Izzy Abbass is an Army Veteran and currently is the Commander of Post 1 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. While in the military, he was an infantry Staff Sergeant and he deployed overseas in support of Operation Desert Storm, served in Panama and took part in several JTF counter-narcotic missions. Over the past decade he has been heavily involved in veteran issues including the creation of an initiative to reach out to veterans in higher education, the formation of STOP 18 to bring attention to the high number of veteran suicides and the effort to get medals to men and women who have earned them but never received them while in service. He currently sits on the board of Project Sanctuary, the Denver Fisher House and the Colorado Military History Center. In 2012, he was recognized by the United Veterans Committee of Colorado as Veteran of the Year.
In his private career, he has twenty-years experience in the wireless, internet and television sectors. His experience includes advertising sales, marketing, operations and creating convergence strategies for media companies. He is the founder of Eleven Bravo, a strategic consulting firm focusing on digital strategies and implementations. In this role, he created the concept and was responsible for implementing a text help line for suicide prevention for veterans with the Department of Veterans Affairs which was launched in 2011.