J Street donor to host President Obama
President Obama is set to headline a Massachusetts fundraiser dinner Wednesday evening, at the home of Jewish donors Paul & Joanne Egerman, benefiting the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to an invitation obtained by the Boston Globe. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) are all expected to attend. Tickets to the event, which include dinner and a photo, are $32,400 per person.
Paul Egerman is a retired software entreprenuer who co-founded IDX, a worldwide supplier of administrative and financial solutions for health care organizations. Egerman is credited with growing IDX from a small start-up to a publicly held corporation with over 2,000 employees and more than $250M in sales. Egerman most recently served as Elizabeth Warren’s finance committee chair. In addition, he is a member of J Street’s Advisory Council and J Street Boston’s Leadership Council. Paul also serves as a board member at the New Israel Fund and on the Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Greater Boston’s Jewish Federations, tech committee.
Joanne Egerman serves on the boards of the Anti-Defamation League in New York and of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusett’s in Boston. Their son, Mark Egerman, had previously worked in the office of legal cousel for Gov. Deval Patrick and was a policy analyst at the Elizabeth Warren-affiliated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Mark is now a co-founder of Cover, a NYC-based start-up that wants to make restaurant payments as easy as Uber is for taxi services.
In a 2012 Boston Globe article, Paul Egerman said he first met Elizabeth Warren a few years ago “when he happened to sit across the aisle from her on an airplane. His son had been her student at Harvard Law School, and he was familiar with her advocacy on financial regulation. Egerman said it was a potentially awkward moment for him when he tapped her on the shoulder. “You’re Elizabeth Warren,” he recalls telling her. “I’d really like to talk policy with you. I’m Paul Egerman.” Her response to him: “I’m Elizabeth Warren. I’d really like to talk policy with you.” The relationship grew from there and in retrospect it turned out to be one ‘lucky tap’ for Warren.