthening several departments, and introducing graduate programs in the management of systems and technology and organizational change. He also secured a $10 million contract from the US Agency for International Development to develop a graduate school of business in Sarajevo.

Prior to that deanship, Dr. Ginzberg served as a professor and associate dean of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve. During his 15-year tenure there, he built the information systems department, which is widely regard by academic colleagues as one of the nation’s top information systems research departments, focusing on behavioral and organizational issues. He also established the Center for Management of Science and Technology, an interdisciplinary center for research and teaching; exchange programs with business schools in several European and Latin American countries; and an MBA program in partnership with the International Management Center in Budapest.

Dr. Ginzberg, who has also held faculty positions at Columbia University and New York University, earned his doctorate in management in 1975 from the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His MBA in economic analysis is from Iona College and his undergraduate degree is from MIT.

A native of Cincinnati who grew up in South Florida and Westchester County, NY, Dr. Ginzberg has held leadership positions in various professional organizations, including two terms as chairperson of the Executive Committee of the International Conference on Information Systems, president of the Society for Information Management (Northeast Ohio Chapter), board member of the International Management Center, board of trustees chairperson of the Sarajevo Graduate School of Business, and board member of Beta Alpha Psi, the honorary society for accounting and financial information professionals. He is a fellow of the Association for Information Systems.

He is the author and/or editor of more than 50 articles and books on information systems development and management, information technology strategy, and organizational change, and the recipient of a number of major grants.

In his Jewish community leadership, Dr. Ginzberg has served on the board of the Jewish Federation of Delaware; Congregation Beth Shalom in Wilmington, DE; Hillel at the University of Delaware; Bellefaire Jewish Children’s Bureau; and Congregation Bethaynu in Ohio.

He and his wife, Rosemary, have two sons: Matthew, an investment banker with JP Morgan Chase in New York, and David, an incoming freshman at the University of Delaware.

Jul 16, 2007 — A nationally prominent expert and prolific author on management information systems and the international aspects of business, who helped build both the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics and Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management into world-class research, teaching, and training departments, has been named dean of Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University.

The appointment of Dr. Michael Ginzberg, who served from 2000 to 2006 as dean of Lerner College, where he was also the Chaplin Tyler Professor of Business, was announced today by Yeshiva University President Richard M. Joel and Mort Lowengrub, vice president for academic affairs. The appointment is effective immediately.

“Sy Syms School of Business is part of a very serious undergraduate enterprise at Yeshiva University—one which, through its commitment to excellence, creativity, and collaboration, plays an integral role in our mission of upholding and promoting the ideals of Torah Umadda [the confluence of Torah and secular knowledge],” said President Joel. “In Dean Michael Ginzberg, we have not only an educator of rigor and experience, but someone who both respects that mission and who knows the value of dreams.”

Added Dr. Lowengrub: “Following an exhaustive and rigorous national search, we are privileged to have Dr. Ginzberg as our new business school dean. His outstanding amalgam of skills, his creative vision, and his dynamic leadership abilities will serve us well as we move forward on securing Sy Syms School of Business’ position among the top echelon of undergraduate business schools in the US.”

Dr. Ginzberg, a resident of Hockessin, DE, has been serving since 2006 as a pro bono special consultant to the president of Tulane University in New Orleans, helping develop a strategy and implementation plan for a new school of science and engineering.

He said he is excited about coming to Sy Syms School of Business because of its “unwavering commitment to preparing students not just for the challenges and complexities of today’s business world but also to be industry leaders of unquestionable ethics and principles.

“Because of the school’s dual curriculum, combining a comprehensive business education with the strongest undergraduate Jewish studies program in the country,” Dr. Ginzberg said, “Sy Syms School of Business students are imbued with the skills and values necessary to make significant contributions in their professional pursuits, their communities, and society at large.”

Dr. Ginzberg was also attracted to the deanship because it provides an ideal opportunity to build the school, which he said has “enormous potential.” To this end, he will focus in the immediate future on securing accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, enhancing existing undergraduate programs, establishing a comprehensive honors program, and exploring the introduction of selective graduate programs.

Dr. Ginzberg has amassed an impressive record in accomplishing such goals at other institutions. At the University of Delaware, his tenure as the Lerner College dean was highlighted by the establishment of the John Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, securing the endowment to name the school, strengthening several departments, and introducing graduate programs in the management of systems and technology and organizational change. He also secured a $10 million contract from the US Agency for International Development to develop a graduate school of business in Sarajevo.

Prior to that deanship, Dr. Ginzberg served as a professor and associate dean of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve. During his 15-year tenure there, he built the information systems department, which is widely regard by academic colleagues as one of the nation’s top information systems research departments, focusing on behavioral and organizational issues. He also established the Center for Management of Science and Technology, an interdisciplinary center for research and teaching; exchange programs with business schools in several European and Latin American countries; and an MBA program in partnership with the International Management Center in Budapest.

Dr. Ginzberg, who has also held faculty positions at Columbia University and New York University, earned his doctorate in management in 1975 from the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His MBA in economic analysis is from Iona College and his undergraduate degree is from MIT.

A native of Cincinnati who grew up in South Florida and Westchester County, NY, Dr. Ginzberg has held leadership positions in various professional organizations, including two terms as chairperson of the Executive Committee of the International Conference on Information Systems, president of the Society for Information Management (Northeast Ohio Chapter), board member of the International Management Center, board of trustees chairperson of the Sarajevo Graduate School of Business, and board member of Beta Alpha Psi, the honorary society for accounting and financial information professionals. He is a fellow of the Association for Information Systems.

He is the author and/or editor of more than 50 articles and books on information systems development and management, information technology strategy, and organizational change, and the recipient of a number of major grants.

In his Jewish community leadership, Dr. Ginzberg has served on the board of the Jewish Federation of Delaware; Congregation Beth Shalom in Wilmington, DE; Hillel at the University of Delaware; Bellefaire Jewish Children’s Bureau; and Congregation Bethaynu in Ohio.

He and his wife, Rosemary, have two sons: Matthew, an investment banker with JP Morgan Chase in New York, and David, an incoming freshman at the University of Delaware.

Sy Syms School of Business was founded in 1987 through the leadership and support of national clothier, civic leader, and philanthropist, Sy Syms. Over the past few years, the school has established an outstanding record in each of its areas of concentration. In this period, the school has grown three-fold and its alumni are now making their mark in prestigious firms in the business world.

Dr. Richard Caputo is among Wurzweiler's most prolific professors.

Jul 13, 2007 — A recent study shows that professors at Wurzweiler School of Social Work are in the top ten of American colleges and universities in the number of scholarly works published between 1999 and 2003.

Six major peer-reviewed social work journals were examined for the study. Each author from a social work school whose name appears on an article in these journals was counted individually toward the total number of citations credited to that institution. Yeshiva ranked eighth out of 137 institutions in total number of faculty citations, ahead of such institutions as Boston University and Fordham University. The study was conducted by Jan Ligon at Georgia State University, D. Lynn Jackson at University of North Texas, and Bruce Thyer at Florida State University, and appears in the Journal of Social Service Research.

In a second study in the Journal of Social Work Education measuring scholarly publications, Yeshiva ranked 24th in a select group of institutions with social work programs, up from its previous ranking of 41. This study drew on articles cited in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) from 2000 to 2004.

Jul 6, 2007 — Liise-anne Pirofski, MD, professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology, and Mitrani Professor of Biomedical Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. The honor recognizes Dr. Pirofski’s contributions to the field of microbiology.

Specifically, Dr. Pirofski’s research has led to new insights into the immune response to Cryptococcus and Pneumococcus, microbes that cause meningitis and pneumonia. Her studies focus on the antibody and cellular responses that can protect against these organisms, with the ultimate goal of developing improved approaches to preventing and treating the diseases that they cause.

Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology are elected annually through a highly selective, peer-reviewed process, based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology.

Dr. Pirofski, who is also chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Einstein, has been a member of the Einstein faculty since 1988. She received her bachelor’s degree at the University of California at Berkeley and her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1982.

Jul 6, 2007 — Female athletes at Yeshiva University are about to score big: over the next two years, the athletics department will add women’s soccer, cross country, and volleyball to its sports offerings, reaching NCAA status for women’s athletics for the first time and achieving full membership in the Skyline Conference, the New York City conference that competes in the NCAA’s Division III.

“This is very exciting news,” Joe Bednarsh, the university’s director of athletics, said. “We’ve doubled the number of varsity sports on the women’s side, and competing in the Skyline Conference allows our student-athletes the opportunity to compete against an upgraded schedule.”

The developments will allow the university’s athletes to have a superior experience on and off the playing field, Bednarsh said.

“Building new programs is a lofty challenge, but I believe we have the support from the YU community to make this initiative a successful one,” he said.

After competing as a club program in 2006, women’s soccer will begin varsity play during the upcoming season, with coaching by Jack Thelusma, former head men’s soccer coach. Women’s cross country and volleyball will operate as club programs during the fall of 2007. Cross country will be coached by Stanley Watson, Yeshiva College’s assistant athletic director and director of intramural athletics, and volleyball by Roxanne Prendergast, a 2006 team captain for Mount Saint Vincent who led her team to winning records during three of her four college seasons.

The women’s program will be overseen by Esther Goldfeder, the new assistant athletics director. Goldfeder, the former director of athletics at the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls, joined YU four years ago as assistant women’s basketball coach. In hiring Goldfeder, Bednarsh believes the infrastructure will be in place to allow for a successful building of the women’s programs during what is in many ways a new era for the Maccabees.

“Esther is an experienced athletics administrator who has developed fantastic ties to our community as an assistant coach,” Bednarsh said. “She has the patience and determination to oversee the development of a women’s athletics program that our entire community will continue to be proud of.”

Ira A. Lipman (right) writes a letter in the Torah scroll with the guidance of Rabbi Binyomin Spiro (left), the Torah's scribe.

Jul 3, 2007 — Students who attend Congregation Birkat Shmuel, which is located on the Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus of Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM), are the beneficiaries of a new gift to the congregation: a Sefer Torah (holy Torah Scroll).

The Sefer Torah was presented by the Lipman family of New York and Memphis, Tennessee. The inscribing of the Sefer Torah for YU was commissioned by businessman and philanthropist Ira A. Lipman of New York and given in observance of the 13th yahrzeit (anniversary of the passing) of his late father, Mark Lipman. It was presented on May 30, 2007, to the independent Congregation Birkat Shmuel, which was named for the late, revered Dr. Samuel Belkin, under whose tenure as the second President of YU the Albert Einstein College of Medicine was established.

Mr. and Mrs. Lipman and their family have given specially written Sifrei Torahs to universities, Hillels, and centers of Jewish learning across America each year on Mark Lipman’s yahrzeit. However—and uniquely—this is the second such special gift to benefit Yeshiva University students; a Sefer Torah was dedicated last year on the Wilf Campus in Washington Heights.

At the beginning of the dedication ceremony, Edward Burns, MD, AECOM’s executive dean, spoke on the significance of Hakhnasat Sefer Torah (dedicating a new Torah), explaining why the ritual, which incorporates the use of a chuppa (wedding canopy) may be compared to a joyous occasion such as a Jewish wedding.

The Lipman family and their guests, as well as AECOM and Yeshiva University students, were welcomed by YU President Richard M. Joel, who spoke of his long relationship with Ira Lipman dating back to President Joel’s tenure as president and international director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. Other speakers included Dr. Herbert C. Dobrinsky, Yeshiva’s vice president for university affairs and Dr. Steven H. Lazar, assistant dean of AECOM, who helped coordinate the event.

Words of tribute were offered by rabbis who have been close to Mark Lipman, Ira Lipman, and the Lipman family: Rabbi Sol Roth, rabbi emeritus, Fifth Avenue Synagogue and professor of philosophy at YU; Rabbi Rafael Grossman, senior rabbi emeritus, Baron Hirsch Congregation, Memphis, Tennessee; and Rabbi Samuel Fox, rabbi emeritus, Beth Jacob Congregation, Dayton, Ohio, formerly rabbi of Congregation Agudath Achim, Little Rock, Arkansas.

The liturgical program of dedication that followed completion of the Torah was conducted by Cantor Joseph Malovany of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in New York City. Cantor Malovany is also distinguished professor of Jewish liturgical music at the Philip and Sarah Belz School of Jewish Music at YU’s affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

A highlight of the ceremonies was the sacred privilege of writing a letter in the new Torah with the guidance of the Scribe, Rabbi Binyomin Spiro, of Baltimore, who has completed all thirteen Sifrei Torah for the Lipman family. Students, faculty, and invited guests joined the Lipman family, which included the sons of Barbara and Ira Lipman— Gustave, Joshua, and Benjamin—in writing a Torah letter.

The Siyum (conclusion of the writing of the Torah) was heralded by Rabbi Alex Mondrow, the young and dynamic spiritual leader of Congregation Birkat Shmuel, who conducts services and lectures and teaches classes on the Resnick Campus during the week, while working toward his PhD in psychology at YU’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology.

The Lipman family has given Sifrei Torah, also completed on previous yahrzeits of Mark Lipman, to the Hillel chapters of the University of Pennsylvania, Northeastern University, Columbia University, Ohio State University, the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland; as well as to Fifth Avenue Synagogue; the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles; the Center for Jewish History, New York; Baron Hirsch Congregation; and Congregation Agudath Achim.

Ira A. Lipman is founder and chairman of Guardsmark, LLC, one of the world’s largest security services companies, with more than 155 offices in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, France, and Singapore, serving clients in more than 400 cities. His father, the late Mark Lipman, founded and operated Mark Lipman Service, a private investigations company in Little Rock and Memphis, and was a prominent leader of the Jewish community for many years, including having been president of Congregation Agudath Achim and the moving force to build a new synagogue that was completed in 1952 in Little Rock.