Who We Are
JB Reed
The Southerner in our mix, JB sadly has no charming accent, but is a damn good photographer. His images have appeared in The New York Times, Bloomberg News, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and the International Herald Tribune. In 2004, JB was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to document youths living in the Mathare Valley slums of Nairobi, Kenya. The resulting images were featured in multiple gallery exhibitions and won an award from the National Press Photographers Association. The experience fueled his belief that photography can be an agent for social change and led him to co-found Nuru Project.
Omri Bloch
Omri had the brilliant idea for Nuru Project during a year backpacking across Asia and Africa. Realizing he had no relevant skills whatsoever, he quickly recruited the rest of the Nuru team! Presently pursuing his MBA at Wharton, he can usually be found either a) wearing flip-flops or b) en-route to a far-off destination, and often times both.
Chris McAleenan
Ever the entrepreneur, Chris started a pyramid scheme involving fruit roll-ups in the 2nd grade. Not really. A serial entrepreneur, his actual start-ups include LaunchHost, acquired in 2001,and Freshman Fund, acquired in 2009. His degrees from Williams College include a concentration in Computer Science, which he later applied to designing Nuru Project's website.
Daniel Murray
A native St. Louisan, Daniel left the city where the Budweiser flows like wine to work in finance in the Big Apple. Daniel is currently an MBA candidate at the Kellogg School of Management. He enjoys tennis, evangelizing the myriad benefits of watermelon, and based on his rooting for the Cubs, poorly played baseball.
Matthew Watson
Matthew gave up his once promising athletic prospects, believing a career in fine art would be one long parade of wine & cheese spreads. He was correct. Matthew currently works as a professional artist, while also studying for a MFA at the Columbia University School of the Arts. In his free time, Matthew still enjoys a good pickup soccer match.
