The Board of Directors of Ometz is proud to announce the appointment of Gail Small to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective May 1, 2015.

Prior to accepting the role of Co-Executive Director of the Agency in 2008, Gail led Jewish Family Services (JFS) as its Executive Director building a strong and dedicated agency renowned for professionalism and deep compassion in providing social services to those within the Montreal Jewish Community with the greatest needs and challenges. Recognized for service excellence, strategic vision and adaptability, JFS gained its reputation for quality and care to the most vulnerable within and outside the Jewish milieu.

Following her instinct and vision of enhancing the level and breadth of services available, Gail was instrumental in conceiving, executing and transitioning the merger of JFS with Jewish Employment Montreal (JEM) and Jewish Immigrant Aid Services (JIAS). In 2008, Ometz was founded, with Gail as Co-Executive Director, thereby realizing her goal of creating a single access point for individuals in need of an integrated and holistic brand of support and capitalizing on the wealth of the combined resources and expertise now at the Agency’s disposal. Through Gail’s leadership and strategic focus, the whole truly is greater than the sum of the parts.

In fulfilling her mandate as Co-Executive director, Gail is recognized as a committed and decisive leader with a broad, exceptional and unique knowledge base and skill set. Her ability to excel at both operational and strategic levels has been one of the driving forces behind Ometz’s success in maintaining service levels through periods of financial constraint and reevaluating service models to adapt to ever changing demographic realities. Her analytical talent has inspired crucial reorientation of service objectives to focus on root causes for too many disadvantaged in our community and has resulted in our mission to “break the cycle of poverty” focused on youth at risk.

Gail has earned the respect, admiration and trust of more than 100 Ometz staff and managers as an honest leader and a trusted mentor with a unique impassioned commitment to service excellence to each and every client of Ometz. She is recognized for her depth of knowledge and transparency in representing Ometz within the Federated system of agencies that has distinguished Ometz as a model for its executive management, strategic creativity and governance.

As Ometz moves forward with its ambitious initiatives to preserve and ensure sustainability, the Board of Directors has absolute confidence in Gail’s ability to guide and lead the Agency to new successes in providing services to clients, fundraising, revenue generation and operational efficiency. We are unanimous in our enthusiasm and commitment to Gail in her expanded role.

We invite you to join us in wishing Gail every success as well as in our excitement for this next chapter in the relatively brief history of Ometz, but one that started over 150 years ago with a vision that has lived and grown until today, and beyond, and one for which we all share the obligation to fulfill.



Marc Welikovitch, CPA, CA
President