Ed Hyken

When JELF’s Educational Loan Committee approved a loan for Ed Hyken in 1985, they could not foresee that he would one day be a board member.

Hyken came to the United States with his mother from St. Petersburg, Russia, in February 1982, at the age of 14. He graduated from Atlanta’s Yeshiva High School and was accepted at Emory University in Atlanta with a very good financial package, but it didn’t cover all the costs of attending school. He and his mother had emigrated from Russia only three years before and the financial resources of this single-parent family were extremely limited.

He earned a B.S. in economics and computer science from Emory in 1989 and began repaying his loan. In 1993, after several years in the work force, he enrolled at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania to earn an MBA, again with JELF’s assistance. 

After Wharton, Hyken started a computer consulting business. Together with a high school classmate, Hyken started Expressiva, a nursing-wear company which offers contemporary and stylish clothing for professional medical professionals.  

Hyken was elected to JELF’s board of directors in 2001 and, a year later, was elected one of JELF’s vice-presidents. He became a co-chair of the Educational Loan Committee that same year. He remains an active supporter of JELF today.