SPEAKERS
WEDNESDAY MAY 17, 3:00 PM
Mr. Sami Sagol
Sami Sagol is one of Israel’s most prominent industrialists and philanthropists. He has been at the helm of Keter Plastics for almost 60 years, during which time it has grown to comprise 30 companies throughout Israel, Europe and the US, and has garnered numerous awards for innovation and progress, among them being named Man of the Year 2016 by Globes, an Israeli financial newspaper. In addition to his business activities, Sagol, together with his wife, Tova, continue to enhance Israeli society by supporting initiatives that promote higher education, scientific excellence, coexistence and the bridging of social and economic gaps. Among these are a high-impact program that promotes youth development through sport and social-education, and an initiative that is nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs, engineers and designers. In recent years, Sagol has focused his philanthropic endeavors on promoting brain research in Israel, supporting a range of major projects at Israeli universities, medical centers and corporations.
He received an Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University in 2012.
Prof. Tal Dvir
Prof. Dvir obtained BSc (2003) and PhD (2008) degrees in biotechnology engineering from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. His PhD research was supervised by Prof. Smadar Cohen and focused on cardiac tissue engineering and regeneration.
Prof. Dvir continued his postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Robert Langer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. His postdoc research focused on nanotechnological strategies for engineering complex tissues. In October 2011 Prof. Dvir was recruited by the Department of Biotechnology and the center for Nanotechnology at Tel Aviv University to establish the Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.
In 2013, Prof. Dvir also joined the newly established Department of Materials Science and Engineering at TAU. Since November 2015, Tal is an associate professor in the Department of Biotechnology.
Prof. Yael Hanein
Prof. Yael Hanein is currently a full professor of electrical engineering at Tel Aviv University and Director of the TAU Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and VP at nanoRetina, an Israeli startup company.
She received a BSc degree in physics from Tel Aviv University, and the MSc and PhD degrees in physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 2003, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the electrical engineering department and a research associate position in the physics department at the University of Washington, Seattle. She then joined the faculty of Tel Aviv University. She teaches undergraduate and graduate level classes at Tel Aviv University.
Prof. Hanein has authored over 100 journal and conference papers and presented over 110 invited talks and seminars worldwide. She is an APS member and an IEEE senior member, was a founding member of the Global Young Academy and was selected in 2012 as a member of the Israeli Young Academy by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In 2012 she was awarded the prestigious European Research Committee started grant.
Prof. Hanein’s research activity is concerned with the development of electronic nano devices, in particular, devices designed to interface with electrically active cells and to record their electrical activity. These devices have far reaching applications in the realm of understanding brain disorders, the effect of drugs on the brain and the possibility to build implantable electronic brain chips.
Prof. Yuval Ebenstein
Prof. Yuval Ebenstein is a senior lecturer and Head of the NanoBioPhotonix Lab at Tel Aviv University. The lab, set up by Prof. Ebenstein in 2011, is part of the Department of Chemical Physics.
After receiving his undergraduate and graduate degrees in the fields of chemistry and physics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, he went on to complete his PhD in physical chemistry, also at the Hebrew University, with Prof. Uri Banin, studying the photophysical properties of individual semiconductor nanocrystal quantum dots (QDs). He then moved to work as a postdoc with Prof. Shimon Weiss at UCLA where he used QDs to light-up individual DNA binding proteins and map them along bacteriophage genomes.
Prof. Ebenstein is currently exploring biological systems using tools and reagents from the realm of nano-technology. Zooming in on individual components—single cells, single chromosomes and single molecules—Prof. Ebenstein’s interdisciplinary research significantly contributes to how we understand the human body.
Dr. Lihi Adler-Abramovich
Dr. Lihi Adler-Abramovich is a senior lecturer at the TAU Sackler Faculty of Medicine’s School of Dentistry and Head of the Laboratory of Bioinspired Materials. The laboratory is affiliated with the Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University and the University Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Research in the Laboratory of Bioinspired Materials is focused on mimicking self-assembly processes that occur in nature, including biomineralization and the organization of short peptides and amino acids into ordered nanostructures. It is a material science laboratory with an emphasis on organic chemistry and medical-biological applications.
Dr. Adler-Abramovich studied biology at Tel Aviv University and received both her MSc (summa cum laude) and her PhD (2010) from the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology at Tel Aviv University. For her PhD studies, she received several prizes including the Colton Foundation Scholarship and the Marian Gertner Institute for Medical Nanosystems Scholarship. Lihi has authored over 50 publications in esteemed journals including Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Communications, Nano Letters, Science Advanced and ASC Nano.
THURSDAY MAY 18, 9:00 AM
Prof. Jacob A. Frenkel
Prof. Jacob A. Frenkel is Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International and a member of the J.P. Morgan International Council. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty (G-30) and Chairman of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University. Between 1991 and 2000 he served two terms as the Governor of the Bank of Israel.
He is credited with reducing inflation in Israel and achieving price stability, liberalizing Israel’s financial markets, removing foreign exchange controls, and integrating the Israeli economy into the global financial system. Between 1987 and 1991, he was the Economic Counselor and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund, and between 1973 and 1987 he was on the faculty of the University of Chicago where he held the position of the David Rockefeller Professor of International Economics.
Prof. Frenkel is a Laureate of the 2002 Israel Prize in Economics, a recipient of the Scopus Award from the Hebrew University, the Hugo Ramniceanu Prize for Economics from Tel Aviv University, the Czech Republic’s Karel Englis Prize in Economics, the “Order de Mayo al Merito” (in the rank of Gran Cruz) decoration from the Government of Argentina, the “Order of Merit” (in the rank of Cavaliere di Gran Croce) decoration from the Republic of Italy, and the YIVO Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also a recipient of several honorary doctoral degrees and other decorations and awards, including the “1993 Economic Policy Award” by “Emerging Markets” and the “1997 Central Banker of the Year Award” by “Euromoney”.
Prof. Joseph Klafter
Prof. Joseph Klafter was named President of Tel Aviv University in 2009, the eighth since TAU’s founding in 1956. Widely recognized in his field, chemical physics, he served as the Chairman of the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), the main institution supporting scientific research in Israel, from 2002 to 2009.
In 2011, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected him an honorary member, and he is also a fellow of the American Physical Society. Professor Klafter has won many prestigious prizes in his field, including the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Prize, the Weizmann Prize for Sciences, the Rothschild Prize in Chemistry, and the Israel Chemical Society Prize. He also holds an honorary doctorate from Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland.
Professor Klafter has published close to 400 scientific articles, edited 18 books and is the co-author of First Steps in Random Walks: From Tools to Applications (Oxford University Press, 2011). He has been a member of the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals and a member of the scientific committees of dozens of conferences.Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland.
Professor Klafter completed his BSc and MSc in physics at Bar-Ilan University, and his PhD in chemistry at Tel Aviv University. After post-doctoral studies in chemistry at MIT, he joined the research and engineering division of Exxon in the US, where he worked for eight years.
He joined the TAU Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Chemistry in 1987, and was promoted to full professor in 1989. From 1998 to 2003 he was the incumbent of the Gordon Chair in Chemistry, and from 2003 onward he has held the Heineman Chair of Physical Chemistry. In January 2017, he was appointed as Head of the Association of University Presidents, Israel.
Dr. Giora Yaron
Dr. Giora Yaron is Chairman of the Executive Council of Tel Aviv University, and chairs TAU's technology transfer and intellectual property arm, Ramot. Considered one of the founding fathers of the high-tech industry in Israel, Dr. Yaron has a distinguished record of successful entrepreneurship.
He co-founded influential international companies including P-Cube (acquired by Cisco); PentaCom (acquired by Cisco); Qumranet (acquired by Redhat); Comsys (acquired by Conexant, Texas Instruments); Qwilt, and Itamar Medical Ltd.
He has served as a board member or board chairman of each company since its inception. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Mercury Interactive, which sold to Hewlitt Packard for $4.9 billion.
Dafna Meitar-Nechmad
For the past 12 years, Dafna has managed the Zvi & Ofra Meitar Family Fund which supports cultural and educational initiatives in Israel. Its projects include the Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies at the Tel Aviv University Buchmann Faculty of Law, the Meitar Opera Studio - the young singers' program of the Israeli Opera, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
In recent years, Dafna has invested much of her time in cultivating philanthropy in Israel. She is a board member of the Jewish Funders Network, a member of Committed to Give, an initiative of major Israeli philanthropies to encourage giving in Israeli society, and a proud founder of the Institute for Law and Philanthropy at the Tel Aviv University Buchmann Faculty of Law.
Additionally, she is a board member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center.
Dafna is also the president of the Meitar Collection Ltd, a private company that owns, preserves, catalogues, and lends more than 100,000 historic photographs taken in Israel since the 1940s. From 1989 to 2006, she was a partner at Meitar Liquornik Geva Leshem Tal, the largest law firm in Israel, where she specialized in commercial, telecommunications and corporate law.
Dafna holds an LLB, a BA in political science, and an MA in political communications, all from Tel Aviv University.
She lives in Tel Aviv and is married with three daughters and one grandson.
THURSDAY MAY 18, 11:05 AM
Prof. Yaron Oz
Prof. Yaron Oz was named the Rector of Tel Aviv University in 2015. He completed, summa cum laude, two BSc degrees in electrical engineering and in physics, an MSc and a PhD in physics at the Technion.
Professor Oz was a post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. During the years 1998-2002, he worked as a staff member at the research institute CERN in Switzerland. He joined the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University as a professor in 2001.
During 2006-2011, he served as Head of the Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, and during 2011-2015, as Dean of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences at Tel Aviv University.
The research fields of Professor Oz are high energy particle physics, quantum field theories and supersymmetry, classical and quantum gravity and superstrings. He has made important contributions to those fields, publishing approximately 140 scientific papers and lecturing in about 150 international conferences.
Professor Oz is the incumbent of the Yuval Neeman Chair in Physics. He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize and held the Chair of the ISF Research Center of Excellence in Basic Interactions. He has been the recipient of numerous research grants and is a member of the I-CORE in the Quantum Universe. He has supervised more than 40 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, and as invited professor, he lectured at numerous universities and research institutes, such as the College de France in Paris and the Simons Center in US. Professor Oz has been a member of the scientific committees of many international conferences.
Professor Oz is the President of the Israel Physical Society, an Editor of the Journal of High Energy Physics, the Chair of the National Committee for Pure and Applied Sciences of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and a member of the National High Energy Committee.
Dr. Tom Schonberg
Dr. Tom Schonberg received his PhD from Tel Aviv University in 2010 in which he showed a direct link between reinforcement leaning fMRI signals in the human striatum and individual differences in learning.
He provided evidence for the reliance of these signals on putative dopamine activity by scanning Parkinson's disease patients with fMRI. In his post-doctoral research in the lab of Prof. Russell Poldrack he studied risky decision making and then focused on automatic mechanisms of behavioral change using reinforced and non-reinforced mechanisms.
Since October 2014 he is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. His lab focuses on the neural basis of behavioral change using a combination of novel behavioral manipulations, eye tracking, physiological measures and functional MRI.
Prof. Roy Mukamel
Prof. Mukamel joined TAU in 2010 as a senior lecturer at the School of Psychological Sciences and in 2015 was promoted to associate professor. His lab studies the neural mechanisms underlying motor skill learning, the role of sensory perception in this process, execution of voluntary actions, and agency. His studies have implications for improving the learning process of motor skills in healthy subjects and rehabilitation in patients with motor deficits. He holds a BSc in computer science and biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a MSc and PhD in neurobiology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he studied the neural correlates of visual and auditory perception. In 2006 he moved to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) for post-doctoral studies focused on the neural mechanisms of perception and execution of voluntary actions.
Prof. Liat Kishon-Rabin
Prof. Liat Kishon-Rabin, PhD is the Head of the Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions, Tel Aviv University and a professor of communication disorders. Prior to this, she was the Chair of the Department of Communication Disorders at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine for nine years. With her research team, she has developed speech perception tests that are appropriate for speakers of Hebrew and Arabic at different age groups. Her recent research has also focused on auditory brain plasticity with clinical implications to training speech perception in noise in elderly individuals, people with hearing impairment, children with autistic spectrum disorder, and children with attention deficit disorder. For her research contributions in the field of cochlear implantation, she was awarded “The Graham Fraser Memorial Lecture” for 2017 by the British Cochlear Implant Group. She is the recipient of numerous research grants including awards from the Binational Science Foundation and from the Health Ministry in Israel. In addition to her outstanding research achievements, Dr. Kishon-Rabin has also been active as an educator and has received a number of awards for her teaching. She developed the first BA and MA programs in communication disorders for the ultra-orthodox community in Israel. She established a community outreach program focusing on language intervention in children of immigrant and foreign worker families in south Tel Aviv schools. She also serves on several committees at the Israeli Council of Higher Education. Prof. Kishon-Rabin is an alumna of the PhD Program in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Prof. Kishon-Rabin has an extensive list of publications in speech perception, speech perception in noise, cochlear implants, and psychoacoustics. She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters.
THURSDAY MAY 18, 2:00 PM
Sylvan Adams
Until recently moving from Montreal to Israel, Sylvan Adams served as President and CEO of Iberville Developments, a firm founded by his father, Marcel Adams, and one of Canada’s largest real estate development companies. As a proud new oleh, Adams is committed to showcasing Israel in its most deserving light by promoting the very best Israel has to offer the world. To this end, Adams has continued his parents’ tradition of philanthropy, supporting an array of causes, notably in the domains of education, health sciences and Jewish continuity. The family’s initiatives have had a transformative impact on the Jewish communities of Montreal and Israel. In addition to his business and philanthropic endeavors, Adams is a competitive road and track cyclist, with multiple National and World Championship titles.
Adams holds an MBA from the University of Toronto. He is married to Margaret and they are the proud parents of Sarah and her husband Paul, Rachel and her husband Alex, Naomi and Joshua.
THURSDAY MAY 18, 3:15 PM
Aubrey Dan
Aubrey Dan is a Canadian businessman, Tony-Award® winning producer (MEMPHIS), impresario and philanthropist. He is Founder and President of Dancap Private Equity Inc.
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Dan graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in Administrative and Commercial studies in 1985.
Soon after, he joined his father's company, Novopharm Limited, a generic drug manufacturer as a sales representative, and then Director of Sales. In 1995, Dan was appointed to run the Novopharm subsidiary, Wampole Canada Inc., an herbal supplement and vitamin manufacturer.
In 2002, Dan founded Dancap Private Equity, a private firm that invests its own funds from a $50 million investment base in mid-market Canadian businesses, and as co-investment partner for medium to large sized international businesses.
Aubrey Dan is a very generous philanthropist, donating millions of dollars, primarily to health and education charities, and other worthy causes. Together with his wife Marla, the Dans have donated millions to organizations that include: Sunnybrook Foundation for their women and babies program, now called the Aubrey & Marla Dan Program for High Risk Mothers & Babies; University of Western Ontario's Social Science department resulting in the program being named the Aubrey Dan Program in Management and Organizational Studies; Baycrest Centre Foundation in honour of his father-in-law Reuben Cipin – Reuben Cipin Healthy Living Community in Toronto; the Judy Dan Wound Care Centre (named in memory of Dan’s mother who passed away in 1995 due to Diabetic complications), whose work focuses on preventing unnecessary amputations and reducing patient suffering by treating diabetic wounds with hyperbaric oxygen therapy; University of Toronto Leslie Dan Facility of Pharmacy in honour of his father.
Dan received an honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree (honoris causa) from Assumption University in 2008. He is a member of the World President's Association (WPO) Ontario Chapter, Institute of Private Investors (IPI), and a board member of Porter Airlines (flyporter.com).
Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, USA
Stuart Eizenstat is an international diplomat and attorney currently serving as Special Adviser to the Secretary of State on Holocaust Issues in the Trump Administration and Chief Negotiator for the Jewish Claims Conference with the German Government. He has held a plethora of senior positions under three US administrations, including Chief White House Domestic Policy Adviser to President Jimmy Carter, US Ambassador to the European Union and US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
In his role as Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues in the Clinton Administration, Eizenstat successfully negotiated major agreements with European countries covering restitution of property, looted art, bank accounts and more for Holocaust survivors. He has been awarded eight honorary degrees and some of the highest civilian awards including the French Legion of Honor from the French government, the Courage and Conscience Award from the Israeli government and Czech Council of Victims of Nazism Medal of Honor. He holds a Juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School.
THURSDAY MAY 18, 7:00 PM
George S. Wise Medal
Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, USA
Stuart Eizenstat is an international diplomat and attorney currently serving as Special Adviser to the Secretary of State on Holocaust Issues and Chief Negotiator for the Jewish Claims Conference with the German Government. He has held a plethora of senior positions under three US administrations, including Chief White House Domestic Policy Adviser to President Jimmy Carter, US Ambassador to the European Union and US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. In his role as Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues in the Clinton Administration, Eizenstat successfully negotiated major agreements with European countries covering restitution of property, looted art, bank accounts and more for Holocaust survivors. He has been awarded eight honorary degrees and some of the highest civilian awards including the French Legion of Honor from the French government, the Courage and Conscience Award from the Israeli government and Czech Council of Victims of Nazism Medal of Honor. He holds a Juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School.
Honorary Doctorates
The Hon. Tony Abbott MP, Australia
Tony Abbott served as Prime Minister of Australia from 2013-2015 and as Leader of the Opposition from 2009-2013. A member of the Australian parliament since 1994, Mr. Abbott actively worked to bridge health and socioeconomic gaps among Australia’s indigenous population in his role as Minister of Health, and spent up to a month per year visiting remote communities as Minister of Employment. A committed social advocate, Mr. Abbott volunteers his time as a lifeguard and fireman and raises funds for major charities through the annual bike ride that he organizes. He has visited Israel several times, and has been a longstanding proponent for warm Australia-Israel ties. He holds degrees in economics and law from Sydney University and an MA in politics and philosophy from Oxford.
Dr. Mario Draghi, Italy
Dr. Mario Draghi is the President of the European Central Bank, a role he has held since 2011, and a former Governor of Banco d'Italia. Born in Rome, Dr. Draghi earned his PhD in economics from MIT in 1976. He then continued within the academic milieu, serving as professor at the University of Florence, and a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. From 1984-1990, Dr. Draghi was Executive Director at the World Bank representing Italy, and was appointed Director General of the Italian Treasury in 1991, a role he held for a decade. Subsequently he spent three years as Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs International. He is a trustee at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University and at the Brookings Institute in Washington D.C., and a member of the Group of Thirty (G30). He was ranked as the 8th "most powerful person in the world" by Forbes (2014) and as the world’s "second greatest leader" by Fortune magazine in 2015.
Meir Linzen, Israel
Meir Linzen is senior and managing partner of Herzog, Fox & Ne’eman Law Office, the largest law firm in Israel. He is an expert in tax planning with a focus on international mergers and acquisitions, and has extensive experience in advising banks and multinational corporations regarding their investments in Israel. He devotes much of his time and efforts to Tel Aviv University in a range of roles including on the Executive Council and Buchmann Faculty of Law Board of Trustees, and on the administrative boards of the Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies, the Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law, the Parasol Foundation Trust International LLM Program and the Institute for Continuing Legal Studies. Over the past decade, Linzen’s law firm has regularly donated scholarships for Tel Aviv University undergraduate law students on the basis of need and merit. He holds an LLB from the Buchmann Faculty of Law, which he completed cum laude in 1980.
Prof. Eve Marder, USA
Prof. Eve Marder is Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Neuroscience at Brandeis University. She is best known for her pioneering work on small neural networks in crustaceans, which has revolutionized our understanding of the fundamental principles of neural circuit functioning. In particular, her research has revealed how neuromodulators control behavior during learning and development yet remain stable over time. A member of the US National Academy of Sciences and former president of the Society for Neuroscience, Prof. Marder serves on the National Institutes of Health working group for the BRAIN Initiative. She gained her undergraduate degree at Brandeis and her PhD at the University of California, San Diego, before completing her post-doctoral training at the University of Oregon in Eugene and the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. She serves a Deputy Editor at the open access scientific journal eLife, and has published over 120 scientific articles since 2000.
Pouran Nazarian, USA
Born in Tehran, Iran, Pouran Nazarian joined the Iranian Jewish Women’s Organization at age 24. She served on its Board of Directors and helped implement educational programs for youth and young adults within the community. In the 1970s, Mrs. Nazarian took part in the Committee for the Amendment of the Iranian Jewish Women’s Inheritance Act and its campaign for women’s rights. In 1978, with the advent of the Islamic Revolution, she and her family moved to Los Angeles, where she joined Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America and served as Co-President. Pouran and her husband, Izak Parviz Nazarian, have initiated several important projects at Tel Aviv University including the Pouran and Izak Parviz Nazarian Building. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Magbit Foundation in Los Angeles and as Gala Chair for several years. Currently, she is an active Board member of the American Friends of the Citizens’ Empowerment Center in Israel.
Prof. Günter Stemberger, Austria
Günter Stemberger is a professor emeritus of Jewish studies and one of the world’s most eminent figures in the field. He is affiliated with the University of Vienna where, among other roles, he headed the Institute of Jewish Studies. His research focuses on the history of the Roman and Byzantine period, and on Talmudic literature. Stemberger has penned over ten books and hundreds of scientific articles that cover virtually the entire gamut of Jewish history and culture in the post-biblical period and up to the Middle Ages. He has been awarded numerous accolades, among them honorary doctorates from the Universities of Göttingen and Potsdam, and the 2010 Great Silver Award for Merit from the Republic of Austria. He is a member of the Austrian Academy of Science and the European Association of Jewish Studies.
Raya Strauss Ben-Dror, Israel
Born in Nahariya, northern Israel, Raya Strauss was co-owner and executive board member of the Strauss Group, one of Israel’s leading conglomerates, from 1975-2005. She currently serves as co- President of Strauss Investments Ltd. Since her retirement, Strauss Ben-Dror has focused her efforts on philanthropic and social initiatives: She was a founding member of Committed to Give, the first initiative for encouraging private philanthropy in Israel; she served on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency and as World Chair of its Partnership2Gether program; and was a founding member of the Israeli branch of the JNF. She also established “Galilee Treasures,” a philanthropic venture aimed at boosting tourism and generating employment in the Western Galilee. Strauss has received numerous awards for her public activity, including three honorary degrees and being invited to light a torch at Israel’s 62nd Independence Day celebrations. She specialized in family business studies at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
Ratan Tata, India
Ratan N. Tata is a renowned Indian businessman and public figure. Mr. Tata worked at the Tata Group for over 50 years, where he served as Chairman from 1991 until his retirement in 2012. Under his stewardship, the Tata Group grew to become an over $100 billion global corporation. Among his public activities, Mr. Tata serves as chairman of two of the largest private-sector-promoted philanthropic trusts in India and as Chairman of the Council of Management of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He is active in a broad range of advisory roles, including as a member of the international advisory boards of Mitsubishi Corporation and JPMorgan Chase, and as a trustee of Cornell University and University of Southern California. He holds a degree in architecture from Cornell University and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He was listed as one of Forbes magazine's most powerful people in 2011 and received India's second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2008.
Prof. Qiu Yong, China
Prof. Qiu Yong is President of Tsinghua University, China. Born and raised in Sichuan, Qiu is a Tsinghua alumnus, having completed both his BSc and his PhD in chemistry there. His research on organic light-emitting diodes serves as the scientific basis of Visionox, a Chinese high-tech company with 2,500 employees and over 1,700 patents. Alongside TAU President Joseph Klafter, Qiu co-chairs the China-Israel Innovation Forum, which is dedicated to promoting academic, industrial and governmental collaboration between the two countries in the fields of technology and innovation. Qiu has received numerous honors, including the State Technological Invention Award conferred by the President of China, a Chang Jiang Scholar of the Ministry of Education of China and a Distinguished Young Scholar of the National Science Foundation of China. He is an elected member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Honorary Fellowships
Habima National Theater of Israel
Habima Theater was the world’s first professional Hebrew theater, established in Moscow in 1917. Founded at a time when study of the Hebrew language was forbidden, the theater’s mission was to revive Hebrew language and culture as a means of giving voice to the spirit of the Jewish People. In 1918, it began operating under the auspices of the Moscow Art Theater. In 1926, Habima left Russia to tour internationally; two years later, some of its members took the company to Mandate Palestine. After several successful productions in Tel Aviv, it gained a reputation as the national Jewish theater and, in 1945, it moved into its permanent home, which was completely refurbished in 2012. Today, Habima comprises a troupe of over 80 actors and 120 theater arts professionals who put on dozens of productions per year and participate in top festivals around the world. This year marks its centennial year.
Shira Shofty, Israel
An educator for over 40 years, Shira Shofty is the outgoing Director of the Dov Lautman Unit for Science Oriented Youth at Tel Aviv University. The Unit, established in the late 1960s, is dedicated to nurturing excellence and expanding accessibility to higher education among talented youngsters, with an emphasis on the country’s social and geographic periphery. Under Shofty’s stewardship, it was transformed into the largest center of excellence of its kind in Israel. In recent years, she has focused much of her efforts on helping Israelis of Ethiopian origin integrate into Israeli society. She has also worked extensively with NGOs dedicated to advancing the status of women, democratic values and peace in Israel. Shofty completed her BA in economics and political science and her MA in the sociology of education at Tel Aviv University.
FRIDAY MAY 19, 9:00 AM
Dr. Noa Shenkar
Dr. Shenkar completed her undergrad and graduate studies at Tel Aviv University. She is a marine biologist specializing in ascidians, a unique group of invertebrates. In 2012 She established her own research group at the School of Zoology, focusing on ascidian biodiversity and marine bioinvasions. Following the motto "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" her group now uses invasive ascidians commonly found along the Mediterranean coasts of Israel as biological indicators for water quality.
FRIDAY MAY 19, 10:00 AM
Miles S. Nadal
Miles S. Nadal is an international entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Peerage Capital Group and Peerage Business Partners. Peerage Capital Group is a private equity firm whose principal business is Peerage Business Partners. Peerage Business Partners is a leading Business Services organization that leverages “The Power of Human Capital”. Peerage is focused on two unique business service platforms – Peerage Realty Partners, one of Canada’s largest residential Real Estate brokerage firms with Partner Firms that include Chestnut Park Real Estate and Pat Baker Real Estate, selling over $6 billion dollars of single family homes and condominiums.
The second business platform is Pine Street Asset Management, a progressive North American asset management firm with over $3 billion dollars of assets under management. Pine Street’s highly experienced management teams use a multi strategy investment approach to deliver consistent wealth preservation and capital appreciation. The management of Peerage uses their unique, entrepreneurial partnership model, refined over 35 years, to accelerate the growth of their businesses through value added services that enhance the sustainable, profitable growth rate of the organization, thereby maximizing shareholder value.
Mr. Nadal and his management team have an outstanding reputation for building businesses, with shareholder value of over $6 billion, from scratch. The enterprises that were created include MDC Partners, Davis & Henderson (D&H), First International Asset Management, Custom Direct, Optus, Secure Products International, Peerage Realty Partners, and Pine Street Asset Management.
Mr. Nadal is also the founder, and former Chairman, President, and CEO of MDC Partners, the progressive marketing and communications network that champions innovative and entrepreneurial thought leader talent. Under Mr. Nadal’s leadership, MDC Partners grew into one of the world’s largest business transformation and marketing service organizations whose partner firms were some of the most awarded thought leaders in the industry. Mr. Nadal’s entrepreneurial drive and ambition led MDC Partners’ exceptional growth to revenues of over $1.3 billion dollars, and a total enterprise value approaching $2 billion dollars, and established MDC’s brand as “The Place Where Great Talent Lives”.
As Mr. Nadal’s business successes have grown, he has taken an increasingly larger role in support of important community and charitable organizations, focusing on the areas of health care, education and children’s welfare. He provided the keystone gift for the rebuilding of the Bloor Jewish Community Centre (now the Miles S. Nadal Jewish Community Centre), and his philanthropy is behind the construction of the Miles & Kelly Nadal Youth Centre for the Toronto Kiwanis Boys & Girls Clubs. He has served on the boards of Mt. Sinai Hospital and Baycrest Home for the Aged and was a keystone contributor to the revitalization of Ayalon/Canada Park (Canada-Israel Park, known as the Miles S. Nadal & Family Environmental Community). Mr.Nadal is a recipient of the Harold Lederman award for Volunteer and Philanthropic Leadership, and was named a Negev Honouree by the Jewish National Fund.
Mr.Nadal’s contributions to educational causes includes the funding of York University’s downtown Miles S. Nadal Management Centre, the Miles S. Nadal Institute for Technological Entrepreneurship at Tel Aviv University, as well as involvement with Junior Achievement, the Schulich School of Business and Harlem RBI, through which he has provided significant donations, and a multitude of high school and university scholarships for students striving to become the entrepreneurs in the future. He has also provided crucial resources to causes such as the Global Medical Relief Fund, Operation Smile, and the building of the Weizmann Institute’s Miles and Kelly Nadal and Family Laboratory for Molecular Genetics. He currently sits on the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University.
In recognition of his achievements in business and his philanthropic endeavors, Mr.Nadal has been honored with numerous awards, including selection for the “Top 40 Under 40” and Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2012, he was inducted into Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends and was named Executive of the Year by MediaPost Magazine.
Mr.Nadal is a frequent guest lecturer on the subject of entrepreneurship at schools and universities across the globe, including Wharton School of Business, Harvard Law School, the University of Miami’s School of Business Administration, and Tel Aviv University, where he holds an honorary doctorate degree.
Mr. Nadal is also a frequent television contributor to CNBC, MSNBC, Fox Business News, and Bloomberg TV. Mr.Nadal is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and G100 organizations. He is a former member of the M50, G50, and Business Roundtable organizations.
FRIDAY MAY 19, 11:00 AM
Prof. Jacob A. Frenkel
Prof. Jacob A. Frenkel is Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International and a member of the J.P. Morgan International Council. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty (G-30) and Chairman of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University. Between 1991 and 2000 he served two terms as the Governor of the Bank of Israel.
He is credited with reducing inflation in Israel and achieving price stability, liberalizing Israel’s financial markets, removing foreign exchange controls, and integrating the Israeli economy into the global financial system. Between 1987 and 1991, he was the Economic Counselor and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund, and between 1973 and 1987 he was on the faculty of the University of Chicago where he held the position of the David Rockefeller Professor of International Economics.
Prof. Frenkel is a Laureate of the 2002 Israel Prize in Economics, a recipient of the Scopus Award from the Hebrew University, the Hugo Ramniceanu Prize for Economics from the Tel-Aviv University, the Czech Republic’s Karel Englis Prize in Economics, the “Order de Mayo al Merito” (in the rank of Gran Cruz) decoration from the Government of Argentina, the “Order of Merit” (in the rank of Cavaliere di Gran Croce) decoration from the Republic of Italy, and the YIVO Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also a recipient of several Honorary Doctoral degrees and other decorations and awards, including the “1993 Economic Policy Award” by “Emerging Markets” and the “1997 Central Banker of the Year Award” by “Euromoney”.
Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, USA
Stuart Eizenstat is an international diplomat and attorney currently serving as Special Adviser to the Secretary of State on Holocaust Issues in the Trump Administration and Chief Negotiator for the Jewish Claims Conference with the German Government. He has held a plethora of senior positions under three US administrations, including Chief White House Domestic Policy Adviser to President Jimmy Carter, US Ambassador to the European Union and US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
In his role as Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues in the Clinton Administration, Eizenstat successfully negotiated major agreements with European countries covering restitution of property, looted art, bank accounts and more for Holocaust survivors. He has been awarded eight honorary degrees and some of the highest civilian awards including the French Legion of Honor from the French government, the Courage and Conscience Award from the Israeli government and Czech Council of Victims of Nazism Medal of Honor. He holds a Juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School.
The Hon. Tony Abbott MP
Tony Abbott served as Prime Minister of Australia from 2013-2015 and as Leader of the Opposition from 2009-2013. A member of the Australian parliament since 1994, Mr. Abbott actively worked to bridge health and socioeconomic gaps among Australia’s indigenous population in his role as Minister of Health, and spent up to a month per year visiting remote communities as Minister of Employment. A committed social advocate, Mr. Abbott volunteers his time as a lifeguard and fireman and raises funds for major charities through the annual bike ride that he organizes. He has visited Israel several times, and has been a longstanding proponent for warm Australia-Israel ties. He holds degrees in economics and law from Sydney University and an MA in politics and philosophy from Oxford.
Jean-Claude Trichet
Former President of the European Central Bank and former Governor of Banque de France, Jean-Claude Trichet is presently Director of AIRBUS Group, Chairman of the European Group of the Trilateral Commission, and Chairman of the Board of the Bruegel Institute. Born in Lyons, Jean-Claude Trichet is a graduate of the Ecole nationale supérieure des Mines de Nancy, of the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, of the Université de Paris (in economics) and of the Ecole nationale d’administration.
Jean-Claude Trichet was made an adviser to the cabinet of the Minister of Economic Affairs in 1978, and an adviser to the President of the Republic in the same year. In this capacity, he worked on issues relating to energy, industry, research and microeconomics from 1978 to 1981. He was Chairman of the Paris Club (sovereign debt rescheduling) from 1985 to 1993. In 1986, he directed the Private Office of the Minister of Economic Affairs, and in 1987 he became Director of the Treasury. In the same year, he was appointed Alternate Governor of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He was Chairman of the European Monetary Committee from 1992 until his appointment as Governor of the Banque de France in 1993. He was a member of the Council of the European Monetary Institute from 1994 to 1998 and thereafter a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. At the end of his first term as Governor of the Banque de France, he was reappointed for a second term.
Jean-Claude Trichet was elected Chairman of the Group of Ten (G10) Governors on 29 June 2003. He was successively elected Chair of the “Global Economy Meeting” and Chair of the” Group of Governors and Head of Supervision” (GHOS) in Basel. He served as President of the European Central Bank for a eight years from November 2003 to 2011. He is now Honorary Governor of the Banque de France.
He was named “Person of the Year” by the Financial Times (2007), was named twice “Policy Maker of the Year” by the International Economy Magazine (1991, 2007), was n° 5 of the “World Most Powerful” in Newsweek list in 2008, and was one of the most “Influential People of the World” in Time Magazine in 2011.
He has received a number of awards, including the “Zerilli Marimo” prize from the Académie des Sciences Morales et Molitiques (1999), the “Prix franco-allemand de la Culture/Deutsch-Französischer Kulturpreis” (2006) and the “Ludwig Erhard Memorial Coin in Gold” (2007). He was also named “Central Banker of the Year” by The Banker (2008), and “Central Bank Governor of the Year 2008” by Euromoney. He was awarded the “2011 International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen” for his contribution to European unity, the “2011 Global Economy Prize” from the Kiel Institute, the “Collier du Mérite Européen” in Luxembourg (2013), the National Association of Business Economists (NABE) “Lifetime Achievement Award”, Washington (2014), and the “Prize for Achievement of the Monetärer Workshop”, Frankfurt (2016). He has been awarded honorary doctorates by several universities (Montreal, Stirling, Liège, Tel Aviv, Bologna, Sofia).
Jean-Claude Trichet is a Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur and has been awarded several foreign honors.
Doctor Honoris Causa of Tel Aviv University in 2000 he is presently the Honorary President of the French French Assocaitionof Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Boris Mints
Dr. Boris Mints is the founder, chairman and president of 01 Group, a private holding company that invests in the real estate, industrial and financial sectors. He holds a doctorate in engineering sciences and served as an assistant professor of advanced mathematics at the Ivanovo Textile Academy for 7 years. He later spent a decade serving in a range of municipal and government positions in Moscow. Dr. Mints is an engaged supporter of Jewish and Israeli causes, as well as the arts. He is Chairman of the Board of Patrons of the Conference of European Rabbis, board member of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and member of the Board of Patrons of Mariinsky Theater, among other roles. He recently donated his modern art collection to the new Museum of Russian Impressionism in Moscow.
Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He has twice been named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. He was called by the New York Times, “probably the most important economist in the world,” and by Time Magazine “the world’s best known economist.” A recent survey by The Economist Magazine ranked Professor Sachs as among the world’s three most influential living economists of the past decade.
Professor Sachs served as the Director of the Earth Institute from 2002 to 2016. He was appointed University Professor at Columbia University in 2016, and also serves as Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Sustainable Development Goals, and previously advised both UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. Sachs is currently Director of both the Center for Sustainable Development, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network under the auspices of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Sachs is co-founder and Chief Strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, and is director of the Millennium Villages Project. Sachs is also one of the Secretary-General’s SDG Advocates, and a Commissioner of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development. He has authored six books, including three New York Times bestsellers (*), in the past decade years: The End of Poverty (2005*), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008*), The Price of Civilization (2011*), To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace (2013) and The Age of Sustainable Development (2015) and the latest book, Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair & Sustainable (February 2017).
Professor Sachs is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on economic development, global macroeconomics, and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty, overcoming macroeconomic instability, promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, has taken him to more than 125 countries with more than 90 percent of the world’s population. For more than thirty years he has advised dozens of heads of state and governments on economic strategy, in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He was among the outside advisors to Pope John Paul II on the encyclical Centesimus Annus and in recent years has worked closely with the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on the issues of sustainable development.
Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Blue Planet Prize, membership in the United States Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Society of Fellows, and the Fellows of the World Econometric Society. His conversation with Tyler Cowen won the Quartz Podcast Award for best business/economics podcast of 2015. He has received more than 20 honorary degrees, and many awards and honors around the world. Professor Sachs is also a frequent contributor to major publications such as the Financial Times of London, the International Herald Tribune, Scientific American, and Time magazine.
Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years as a professor at Harvard University, most recently as the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard.
FRIDAY MAY 19, 2:00 PM
Etty Rotter
Etty Rotter is co-CEO and a member of the Board of Castro. She joined Castro in 1978 and during this time it became the leading fashion brand in Israel with more than $250m in annual sales and over 160 stores across Israel.
As the daughter of Aaron Castro, the founder of the Company, Etty was exposed to fashion and retail from an early age and joined Castro immediately after completing her service in the Israeli Defense Force. She then graduated from Tel Aviv University studying political science. She recently completed the prestigious Kellog-Recanatti EMBA program.
In 1985 Etty oversaw the transformation of Castro from a wholesale company to a nation-wide chain and in 1992 became Castro's Co-CEO together with her husband Gaby Rotter and led Castro to become a publicly traded company in the Tel-Aviv Stock-Exchange.
In 2000 Etty headed the launch of Castro-Men which revolutionized the Israeli fashion market as the first men dedicated chain. Since then the company annual sales grew by 6% on average while net earnings more than doubled. During summer 2013 Castro launched its new children chain.
In January 2014 Castro has announced its partnership with Yves Rocher, the leading French botanical cosmetics company in the world. Castro launched Yves Rocher stores during 2014 and today there are more than 9 stores around Israel.
In January 2017 Castro completed the acquisition of five fashion and lifestyle brands valued at more than half a billion NIS - Hoodies a basic apparel brand, Top-Ten an accessories brand, Urbanica a discounted fashion brand, Accessorize UK -a global accessories brand (Israeli franchise) and Carolina-Lemke an eye-wear brand. After completing the acquisition the Castro group has seven leading brands with total revenues of 1.6 billion NIS, 410 stores (4 in the UK and Spain) and more than 5,500 employees.
Etty is heading Castro Fashion Studio, the biggest fashion house in Israel, with more than 20 leading Israeli designers. Etty also serves as a member of the managing committee of Friends of Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Hashomer.
Etty lives in Tel-Aviv with Gaby, her husband of 35 years. They are the parents of three grown children, Ariel, Ron and Or and proud grandparents to Ann and, Ori, Gali and Eli.
Gaby Rotter
Gaby Rotter is co-Ceo and a member of the Board of Castro. He joined Castro in 1980 and during this time it became the leading fashion brand in Israel with more than $200m in annual sales and over 2,000 employees.
Gaby never intended to pursue a career in fashion or in the retail world. He grew up in Tel-Aviv and graduated from the Polytechnic high-school in Givatayim with a plan to become a civil engineer. His plans changed after he joined Castro in order to help the growing company.
Gaby has held every position in Castro's value chain from sourcing and manufacturing to sales and marketing. He became Co-CEO together with his wife, Etty Rotter, and led the transformation of Castro from a wholesale company to a nation-wide chain and in 1992 was responsible for Castro's initial public offering (IPO) in the Tel-Aviv Stock-Exchange.
In 2000 Gaby headed the launch of Castro-Men which revolutionized the Israeli fashion market as the first men dedicated chain. Since then the company annual sales grew by 6% on average while net earnings more than doubled. During summer 2013 Castro launched its new children chain.
In January 2014 Castro has announced its partnership with Yves Rocher, the leading French botanical cosmetics company in the world. Castro launched Yves Rocher stores during 2014 and today there are more than 9 stores around Israel.
In January 2017 Castro completed the acquisition of five fashion and lifestyle brands valued at more than half a billion NIS - Hoodies a basic apparel brand, Top-Ten an accessories brand, Urbanica a discounted fashion brand, Accessorize UK a global accessories brand (Israeli franchise) and Carolina-Lemke an eye-wear brand. After completing the acquisition the Castro group has seven leading brands with total revenues of 1.6 billion NIS, 410 stores (4 in the UK and Spain) and more than 5,500 employees.
Gaby also directly leads Castro's marketing division and serves as a member of the board of directors of College for All, an NGO that provides equal educational opportunities for all children. In 1997 Gaby joined the former Israeli President, Mr. Ezer Weizman, in the first presidential visit to India.
Gaby lives in Tel-Aviv with Etty, his wife of 35 years. They are the parents of three grown children, Ariel, Ron and Or and proud grandparents to Ann, Ori, Gali and Eli.
Jean-Claude Trichet
Former President of the European Central Bank and former Governor of Banque de France, Jean-Claude Trichet is presently Director of AIRBUS Group, Chairman of the European Group of the Trilateral Commission, and Chairman of the Board of the Bruegel Institute. Born in Lyons, Jean-Claude Trichet is a graduate of the Ecole nationale supérieure des Mines de Nancy, of the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, of the Université de Paris (in economics) and of the Ecole nationale d’administration.
Jean-Claude Trichet was made an adviser to the cabinet of the Minister of Economic Affairs in 1978, and an adviser to the President of the Republic in the same year. In this capacity, he worked on issues relating to energy, industry, research and microeconomics from 1978 to 1981. He was Chairman of the Paris Club (sovereign debt rescheduling) from 1985 to 1993. In 1986, he directed the Private Office of the Minister of Economic Affairs, and in 1987 he became Director of the Treasury. In the same year, he was appointed Alternate Governor of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He was Chairman of the European Monetary Committee from 1992 until his appointment as Governor of the Banque de France in 1993. He was a member of the Council of the European Monetary Institute from 1994 to 1998 and thereafter a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. At the end of his first term as Governor of the Banque de France, he was reappointed for a second term.
Jean-Claude Trichet was elected Chairman of the Group of Ten (G10) Governors on 29 June 2003. He was successively elected Chair of the “Global Economy Meeting” and Chair of the” Group of Governors and Head of Supervision” (GHOS) in Basel. He served as President of the European Central Bank for a eight years from November 2003 to 2011. He is now Honorary Governor of the Banque de France.
He was named “Person of the Year” by the Financial Times (2007), was named twice “Policy Maker of the Year” by the International Economy Magazine (1991, 2007), was n° 5 of the “World Most Powerful” in Newsweek list in 2008, and was one of the most “Influential People of the World” in Time Magazine in 2011.
He has received a number of awards, including the “Zerilli Marimo” prize from the Académie des Sciences Morales et Molitiques (1999), the “Prix franco-allemand de la Culture/Deutsch-Französischer Kulturpreis” (2006) and the “Ludwig Erhard Memorial Coin in Gold” (2007). He was also named “Central Banker of the Year” by The Banker (2008), and “Central Bank Governor of the Year 2008” by Euromoney. He was awarded the “2011 International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen” for his contribution to European unity, the “2011 Global Economy Prize” from the Kiel Institute, the “Collier du Mérite Européen” in Luxembourg (2013), the National Association of Business Economists (NABE) “Lifetime Achievement Award”, Washington (2014), and the “Prize for Achievement of the Monetärer Workshop”, Frankfurt (2016). He has been awarded honorary doctorates by several universities (Montreal, Stirling, Liège, Tel Aviv, Bologna, Sofia).
Jean-Claude Trichet is a Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur and has been awarded several foreign honors.
Doctor Honoris Causa of Tel Aviv University in 2000 he is presently the Honorary President of the French French Assocaitionof Tel Aviv University.
SATURDAY MAY 20, 8:30 PM
Michael Steinhardt
Michael H. Steinhardt is a legendary money manager turned philanthropist who is dedicated to creating a renaissance in American Jewish life. After he graduated from the Wharton School of Business in 1960, Mr. Steinhardt began his financial career as a research associate, staff writer and securities analyst. In 1967 he formed his own hedge fund company, Steinhardt Partners L.P., where he made his fortune in one of the most spectacular careers in the history of Wall Street.
In 1995, Michael Steinhardt stunned the financial world by announcing that he would close his lucrative hedge fund to devote his time and fortune to the causes of the Jewish world. Mr. Steinhardt directs his Jewish philanthropic activities through The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life which he chairs.
Mr. Steinhardt co-founded Birthright Israel and continues to be a major supporter to this day. He serves as co-chair of the Areivim Philanthropic Group and supports the development of Hebrew Language Charter Schools, Hillel at the University of Pennsylvania, NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, the University of Pennsylvania, TAU, and the Israel Museum. In 2001, Mr. Steinhardt published his memoirs, No Bull: My Life In and Out of the Markets.
Mr. Steinhardt is an honorary doctor of TAU and former Chairman of its Board of Governors. The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History on the Tel Aviv University campus is set to open in summer, 2017.17.
SUNDAY MAY 21, 9:30 AM
Lt.-Gen. (res) Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon
Moshe “Bogie” Yaalon has served in the Knesset between 2009 and 2016 and has provided a lifetime of public service for the State of Israel. Originally from northern Israel, Yaalon moved to Kibbutz Grofit as a teenager before enlisting in the IDF as a paratrooper in 1968. He went on to serve in numerous key positions, such as commanding Israel’s most distinguished special forces unit Sayeret Matkal. He continued to climb in rank, and from 2002 until 2005, he served as Israel’s chief of general staff (head of the IDF) during the harrowing days of the war against Palestinian terror, also known as the "second intifada".
In 2008, Yaalon announced his entrance into Israeli politics as a member of the Likud party and then in 2009 was appointed as minister for strategic affairs and vice prime minister. In 2013 he was appointed as defense minister, a position from which he resigned this past May. Yaalon and his wife are members of Kibbutz Grofit but spend most of their time living in Modiin. Yaalon has three children and six grandchildren.
Prof. Uzi Rabi
Prof. Uzi Rabi is the director of Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, one of the top-rated research centers in the region. He is regularly invited by the Israeli Knesset to deliver updates and briefs on current developments in the Middle East.
Prof. Rabi is the former chair of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History and is a senior researcher in the Center for Iranian Studies. His fields of specialization include: Middle Eastern Geopolitics; the modern history of states and societies in the Persian Gulf; state building in the Middle East; oil and politics in the Middle East; Iranian-Arab relations; and Sunni-Shi'i tensions.
The author of numerous publications, academic articles, and book reviews, his most recent book is Back to the Future: The Middle East in the Shadow of the Arab Spring (Hebrew) and the edited volume titled Tribes and States in a Changing Middle East (London: Hurst Publishers, 2015).
His forthcoming books include the English version of Back to the Future and the edited volume Lost in Translation: Forgotten Paradigms of the Arab Spring (Sussex Academic Press).
SUNDAY MAY 21, 11:00 AM
Prof. Jacob A. Frenkel
Prof. Jacob A. Frenkel is Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International and a member of the J.P. Morgan International Council. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty (G-30) and Chairman of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University. Between 1991 and 2000 he served two terms as the Governor of the Bank of Israel.
He is credited with reducing inflation in Israel and achieving price stability, liberalizing Israel’s financial markets, removing foreign exchange controls, and integrating the Israeli economy into the global financial system. Between 1987 and 1991, he was the Economic Counselor and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund, and between 1973 and 1987 he was on the faculty of the University of Chicago where he held the position of the David Rockefeller Professor of International Economics.
Prof. Frenkel is a Laureate of the 2002 Israel Prize in Economics, a recipient of the Scopus Award from the Hebrew University, the Hugo Ramniceanu Prize for Economics from the Tel-Aviv University, the Czech Republic’s Karel Englis Prize in Economics, the “Order de Mayo al Merito” (in the rank of Gran Cruz) decoration from the Government of Argentina, the “Order of Merit” (in the rank of Cavaliere di Gran Croce) decoration from the Republic of Italy, and the YIVO Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also a recipient of several Honorary Doctoral degrees and other decorations and awards, including the “1993 Economic Policy Award” by “Emerging Markets” and the “1997 Central Banker of the Year Award” by “Euromoney”.
Prof. Yoav Henis
Prof. Yoav Henis is TAU Vice President for Research and Development. In 1974 received his B.Sc. Cum Laude after completing his studies in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Hebrew University. In 1978 he completed his doctoral thesis (direct course for Ph.D.) Summa Cum Laude at the Hebrew University, under the guidance of Prof. Alexander Levitzki. This thesis has won the Hebrew University Kennedy-Lee prize for the best thesis of the year. Between 1978 and 1981 he was a post-doctoral fellow (supported by Chaim Weizmann Fellowship from the Weizmann Institute) under the guidance of Prof. Elliot Elson, first at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) and then at Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO). Upon his return to Israel in 1981 he became a Faculty member at the Department of Biochemistry, and then the Department of Neurobiology, in the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University.
In addition, Prof. Henis held visiting scholar positions at the M.I.T. (Whitehead Institute), Cambridge, MA (1987-8, 1992-3, 1998-9), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at Berkeley, CA (2003-4), and Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC (2009-10).
Prof. Henis has served as the head of the Committee for acceptance of undergraduate students to the Faculty of Life Sciences (1985-7), the secretary of the Israel Society for Cell Biology (1991-5), the head of the Department of Neurobiochemistry (today named Neurobiology) (1995-8), and was a member in many University and National Committees.
Avraham Kadar
Avraham Kadar, M.D., is a pediatrician and National Institutes of Health (NIH)-trained immunologist, and the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BrainPOP, an internet company that includes the award-winning animated online educational platform BrainPOP, and the pioneering dynamic digital marketing and rich media solutions AditAll, LLC and Dynamic Video, LLC.
Avraham Kadar is the husband of Naomi Prawer Kadar. He and Naomi devoted their lives together to the very passions and values upon which The Naomi Foundation is based – family, social justice, love, and community. As the President of the foundation, he, along with the other board members, carries out and considers the vision and goals of the foundation.
Born in Rishon LeZion, Israel, Dr. Kadar has parlayed an enduring and life-long passion for science into two successful careers: first as a scientist and physician and then as a businessman. He began his formal studies in physics at the Hebrew University, followed by medical training at Tel Aviv University. While he is an innovator and entrepreneur in the online world, Dr. Kadar remains a physician and educator at heart. His belief in the centrality of science education provided the initial inspiration for BrainPOP.
Prof. Ron Shamir
Prof. Ron Shamir received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 1984 and has been on the faculty of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University since 1987. He heads the Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics and holds the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Chair in Bioinformatics. He develops algorithmic and statistical methods and tools for understanding the genome and human disease. He published more than 270 scientific works, including 17 books and edited volumes, and has supervised more than 50 research students. He is on the editorial board of eleven scientific journals and series. He co-founded the BSc and MSc programs in Bioinformatics at Tel Aviv University, and was on the steering committee of RECOMB, the leading theoretical conference in bioinformatics for its first twelve years. He co-founded the Israeli Society of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and was society president in 2004-2006. He is a recipient of the 2011 Landau Prize in Bioinformatics, and a Fellow of the ISCB and the ACM.
Prof. Nira Liberman
Prof. Nira Liberman received her PhD in social psychology from Tel Aviv University in 1997. She had a post-doctoral position at Columbia University, NYC during 1996-1999, and an assistant professor position at Indiana University, Bloomington during 2000-2001. Prof. Liberman is presently at the social psychology program at the Department of Psychology, where she has been a faculty member since 2001.
Prof. Oded Hod
Prof. Oded Hod received his BSc from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1994 and his PhD from Tel Aviv University in 2005. After completing a postdoctoral term at Rice University, USA, he joined Tel Aviv University in 2008. His research involves computational nanomaterials science including electronic structure, mechanical, electromechanical, and tribological properties, density functional theory, molecular electronics, and electron dynamics in open quantum systems. Prof. Hod published 56 paper in leading scientific journals including Nature Nanotechnology, Nano Letters, Physical Review Letters, Accounts of Chemical Research, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Furthermore, he delivered over 40 invited talks in prominent national and international conferences and co-organized 8 symposia, conferences, and scientific sessions.
Prof. Hod is an active member of the following organizations: the Global Young Academy, where he co-chairs a working group promoting the importance of fundamental science; the Israeli Young Academy, where he chairs a working group for translating a science game for Hebrew and Arabic speaking high school students; the Lise Meitner–Minerva Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry; and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Computational Molecular and Materials Science. He has established the Israeli CECAM node at Tel Aviv University and served as its director until 2014. He also serves as a co-moderator of the chemical physics section of the arXiv. He received Tel Aviv University’s 2012, 2015, and 2017 Rector’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and is the recipient of the 2017 Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research.
As a service to the community, Prof. Hod volunteers in the "Bashaar" organization providing annual popular science lectures in Israeli high-schools located at the periphery, and in the "Different Lesson" organization, where he serves as a math teaching assistant in a high-school science class on a weekly basis.
Prof. Roy Mukamel
Prof. Mukamel joined TAU in 2010 as a senior lecturer at the School of Psychological Sciences and in 2015 was promoted to associate professor. His lab studies the neural mechanisms underlying motor skill learning, the role of sensory perception in this process, execution of voluntary actions, and agency. His studies have implications for improving the learning process of motor skills in healthy subjects and rehabilitation in patients with motor deficits. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he studied the neural correlates of visual and auditory perception. In 2006 he moved to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) for post-doctoral studies focused on the neural mechanisms of perception and execution of voluntary actions.
TUESDAY MAY 23, 10:45 AM
Azrieli
About the Azrieli Foundation
The Azrieli Foundation was established in 1989 to realize and extend the philanthropic goals of the late David J. Azrieli, C.M., C.Q., M.Arch. The Foundation funds institutions as well as operates their own programs in both Canada and Israel in architecture, higher education, scientific and medical research, school perseverance, Holocaust education, music and the arts, and quality of life initiatives for people with developmental disabilities.
The Foundation established and operates the following key programs:
Azrieli Fellows Program
Azrieli Institute for Educational Empowerment
Azrieli Neurodevelopmental Research Program
Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program
Azrieli Music Initiatives
Azrieli Architectural Prizes
A brief history of the Azrieli School of Architecture and Town Planning
In 1992, the Azrieli Foundation helped Tel Aviv University establish the David J. Azrieli School of Architecture. David Azrieli, an architect, businessman and visionary, viewed architecture through an intellectual approach, believing strongly in adding capacity to the Israeli academic ecosystem. His family, through the Azrieli Foundation, has generously supported Tel Aviv University over the past 25 years.
The Azrieli Foundation has a history of deep and substantial support of both architecture and education in Israel and Canada.
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In 2005, the Foundation created the Azrieli Fellows Program, which provides generous financial support to the best and brightest researchers from Israel and abroad who will use their training to become leaders in their respective fields. This endowment supports graduate students, including those at Tel Aviv University, in seven Israeli universities studying architecture, science, education, social sciences and humanities.
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The Azrieli Prize in Architecture is in its 16th year and recognizes creativity, originality and architectural quality among recent B. Arch graduates of the five Israeli academic institutions that award such degrees: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design, Haifa School of Design and Ariel University by awarding an annual prize.
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The Azrieli Global Studio brings together four renowned architecture schools at Tel Aviv University, the Technion, McGill University in Montreal and Carleton University in Ottawa, providing a platform to foster cultural transfers and research collaborations between Israel and Canada.
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The David J. Azrieli Central Archives and Israeli Research Center for Architecture is an outstanding facility focusing on the study of the artistic, cultural, social, political and technological characteristics of architecture.
It is with great pride that the Azrieli Foundation continues their long-term commitment to Tel Aviv University.
