The Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce, The Government of Israel Economic Office in Houston, and the Israel-Texas Science and Education Foundation
cordially invite you to attend
Building US-Israel Partnerships
a dinner reception
6:45 PM – 8:30 PM on Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Dell Jewish Community Center
JCAA Community Hall Stage
7300 Hart Lane
Austin, Texas 78731
*click here for payment information
The dinner reception will be an occasion to welcome to Texas our two distinguished Israeli guests:
Dr. Orna Berry, Chairperson of the Israel Venture Association and Venture Partner at Gemini Israel Funds
Dr. Eitan Yudilevich, Executive Director of the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation.
Rick Seger, President of Austin-based N-trig, will join Dr. Berry and Dr. Yudilevich in a panel discussion.
We are greatly honored to have Secretary of State Phil Wilson address our dinner guests.
This dinner is the first event in Austin for the Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce, and will provide a tremendous opportunity for the Austin business community to learn more about the Chamber’s activities.
Dr. Orna Berry has spent over 25 years in science and technology industries, as an academic researcher, entrepreneur, executive, policy maker and most recently, venture capitalist. The Israel Venture Association, which she chairs, is the organization representing the Israeli venture capital community. Israeli Venture activity, started in the early 1990's with the "Yozma Program", has grown to become the major source of financing for start-up and early stage technology companies. With $10 billion in capital, Israeli VCs have played a major role in making Israel an important global source of innovation. As a Venture Partner at Gemini, Dr. Berry applies her expertise in the high-tech arena to assist and advise Gemini portfolio companies. She is currently Chairperson of Prime Sense. Orna is the outgoing Chief Scientist and Director of the Industrial R&D Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Government of Israel. Prior to that post, in 1993, Orna co-founded ORNET Data Communication Technologies Ltd. and was there until its sale to Siemens in 1995. Orna has also served as the Chief Scientist of Fibronics, a senior research engineer at IBM and UNISYS, and a consultant to Intel. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and M.A. and B.A. degrees in Statistics and Mathematics from Tel Aviv and Haifa Universities.
Dr. Eitan Yudilevich assumed the Executive Diretor position at the BIRD Foundation on January 1, 2006. In his first two years of tenure, BIRD's Board of Governors approved 55 new full-scale, joint U.S.-Israeli company-to-company projects. In addition, new emphasis has been given to new areas, such as Renewable and Alternative Energy and Cleantech. He joined BIRD with vast international experiene after a varied career in Israel and the U.S., including mangement of Rafael's operations in the U.S. for four years. In his last position at Rafael, Dr. Yudilevich served as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. Previously, he was in charge of Rafael's missiles division, the company's largest division which also develops various technologies which have civilian applications, such as Given Imaging's unique capsule.
Dr. Yudilevich has been a member or chairman of numerous boards of international joint ventures. He was also chairman of the board of Opgal, an electro-optics company, and served as director of RDC, a business development company jointly owned by Elron and Rafael.
Rick Seger is a seasoned executive with 20+ years experience leading sales and marketing teams within the high tech industry. Rick began his career with Intel and then spent 13 years in senior leadership positions in Sales Management at Motorola. Prior to joining N-trig Rick helped lay the foundation for two start-ups where he served as VP Sales and Business Development. He holds a BS in Engineering Technology from Texas A&M, and an MBA in Finance from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.
Rick will provide a close look at a successful example of how large companies can take advantage and leverage new or emerging technologies out of Israel. Often there are real challenges to overcome for large established companies to work efficiently with small or newly formed companies.
We are grateful for the support of our sponsors
Platinum
Gold
Silver
And the help of these supporting organizations
Israeli wine generously provided by
To purchase your tickets follow the directions below
Registration for Building US-Israel Partnerships has closed.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Russell Levine, President and CEO, Texas-Israel Chamber of Commerce, at 214-576-9639 or .
We hope you will join us in giving Dr. Berry and Dr. Yudilevich a warm welcome to Texas.