David Porush

President & CEO

Message from David Porush, MentorNet’s new CEO

I am honored to have been asked to serve as the new CEO of MentorNet and grateful for the warm reception I’ve received from the staff, the Board of Directors, and those of you in the community who have already reached out to me. I’m especially grateful to Carol Muller, MentorNet’s Founding CEO, for continuing to mentor me as we make the organization’s first transition in leadership. I’m further indebted to Carol for having created and sustained a venture so rich, compelling, powerful, and positive and bequeathing to me a committed, intelligent, motivated team and supporters.

Generosity. Courage. Value. Celebration. These are the words that come to mind as I dive deeper into MentorNet and see the passion and vision that built this community and the technology that supports it.

Now think of the courage of protégés not only to sign up for MentorNet and commit themselves to an additional and uncertain relationship, but the courage it took for these women and minority students to overcome the odds and commit to an the path to rewarding a career in engineering and science.

Next, reflect on the value it creates for everyone. In the coming months you’ll hear me say a lot about the MentorNet value proposition. Beyond the gratification and success it yields for our mentors and protégés, our partner corporations and institutions are getting a great deal. MentorNet data shows that our partner firms get “dibs” on - first access to - some of the brightest, bravest, talented people entering these disciplines (see “Courage” above). If the cost of finding, hiring, training and retaining a new PhD or degreed engineer or scientist is $100,000 or more, then MentorNet is one amazing value-creation engine for companies, since the mentoring relationship produces qualified applications to the mentor’s company. Further, there is the still-unmeasured-but-tangible value of what I’ve been calling “cognitive diversity” especially in the sciences and engineering fields: having people with deeply different cultural and personal experiences and perspectives creates better, richer solutions, products and ideas.

Finally, I hope you will help me celebrate MentorNet not only for its decade of success but the promise it holds to humanize and level the playing field of knowledge in an ever-more-globalized, collaborative, and sci-tech driven future.

On a personal note: the MentorNet mission and my responsibilities to it represent to me the culmination of 15 years of work in the university and Web 2.0 start-up worlds building programs that unleash the Web for knowledge sharing and learning. I feel lucky to be sitting in this seat at this moment in cultural history and somewhat astounded that MentorNet and I have found each other. I pledge to endeavor to earn the trust you’ve placed in me to bring forward this precious mission.