More than 400 guests participated in the Chamber Annual Conference in New York on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009, which was made possible with the cooperation of the America-Israel Friendship League; America-Israel Chamber of Commerce & Industry in New York and Israeli Business Forum of New York.
Fifty speakers in fourteen panels and sessions discussed business and financial issues concerning Israel and the U.S. The event opened with a power breakfast with Prof. Jacob Frenkel, former Governor of the Bank of Israel, and Ms. Abby Joseph Cohen, senior analyst at Goldman-Sachs Investment House. The two speakers agreed that the financial crisis is nearing conclusion, but Americans' biggest concern is the inability to come up with immediate solutions to the rising rate of unemployment.
The keynote speakers were the Governor of the Bank of Israel, Prof. Stanley Fischer -who described the encouraging data of the Israeli economy in face of the crisis, which is winding down; Minister of National Infrastructures, Dr. Uzi Landau, who called on the Israeli government to increase funding for bi-national funds for R&D, and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Michael Oren; who surveyed Israeli-U.S. relations.
The conference focused on a number of central issues: education, alternative energies, medical technology, new media, real estate, security and finances. Among the speakers: Inventor Dean Kamen; visionary of solar energy and founder of SunEdison, Jigar Shah; Real Estate mogul Jared Kushner; Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, Joel Klein; SVP of Research and Innovation at the Coca Cola Company, Bilal Kaafarani; VP Renewal Energies, Christopher Myers, and CEO of Henry Schein distribution company, Stanley Bergman.
During the conference, three Israeli companies were presented: ExactCost in the medical equipment field; Time to Know regarding education technology, and Better Place in the solar energy field.
Booky Oren, Chairman of Miya, Arison Group; Israel Makov, Chairman of Netafim; Michael Federmann, Chairman of Elbit Systems and Hon. Daniel C. Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, moderated workshops.
A delegation of 40 businesspeople arrived from Israel, led by Chemi Peres, Chairman of the Chamber, and Amb. Danny Gillerman, Chairman of the America-Israel Friendship League. Participants included Avner Raz, Chairman of the Israel Military Industries; David Kolitz, Chairman of Elul Technologies; Moshe Gaon, Chairman of Gaon Holdings; Dr. Idan Tamir, CEO of Rad-Biomed; Entrepreneur Zvi Alon; Yossi Rosen, Chairman of Oil Refineries; Nir Lampert, CEO of Golden Pages; Avi Bzura, CEO of Bank of Jerusalem; Danny Fishman, partner at Tamir-Fishman Investments and Managing Partner at Gaia Real Estate; Rami Kalish and Isaac Hillel, Managing General Partners at Pitango Venture Partners, and Shlomo Grofman, Chairman of FaireFund.
The group participated in "Israel Day" at the New York Stock Exchange and participated in the Opening Bell Ceremony.
Dan Senor, author of the best-seller Start-Up Nation, described the popularity of the book among Americans unfamiliar with the Israeli hi-tech industry.
A special award was presented to Advocate Kenneth J. Bialkin for his activities and contribution to Israel over the past few decades. Amb. Dan Halpern, Vice Chairman of the Chamber, moderated the event.
The event was sponsored by: Continental Airlines; Bank Hapoalim, Citibank; Hapoalim Securities, Lockheed Martin; Matimop; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kushner Companies; Pitango Venture Capital; Rudin Management Company, Schulte Roth & Zabel and The Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute.
For photos from the event, click here . |
