The Shmunis Family - Empowering Science that Matters

The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research is funded by a generous donation from the Shmunis family, with the purpose of supporting scientific discovery for a better future. The donation is funding the purchase of state-of-the-art research equipment, scholarships for students, and several scientific conferences in Israel. Each year, Shmunis Excellence Scholarships are given to outstanding young scientists.

The philanthropic impulse and activity of Sandra and Vlad Shmunis are rooted in their personal background, having started from humble beginnings as immigrants from Odessa to the US in the 1970s and 1980s and building global technological companies. Together they founded Ring Zero Systems, an organizational software company later sold to Motorola, and in 1999 established RingCentral. RingCentral is the world’s largest and fastest-growing global pure-cloud communications solutions provider.

Vlad has received numerous accolades for his leadership abilities, including being named a Top 10 CEO of a large company and receiving the 2020 Unified Communications Leader of the Year Award. He holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in computer science from San Francisco State University and is a named inventor on a variety of US patents.

Sandra holds a degree in computer engineering and today focuses most of her efforts on running the family’s philanthropic foundation, which supports diverse important causes in Israel and the US, among them Jewish values, young entrepreneurs, cancer research, and Biblical archaeology. In 2023, they received honorary degrees from Tel Aviv University in recognition of their contribution to the university and the world.

Tel Aviv University awarded honorary degrees to Sandra and Vlad Shmunis >>