Israel Venture Association Annual Conference To Host Leading Entrepreneurs and CEOs

TEL-AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Israel Venture Association (IVA) announced today that it will host leading entrepreneurs and CEOs in their fields, that have established and led the largest and most successful international companies, to address the annual High-Tech and Venture Capital Conference. The Conference will be held on June 10 - 11, 2007 at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv.

“In just over a decade, the Israeli technology industry has established itself as a global hub of innovation, with extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit and significant investor interest from all over the world”

The speakers who will address the Conference include:

Shay Agassi, who until one month ago served as Member of the SAP Executive Board and as President of Product & Technology at SAP (NYSE: SAP). Agassi is currently an entrepreneur in an environmental technology project, which aims to transform Israel into an international experiment in electronic transportation.

Israel Makov, until recently the CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq:TEVA), is amongst Israel's most respected corporate leaders and is widely credited with making Teva, Israel's largest company, into the world's largest maker of generic drugs.

Prof. Paul Gompers, Director of Research at Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in Finance and Entrepreneurial and Service Management. Gompers specializes in research on financial issues related to start-up, high growth, and newly public companies.

Dov Moran, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of M-Systems, which was sold to SanDisk (Nasdaq:SNDK) last year for US $ 1.55 Billion.

Eyal Waldman, Chairman and CEO of Mellanox Technologies (Nasdaq:MLNX). Since co-founding Mellanox in 1999, Waldman has led the company through its successful listing on the Nasdaq in February.

Haim Shani, CEO of Nice Systems (Nasdaq:NICE). Since taking the reigns at Nice in 2001, Shani has guided the company to become a leader in the homeland security market.

Yigal Jacoby, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Allot Communications (Nasdaq:ALLT). Jacoby, a veteran entrepreneur, previously founded Armon Networking which was eventually sold to Bay Networks in 1996.

The theme for this year’s event is “Start Up Big!” and it will focus on Building Large Companies with a stimulating program that includes how to better leverage Israeli innovations to create larger companies, what this means to Israeli entrepreneurs/VC’s and LPs, local and global case studies, which sectors to invest in, CleanTech and other emerging sectors with the potential to impact the industry. In addition, the Conference will include focused breakout sessions on Networking and Home Networking, Web 2.0 & 3.0, new models for Enterprise Software, Medical Devices and Biotech as well as Gaming and Digital Media.

“In just over a decade, the Israeli technology industry has established itself as a global hub of innovation, with extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit and significant investor interest from all over the world,” said Conference Co-Chairmen Eddy Shalev, General Partner and Founder of Genesis Partners, and Eli Barkat, General Partner and Founder of BRM Capital, “We expect that the industry experience that was developed during this period will drive an acceleration in both the quantity of successful start-ups and, even more importantly, the quality and magnitude of the successes.”

IVA has partnered with the Red Herring business and technology magazine to co-manage the Conference panels and the “Start-up of the Year” competition. The competition will honor the best start-ups of 2007 in the categories of Software & Internet, Semiconductor & Communications, and Life Sciences. In addition, a special IVA committee will elect the IVA Persons of the Year in the following categories: the most significant contribution to the Israeli high-tech and venture capital industry, the leading technology entrepreneur, and the venture capitalist who has prominently contributed to the community. Representatives of the IVA and Red Herring will present the awards to the winning start-ups in each category of the start-up competition and the IVA Person of the Year awards.

According to Dr. Orna Berry, Chairperson of the IVA, “We are observing a trend in the Israeli entrepreneurial landscape where more and more entrepreneurs are focused on building global category leaders right from the get go. Building large companies is a national challenge, which will change the face of Israel’s economy and advance the Israeli edge in global competition.”

About the IVA

The Israeli Venture Association (IVA) was founded in 1996 in response to the development of the high-tech industry and venture capital activity in Israel. The IVA is a broad based organization representing diverse aspects of the venture capital industry in Israel, including all the major VC funds and other venture investors, service providers, and technological incubators. Since the establishment of the government’s Yozma [“initiative”] program, which served as the catalyst for the creation of an active VC community, Israeli VCs continue to lead efforts to make Israel a true source of technological innovation. For more information about the IVA, please visit www.iva.co.il.