Mind the Tech NYBack to New York: Who’s who at Calcalist’s Mind the Tech 2024 conference
Mind the Tech NY
Back to New York: Who’s who at Calcalist’s Mind the Tech 2024 conference
The best of Israel’s dynamic high-tech industry and American business leaders will come together on March 4th in Calcalist and Bank Leumi’s 6th annual conference to stand with Israeli tech
Calcalist and Bank Leumi’s annual Mind the Tech NY conference is just around the corner and this year the focus of the conference will be standing with Israeli tech, through supporting and promoting Israel’s vibrant industry. "Our goal at the New York conference is to promote Israeli high-tech, as part of a series of events in Israel and around the world in 2024. Israeli high-tech is alive and kicking and will overcome all challenges," says Calcalist Publisher Yoel Esteron.
According to Hanan Friedman, CEO of Bank Leumi, Calcalist's co-host, "We are coming to New York to display the unique resilience of Israeli society, also reflected in the strength of the tech sector. This spirit of action and creativity will continue to drive the Israeli economy forward, especially once the fighting ends." Leumitech CEO Maya Eisen Zafrir and Bank Leumi CIO Eyal Efrat will represent Leumi alongside Friedman at the conference.
7 View gallery
Mayor Eric Adams, Maya Eisen Zafrir, Hanan Friedman, and Nir Bar Dea.
(Credit: Calcalist)
Originally planned for November, the conference was postponed following the October 7 attack and Israel’s subsequent war. Mind the Tech will bring together key figures from the Israeli and U.S. tech and venture capital communities. The first day of the conference, on March 4th, will open with a conference held at Quorum by Convene, hosting speakers and discussions on topics including strengthening the strategic alliance between Israel and the U.S., promoting Israeli high-tech post-October 7th, and how Israel can become a leading player in the field of AI.
On the second day of the conference, a series of tours, networking events, and roundtable discussions will take place led by companies including Bank Leumi, Valley Bank, Google, Amazon, the Yazamiyot - Women’s Entrepreneurs, and Israeli Mapped in NY. There will also be a tour of the Mercer Labs, Museum of Art and Technology with artist Roy Nahum, and a visit to The Squadron - an F-35 flight simulator. The conference will conclude with an event at one of New York's most iconic locations - the rooftop of the Standard Hotel.
From the New York City Mayor to a former NSA Director
Two mayors will welcome the attendees at the opening of the conference. Eric Adams has led the world's most important city, of roughly 8.8 million residents, since January 2022. He entered politics over twenty years ago, after serving more than two decades in the New York Police Department, retiring as a captain. Before being elected mayor, he served in the New York State Senate and as Borough President of Brooklyn. Adams is considered a strong supporter and close friend of Israel. After October 7, he was among the first express support for Israel, delivering a speech that resonated both in Israel and the U.S., condemning Hamas's attack, calling for its dismantlement, and referring to Jews as "brothers."
Alongside him, Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion, who was recently reelected for a second term after a decisive victory in the mayoral elections, will welcome the guests. As will Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, who stands at the forefront of Israel's advocacy efforts and has been leading the fight against rising antisemitism since the attack, as well as strengthening international support for Israel.
One of the keynote speakers at the conference will be Nir Bar Dea, making his first appearance at Calcalist's NYC conference since his appointment as CEO at one of the world's largest hedge funds, Bridgewater. Bar Dea joined the company in 2015, serving, among other roles, as the head of the fund’s Investment Engine division, and was appointed CEO a year ago. At the conference, he will share his extraordinary journey from his childhood in Israel to shaping the next chapter of Bridgewater's future.
Former NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers held various senior roles in the U.S. security apparatus, including Commander of the Tenth Fleet, the second commander of Cyber Command, and simultaneously served as Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), the world's most important intelligence agency, and Chief of the Central Security Service (CSS). His extensive and diverse experience in the cyber world makes him a valuable asset in his current role as an advisor to Israeli venture group Team8.
Randi Zuckerberg is an entrepreneur, artist, author, and marketing expert. Her books have appeared on The New York Times bestseller list, she is the CEO of the New York-based marketing and media company Zuckerberg Media, editor-in-chief of Dot Complicated, a digital lifestyle website, and creator of the animated children's series “Dot.” based on one of her books. Zuckerberg, sister of Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, was previously the marketing director and spokesperson for Facebook. She is also behind HUG - a social marketplace for artists to sell digital and physical goods, while connecting with fellow artists & art lovers. Zuckerberg will speak in a Fireside Chat with Guy Franklin, founder and general partner of Israeli Mapped in NY Ventures.
Former Minister of Science and Technology Izhar Shay is a veteran tech entrepreneur, before and since his foray into politics in 2019-2021. Shortly after his son Yaron, an IDF soldier in the Nahal Brigade, was killed fighting Hamas terrorists during the October 7th terror attack, Shay announced the establishment of Next October, a project aimed at establishing a new startup in memory of each of the attack's victims, providing innovation and technology for a better world, “the right, moral, Zionist, high-tech, Israeli response," in his own words.
Blackstone CTO John Stecher leads the technological activities of the trillion-dollar asset management giant. In his role, Stecher advises the company's investment teams and provides knowledge and technological resources to its portfolio companies. Stecher will appear on stage in a fireside chat with the Managing Director of Blackstone’s Tel Aviv office, Yifat Oron.
Cassandra Seier is the Head of International Capital Markets at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the world's largest and most important stock exchange. In her role, Seier is responsible for attracting new listings from companies around the world. Seier and her team work with entrepreneurs, investors, and investment banks to advise private companies on how to go public on the NYSE. Prior to joining NYSE about a year and a half ago, Seier spent nearly twenty-five years at Goldman Sachs, where she held various senior roles. She currently also serves as the CEO of Women in Financial Markets, which works to advance women leaders in the financial industry.
Ira Robbins is the CEO of Valley Bank, which acquired control of Bank Leumi USA in a $1.2 billion deal in 2022. Valley Bank manages about $64 billion in assets.
NICE CEO Barak Eilam heads one of Israel's largest and oldest tech companies, founded in 1986 by graduates of IDF intelligence units at a time when terms like "startup," "tech," and "venture capital" were either obscure or nonexistent. The company is a major global player in cloud computing and data analytics for customer service improvement and financial fraud prevention, working with most companies on the Fortune 100 list.
Barak Regev has served as the Managing Director of Google Israel since 2017 and is considered one of the biggest supporters of Israel's tech ecosystem. Regev played a significant role in promoting Google's initiative earlier this year to establish a $4 million fund for Israeli startups, aimed at supporting up to 20 companies in need of immediate funding to continue operations. Another representative from the company, Google Israel Director of Client and Partner Solutions Maya Henkin, will speak on a special panel on harnessing the potential of AI.
7 View gallery
Dina Pasca-Raz, John Stecher, Sivan Shamry Dahan and Lonne Jaffe.
(Credit: Calcalist)
Bart Osman is a partner at Lexington Partners, one of the world's largest secondary market funds, managing assets valued at an estimated $55 billion. In January of this year, Lexington completed a $22.7 billion fundraising for a new secondary fund, which will focus on acquiring assets from large investors. Osman will participate in a panel discussion on the awakening of the investment market, offerings, mergers, and acquisitions, led by Fiona Darmon, a founding partner at Sunvest Capital Partners, a new venture capital fund focusing on secondary transactions.
Lonne Jaffe is a partner at Insight Partners, the leading funder of unicorn companies in Israel. Jaffe, who has led investments in several Israeli companies in recent years, and prior to joining the fund in 2017 held senior roles at IBM and served as CEO of startup Precisely. At Insight, he leads the fund's deep technology activities in areas such as artificial intelligence, HealthTech, FinTech, cyber, software development tools, and quantum computing.
Len Rosen is a senior managing director and CEO of Evercore Israel, one of the world's largest independent investment banks. The bank, considered one of the most prestigious in its field, has advised on mergers and acquisitions worth over $5 trillion since its founding in 1995. It employs over 2,000 people in 12 countries.
Erel Margalit, Founder and Executive Chairman of JVP Fund, established in 1993, is one of Israel's senior venture capitalists. JVP Fund is considered one of the most significant players in promoting startup and tech activity in Jerusalem. In addition to his venture capital and political activities, Margalit founded the JVP Association to support equal opportunities in education.
KPMG will be represented at the conference by Steven Chase, Vice Chair of Artificial Intelligence & Digital Innovation, and Dina Pasca-Raz, Head of Technology at KPMG Israel.
Sivan Shamri Dahan is a Managing Partner at Qumra, which, as it does every year, will select 10 startups for their “Tomorrow’s Growth Companies” list and will join the Israeli delegation to New York. The list seeks to highlight innovative Israeli technology companies that are growing rapidly and are poised to become leaders in their fields.
Various companies will speak about harnessing innovation for impact, including Doral CEO Yaki Noyman who will discuss innovative energy initiatives in the U.S., Europe, and Israel; El Al CEO Dina Ben Tal Ganancia on innovation in aviation and the challenges of leading a civilian airline during wartime; Talma Travel CEO Iya Magen on integrating innovation and AI into the tourism industry; and Omer Keilaf, Co-Founder and CEO of Innoviz Technologies, which is at the forefront of one of the hottest fields today: autonomous vehicles.
The company is developing a LiDAR system that performs three-dimensional scanning from a distance and provides a high-precision, real-time picture of the vehicle's surroundings, with significant improvements in cost, product size reduction, and performance in range and resolution compared to existing multidimensional technologies. At the conference, he will reveal how their capabilities can save the lives of soldiers in dangerous combat zones.
Other speakers will include Asaf Peled, Founder and CEO of Minute Media, which allows sports enthusiasts to create rich multimedia content, videos, articles, and images through which they can tell personal and behind-the-scenes stories of sporting events. The company currently has over 200 million monthly users, over 1,500 content creators, and 250 distribution partners in 14 global markets and ten languages. In January, it acquired STN Video, specializing in digital sports content distribution, for an estimated $150 million.
In the field of HealthTech, speakers will include Dr. Eytan Wirtheim, CEO of Beilinson Hospital, who will talk about the challenges of medicine in times of war and peace and Maayan Cohen, Co-founder and CEO of HELLO HEART, which has developed life-saving digital heart disease prevention technology.
Leslie Gillin is the Chief Growth Officer of the Israeli FinTech company Pagaya. The company generates most of its revenue from its loan securitization technology that allows to expand potential customer bases to include clients previously rejected by banks. According to estimates, in 2023, this activity generated revenues of over $800 million.
Serial entrepreneur and investor Hilla Ovil-Brenner wears two hats: in January of this year, she was made a Partner at Arieli Capital, where she deals with developing new investments. At the same time, she serves as CEO of Yazamiyot, an association she founded nearly a decade ago. The organization includes 8,000 members and is the largest in Israel for promoting entrepreneurship and empowering women in the tech industry.
As is customary for the conference, several startups will be selected by Calcalist to participate in the conference, accompanied this year by a team from TikTok for Startups IL - a program designed to help promising startups create tailored content and market their brands effectively.
"The Israeli economy is at the forefront of the global tech industry. Especially in challenging times like these, it is more important than ever for us to invest in this significant industry and contribute our knowledge and tools to help it continue to grow. We believe that the talent, innovation, and creativity of participants, combined with the unique quality of the TikTok for Startups program, will give them the tools to lead the economy in the coming years and achieve significant business growth," said Anna Pelkin, Country Manager of TikTok Israel.
Selected startups include Urecsys, Healthee, Spinframe, Opstream, Carteav, airis-labs, Dynamic Edge, Lendai, Verstill, Chain Reaction, iRen-MEDICAL, Triple Whale, Eye-Minders, GEM, Suridata, anydish, Faye, and Air Doctor. They will participate in the conference and meet potential investors and partners.
First published: 12:10, 20.02.24
