The Board

David Ovadia Biography

David Ovadia

A structural engineer and licensed professional civil engineer for over forty years in the San Francisco Bay Area, David Ovadia served as lead seismic engineer for a number of California power plants including the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant while employed at Bechtel Corporation and Pacific Gas & Electric. Ovadia was Associate and lead Project Manager for 14 years for the structural engineering firm Rinne & Petersen, where he had a major impact on ensuring the structural integrity of numerous commercial, industrial, educational, and technology buildings in Silicon Valley.

Most recently and prior to his retirement from Rinne & Petersen in 2013, he served as lead Project Manager for the seismic analysis and design retrofit of five Intel Corporation building structures in Haifa, Israel. He is a member of the Structural Engineering Association of Northern California and the American Society of Civil Engineers. Ovadia currently serves as President (and past Treasurer) of the Board of Directors of Heavenly Valley Townhouses Association in South Lake Taho; as well as Principal Partner with wife Maryellen Himell-Ovadia in Ovadia & Associates, Strategic Development Consulting.

Throughout his business career, Ovadia has been an engaged Jewish community leader as past President and current Board Secretary of his synagogue, Congregation B’nai Israel in Daly City, the only synagogue in the United States serving the Karaite Jewish community founded in Cairo, Egypt in the 7th century. He is deeply committed to the survival of this unique and ancient community within the Jewish world, and to furthering awareness in the larger Jewish community of Karaite Jewish traditions. To this end, Ovadia serves as a member of the JCRC, the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council.

Ovadia currently chairs the “Foundation for the Future” Campaign for Congregation B’nai Israel. The Campaign’s objective is to renovate and expand the synagogue and to establish a national Jewish Karaite Cultural Center as a center for learning, community building and advocacy for Jewish Karaites throughout the Bay Area, the United States, and beyond. His overarching objectives are to find pathways that will keep his community’s traditions alive and relevant to coming generations, and to enhance relationships with the larger Jewish world.

The eldest of four children, Ovadia emigrated at the age of twelve with his family from Cairo to Paris, and then to San Francisco in 1963 with help from HIAS and other Jewish organizations.

Ovadia earned his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from San Jose State University, his M.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at University of California Berkeley.

August 2016

Maryellen Himell-Ovadia Biography

Maryellen Himell-Ovadia retired from UC Berkeley in January 2013 following a celebrated 22-year career as Executive Director of Development for the Division of Student Affairs. In this capacity she raised over $85 million and played a key role in designing and implementing donor-funded programs focused on student success, dedicated to keeping Berkeley accessible to a socio-economically diverse population. Upon her retirement, Himell-Ovadia was awarded the highly prestigious Berkeley Citation, presented for “distinguished achievement and notable service to the University”.

She advised senior campus executives on all matters related to fundraising for scholarships and student services. With a long history of developing programs and funds designed to help private investors realize their own philanthropic objectives, she worked with individual donors, corporations and foundations. She implemented campaigns for undergraduate enrichment programs; early childhood education initiatives; Berkeley’s innovative charter school Cal Prep; and undergraduate scholarships including the Incentive Awards Program, which grew to be the University of California’s largest privately funded undergraduate scholarship and leadership development program for disadvantaged youth.

Himell-Ovadia served as key fundraiser and strategist for two critical initiatives related to UC Berkeley’s $3 billion Campaign for Berkeley launched in 2008. She conceptualized and lead the $300 million campus-wide scholarship campaign; and she played a critical role in conceptualizing the Campaign for Student Life, including its capital initiative focused on the re-design of the campus’s iconic but long-neglected Lower Sproul Plaza as a re-energized hub of student engagement. As a senior campus authority on student issues, Himell-Ovadia also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Berkeley Hillel.

Soon after her retirement, Himell-Ovadia returned to the UC Berkeley campus for an 18-month consultancy, during which she spearheaded the establishment of UC Berkeley’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) Center for Undergraduate Diversity. She developed the project’s strategic plan, trained staff in best development practices, and raised $3 million to launch the program.

Himell-Ovadia continues as principal partner with husband David Ovadia, in Ovadia & Associates, Strategic Development Consulting. She currently volunteers her time to consult with the Oakland Ballet, and serves as Volunteer Campaign Director for the Karaite Jews of America “Foundation for the Future” Campaign. The Campaign objective is to renovate and expand KJA’s Congregation B’nai Israel and to establish a national Jewish Karaite Cultural Center as a beacon for Jewish Karaites throughout the U.S.

A graduate of New York University in Political Science, with an M.A. degree from the London School of Economics in International Relations, Himell was Executive Director of the English-Speaking Union in San Francisco prior to joining UC Berkeley.

August 2016