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Recent Status of the Israeli Economy and Hi-Tech Industry
Speaker: Yossi Vardi
Mr. Yossi Vardi is the Principal of International Technologies Ventures, a private venture capital enterprise. During the last 36 years he founded or helped to build over 40 high-tech companies in the fields of Internet, software, telecommunications, electro-optics, energy, environment and other areas. Among them Alon energy, granite hacarmel, Tekem (now part of Ness), international technologies (lasers) and others. A number of the companies Vardi co-founded eventually went public
Mr. Vardi is the founding investor and the former chairman of Mirabilis Ltd, the creator of ICQ which was acquired by AOL for a $400 million. He still serves as an advisor to the chairman of AOL, as well as to the chairman of Amazon.
Veteran of a long civil service career, he previously served the Government of Israel as Director General of the Ministry of Development (during that tenure he co-established Israel chemical and served as its chairman), Director General of the Ministry of Energy of Israel, and North-American Director of the Investment Authority. When the peace negotiations with Jordan started, he was requested by the Government to lead the economic and regional cooperation negotiations as a special advisor to Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance, and to head the Israeli effort for preparing the Israeli plan for regional cooperation. He also led the oil-related negotiations in the Israeli - Egyptian peace talks, participated in the Wye peace negotiations with Syria, and in the economic discussions with the Palestinians.
He served on the Boards of Directors of a number of Israel's major companies. Among them, lsrael Electric Corp., Elite, Bezek (Israel's national telecommunication company), Sonol, Scitex, Oil Refineries, Haifa Chemicals, Dead Sea Works, Dead Sea Bromine, Arkia Airlines, Koor Communications, Chemicals and Phosphates, Maarive and Hamashbir Hamercazi.