Tova Bram

Tova Bram was always strong in math and science, excelled in high school sports, and suffered zero fools. “I had three brothers and was small, so I had to be serious,” she says.

At college, she was ready to work hard. One major was not enough. Nor was one internship at a time. Bram headed toward a computer science degree and pursued finance as well. One of her professors urged her to incorporate fi­nance into her career, and Bram became a member of the Economics Honor Society, made the Dean’s List and grad­uated with a computer science major and a finance minor.

One of her internships was at BlackRock, the world’s larg­est asset manager, where she got to use her talents in both finance and software design and was hired full time upon graduation. She rose to senior software engineer. While there, she contracted a serious case of pneumonia. Her idea of resting was to teach herself all about e-commerce, so she founded LoveSylvester, which sold clothing and ac­cessories. “I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t breathe,” she explains, matter-of-factly, “so, I started a business.”

After four years at BlackRock, Bram received an offer from Facebook. She is a member of the Facebook Live Team, where users livestream events from a phone, computer or connected TV. Says Bram, “It’s a pretty cool job. The tech field is about developing real products billions of people use and I love the creative process.”

Bram remains close with her finance professor. She speaks to students and works through her career network to offer internships and professional positions to Touro students and graduates. “Touro helped me reach my full potential,” she says. “I believe in paying it forward and helping other students, especially women, succeed in tech.”