Allan L. Smith (Smitty) – Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Allan or Smitty, as most know him, is a graduate of Brandeis University and the Boston Hebrew College. He studied in Jerusalem at the Hebrew University and was ordained a Reform Rabbi by the Hebrew Union College. Allan holds the degrees of BA, BJEd, MA and DHL, and was, for thirty years, the Director of the URJ Youth Division, a system of twelve resident camps, an international travel program, a high school youth program and a college youth program with over 200 full time employees and a budget in excess of $30,000,000 per annum.

Ron Furman – Senior Vice President

Ron earned a BS in Business Management from Fairleigh Dickinson University and recently completed his MBA in Human Resource Management at UMass/Amherst. He has extensive experience as an executive in the hospitality industry with an emphasis on CRM, multi-site operations, contract/vendor management, project management, team development/training and strategic business planning. He resides in Massachusetts and operates our Northeast Office.

Glynis Conyer - Chief Operating Officer

Glynis was born in South Africa, received her BA from the University of South Africa and was ordained a Reform Rabbi by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Glynis served as a resident camp director for eight years and has extensive experience in human resources for the summer camp industry. Prior to joining CCS, Glynis served as consultant on operations and staffing for twelve summer camps. She has been most successful in the development of specialty programming in the private and public camping sectors. Glynis serves as the overall Director of Operations for CCS in the USA.

Leonard Keilin – Vice President of Recruiting and Placement

Len comes to CCS from his most recent position as Executive Director of Camp Mountain Chai, in La Jolla, California. Prior to that, Len was the Associate International Director of BBYO and International Director of Camping Services for B'nai B'rith, where he served for twenty five years, including 6 years as Director of the Perlman Camp in Starlight, Pennsylvania and 14 years as Director of Beber Camp in Mukwonago, WI. In addition, Len directed Camps Seneca Lake and SiSol in Rochester, NY and worked at Camp Walden in Bolton Landing, NY. He has a Master's degree in Counseling from Syracuse University. Len has been involved in international staffing for more than 20 years.

Karen Cooper - Chief of Financial Operations

Karen has been Director of Finance for a large public sector camping organization for over thirty years and is the Director of Financial Operations for CCS. Karen brings over thirty years of financial management experience in the camping and travel industries.

Shauli Lev – CEO of Israel Operations

Shauli was born in Israel and received his BA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He served as a Major in an elite infantry unit of the Israeli army. He is a senior specialist in Security and Safety and leads training of security personnel including teachers, youth instructors, public service employees, bus drivers and hotel safety and security personnel. He has developed a training program in management, teamwork and leadership known as “Position Purple”, which conducts training seminars in the North America, Europe and South America.

Shai Nemesh – Operations Manager for Israel

Shai was educated in Economics and Management at the Open University and Sound Engineering at Emek HaYarden College. He has been an emissary to summer camps in the United States. Shai has been a member of the recruitment team for the Summer Staff and Emissary Program of the Jewish Agency. Most recently he has been the Logistical Coordinator of the Summer Program for the Jewish Agency and led screening and training workshops for the Summer Staff Program.

Miro Barnas- Operations Manager for Eastern Europe

Miro has seven years of experience in American summer camps. His most recent position was as kitchen manager for a 750 person facility. He is very familiar with kitchen procedures and staffing for both kosher and non-kosher facilities. He was also in charge of hiring in Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Poland for that agency. His specialty areas include kitchen and support services but he also has experience in recruiting program staff. Miro has a Masters Degree in Corporate Finance and resides in Bratislava.

Shelley Smith - Operations Manager for Australia

Shelley studied Child Development in Sydney before embarking on a 8 year "working holiday". Her extensive travels saw her living and working in various locations throughout Africa, Europe, North America and The South Pacific. Shelley spent 3 summers in a director role at a New Jersey summer camp as well as 4 seasons working as a Naturalist in an Outdoor, Environmental and Adventure Education unit. She has spent 4 years recruiting International staff to work in American venues and is currently working from Port Macquarie NSW, completing a counselling degree and raising her two beautiful boys.

Bartlomiej Ilnicki - Operations Manager for Centeral Europe

Bartek received his MA in Marketing and Management from Szczecin University in Poland. He spent the past 6 years running a recruiting agency, where his responsibilities included recruiting, screening and informing University students about J1 Work & Travel programs to the USA. In addition, he was also responsible for marketing J1 Visas programs and organizing pre-departure orientations as well as supervision of staff and coordination of local offices. His experience also includes 5 stints s a participant in Work & Travel programs to the US. He is currently CEO and co-founder of the polish company International Experience Center, CCS official recruiter in Poland.

Giya Pnematicatos - Operations Manager for South Africa

After school, Giya chose to travel, deciding on a working holiday in the US.
She found herself working for a Summer Camp in Pennsylvania and spent 5 summers there. Giya decided to return to South Africa for a while to help other people experience the great time she had working and traveling. She began working for a company that places students in US Ski Resorts and Summer Camps, where she gained valuable experience in this field. Giya then spent another 18 months in the US doing sales & marketing for a Camp and Conference Center in California. Giya has now returned to South Africa to head up the CCS operations there.

Yonatan Sacker – Recruitment and Screening - Israel

Yonatan was born in South Africa and moved to Israel when he was 18. After his army service, Yonatan worked at summer camps in the USA. He was the Assistant Director of the Summer Camp Program of the Jewish Agency where he was responsible for recruitment, screening and training of thousands of successful international staff. Yonatan spent three years in Australia as an emissary of the Jewish agency, where he worked intensively with the Reform Movement. Most recently, Yonatan was the Israel-Diaspora Programs Coordinator at the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa, Israel.