Ari Alexander

Ari Alexander was a co-founder and co-Executive Director of Children of Abraham. He currently serves as the Director of Independent Software Vendor and Channel Sales Enablement at Salesforce.com, an enterprise cloud computing company that was named the world’s most innovative company by Forbes Magazine. From December 2009 to September 2011, Mr. Alexander served as Senior Advisor to the Administrator and the Director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at USAID. In recognition of his contributions to USAID and the Obama Administration, Mr. Alexander was invited to the Oval Office for a one-on-one meeting with President Obama. Previously, Mr. Alexander served as a Senior Fellow with the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He has presented and lectured about international development and interfaith cooperation all over the world, including in Cambodia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Indonesia, Morocco, Peru, Qatar, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Tunisia, and Turkey.

Mr. Alexander completed two Masters’ degrees in the United Kingdom as a Marshall Scholar: a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Comparative Ethnic Conflict from the Queen’s University of Belfast and an M.Phil. in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford. His research led him to live in Beirut, Damascus, and Jerusalem. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in History. He has also served as an English teacher in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria, as a counselor and facilitator at Seeds of Peace International Camp and Face to Face / Faith to Faith, as well as an educator for Jewish teenagers participating in United Synagogue Youth and at the Lauder Camp in Hungary.