From Business Model to Model Citizen

Ruth Eglash
JPost
1 September 09

Avner Chen, community relations manager for Amdocs, one of the country's biggest hi-tech companies, talks with heightened enthusiasm about the day not so long ago when he brought together disadvantaged children from the Alumim boarding school in Kfar Saba and representatives of the Israel Police.

"It was the first time they'd ever seen a policeman in a positive light," recalls Chen, a veteran of the hi-tech industry who over the last five years has redirected his managerial skills to working with children and youth at risk living near to Amdocs's four branches in Ra'anana, Sderot, Tirat Carmel and Hod Hasharon.

"The goal was to try to show them the police from the angle of a regular citizen; for so many of these children, their previous experience with the police is very bad. It took a while for them to change their views, but after several meetings the children began to see them in a completely different way."

Connecting children and youth at risk, who for the most part have only witnessed the police dragging their parents away in the middle of the night, with law enforcement is only one aspect of Chen's work as the international company's liaison with the wider community.

Under his direction, some 500 Amdocs employees, out of a total of 4,000 here, provide a variety of educational and care services touching the lives of more than 1,200 young people, many of whom have been removed from their families and are living in boarding schools.

"Each Amdocs branch has a community relations department and has adopted a community project nearby," explains Chen, who provides each department with guidance and ideas to develop the volunteer programs. "This makes it easier for the employees to reach the places where they are volunteering.

"We don't see this as a philanthropic venture in any way, even though we do contribute funds to support the various projects and activities. The most important aspect is the human contact with these kids."

CHEN'S MOVE from Amdocs's IT manager to community relations took place five years ago, when his daughter, Tamar, 25, was fighting a losing battle against a brain tumor.

"My family had been dealing with it for 10 years," he says, visibly saddened by his loss. "It was a very intensive and frustrating period. Toward the end, my daughter was severely disabled and almost blind, and the way the public reacted to her disabilities was very hard for us.

"Even though it was tough, her situation made me realize that so much needed to be done to help the underprivileged."

As Chen grew tired of his intense work as IT manager, the position of community relations manager became vacant.

"They offered it to me and at the time it seemed like the right change for me," he says, adding that he now feels privileged to have had such an opportunity to utilize his managerial experience and channel his newly found compassion for those less fortunate.

"Obviously there's no compensation for the loss of my daughter," reflects Chen, who has two other grown-up children. "However, it is very important to me to help others. When I see my actions and activities have really helped others, it's an amazing feeling."

Although such outreach activities had existed at Amdocs for a number of years, Chen managed to refocus the company's approach to volunteering and community relations, deciding to pour all the resources into one field in a way that would ensure success.

"The new goal is to focus on one topic and watch it grow over a long period of time," he states. "We are a company that strives for excellence in the business world, and I just decided to adopt that approach to strive for excellence in community relations too."
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