Speaker’s Bios

Mr. Yossi Abu has served as CEO of Delek Drilling since 2011, and as CEO of Avner Oil Exploration since 2016. He served as Trade and Regulation Manager of Delek Drilling and of Avner, and as a Senior Professional Adviser to the Minister of Finance.  Mr. Abu was a partner in leading the development of the Tamar reservoir and in promoting development of the Leviathan and Aphrodite discoveries. On behalf of the gas partnerships, he led the negotiations for the sale of natural gas to the domestic market. Mr. Abu also led on the negotiations on the regional agreements for the export of natural gas to Jordan, Egypt and Turkey.

Dr. Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky is Assistant Professor at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy at IDC Herzliya. He has been a pre- and post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University, a visiting fellow at the Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University and at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies. He has published his work in Foreign Affairs, Journal of Strategic Studies, Intelligence and National Security, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Journal of Cold War History, and more, and has contributed to edited volumes and encyclopedias on modern military and international history. He has published two acclaimed books. In addition, in his positions in the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the IDF, Dr. Adamsky has carried out intelligence analysis and strategic policy planning and served as assistant secretary of the committee charged with formulating Israel’s national security concept.

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Orit Adato is the former Commissioner of the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), and the First International Vice President of the International Correction & Prison Association (ICPA). Moreover, Ms. Adato is the owner and Managing Director of Adato Consulting Ltd. Specializing in international consultation concerning issues, such as handling terrorists in prisons, coping with the development of terror cells, organized crime and gangs, building and shaping intelligence systems in correction organizations, and developing of intelligence cooperation between law enforcement agencies.

Mr. Udi Adiri is the head of the energy unit in the Ministry of Finance’s budget department. He joined the budget department in 2005, initially working on the land transportation team and dealing with the challenges of public transportation in Israel. In 2008, he was appointed head of the transportation unit and in 2010 became the head of the energy unit. During these years, he has had the privilege of leading some of the most influential reforms in the Israeli economy, such as reforms in the sea ports, public transportation, and Israeli railroads and roads. Most recently, he was involved with the Shishinsky Committee for gas and oil fiscal policy, as well as the institutionalization of the Israeli gas market and private electricity sector. Udi holds a Bachelor of Science in economics and history, as well as a Master’s degree in economics, from Tel Aviv University. He served in the Israel Defense Forces armored corps as a soldier, platoon commander, and company deputy.

Prof. Fadia Nasser-Abu Alhija is professor at the School of Education of Tel Aviv University, where she heads the Department of Curriculum Planning and Instruction and the Program for Research, Measurement and Evaluation Methods. Previously, she was research coordinator for GRE testing at the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, NJ (USA). Her main research topics are measurement and evaluation of gender- and culture-related achievements; evaluation of teachers and teaching, and the structural validity of testing methods. Prof. Nasser-Abu Alhija earned her Ph.D. in Research, Evaluation, Measurement and Statistical Methods from the University of Georgia (U.S.) in 1997.

Prof. Riad Al Khoury is a Jordanian economist specializing in the Middle East. For over forty years, he has trained, lectured, advised, and researched on a wide variety of socio-economic and political topics such as good governance, human rights, aid, food security, South-South co-operation, employment, Millennium Development Goals, post-crisis economies, and sustainable development, inter alia, publishing on many of them and others, as well as making media appearances, in Arabic and in English, as well as in French. He holds a BA in Economics from the American University of Beirut and M.Litt. in the same subject from the University of Oxford. He has taught at universities in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon; was visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, Beirut; lecturer at CIEE and the Starr-Middlebury School, Amman; member of the Council for British Research in the Levant; dean of the Business School at the Lebanese French University, Erbil, where he was also trustee; and senior consultant to the Institute of Democracy and Electoral Studies at the Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II School of International Studies and Political Science in the University of Jordan.
Prof. Shulamit Almog is a Professor of Law at the University of Haifa and director of the PhD Program of the faculty.

During her career, she has been integrating an active involvement both in academia and in practice. Her academic research is on law and literature, law and film, law and digital culture, and on children’s and women’s rights. She has published numerous books and articles in US, Canadian, European and Israeli law reviews. Among her public activities are appearing before the Israeli Parliament, drafting sections of Israel’s report to the UN on the International Convention on Children’s Rights, and participating on committees for reforming Israel’s Adoption Law and combating trafficking in person. She is also a member of the Israeli Press Council Executive Board.

Dr. Muhammad Al–Nabari is a Bedouin, citizen of Israel, who currently serves as the mayor of Hura, a Bedouin village in the south of Israel. He was elected in 2004, when he was only 34 years old. During his tenure, Al-Nabari successfully decreased the unemployment rate, improved the education system and developed four models to provide employment for the men and women of Hura. Al-Nabari received the Movement for Quality Government in Israel award, for local government for his achievements in Hura. Muhammad Al-Nabari was born in Hura. In a young age he decided to move away from his home town, and go studying in one of the best Arab schools in Israel back then, that is located in Baqa-Jatt. When Al-Nabari finished school he worked in fruit-picking for one year, then he enrolled into the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to study Chemistry. He continued to masters in Chemistry in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then moved to do his PhD in the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is married and has 6 kids. Al-Nabari did his PhD in the subject of Organic chemistry under the guidance of Prof. Shmuel Bittner. His doctorate title was Synthesis of natural products, Quinones Enaminones. Al-Nabari finished his academic period and went to work for a Pharmaceutical company called ChemAgis (now Perrigo). During his time in the academia and at work Al-Nabari registered 12 patents, some of them for treatments of Alzheimer’s disease and brain cancer.

Col. (res.) Michael (Miki) Altar is the Director of External Relations at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. He previously managed a private company dealing with international trade in security and civilian areas.  Col. (res.) Altar served in the IDF and the Israel Security Agency for more than twenty years, where he held the position of Military Attaché in South Africa and managed external relations with foreign armies and military organizations. Col. (res.) Altar received a B.A. in Middle East and African Studies from Tel Aviv University.  He is a graduate of the IDF Command and Staff College.

Dr. Ami Appelbaum is President of KLA-Tencor, Israel Preserving Long-Term Technology Differentiations and Market Leadership throughout Fast Progressing Science and Technology

Prof. Uzi Arad is the Founding Director of the Institute for Policy and Strategy, and Founding Chair of the Annual Herzliya Conference Series, and a former Professor at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at IDC Herzliya. Arad also serves as the Chairman of Israel’s Institute of Defense Studies. Between 2009 and 2011, Arad served as the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, and the head of the Israeli National Security Council. Between 1997 and 1999, Arad was foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu on secondment from the Mossad, in which he served for more than two decades, culminating in his tenure as Director of Research (at a Major General rank). Arad was also an advisor to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and Founding Chairman of the Atlantic Forum of Israel. After retiring from the civil service in 1999, Professor Arad was appointed to establish and direct the EU-Israel Forum. Prior to his career in government, Professor Arad was a Professional Staff Member with the Hudson Institute in New York and Research Fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Center for Strategic Studies. Professor Arad received his Bachelor’s Degree from Tel Aviv University. In 1971, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for advanced studies at Princeton University, where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in International Relations.

Mr. Yarom Ariav served as Director General of the Ministry of Finance from 2007 to 2009, where he was responsible for setting and implementing the Israeli macroeconomic policy and leading the Israeli economy through the recent financial crisis. Mr. Ariav chaired the steering committee for Israel joining the OECD, and was a central figure in the Israeli administration. Prior to his work in government, Mr Ariav served as President & CEO of ICL Fertilizers Europe, a division of Israel Chemicals (ICL) Group. Prior to that he held various positions within ICL including: ICL Representative in South America and Director at SQM company in Chile; Vice President Marketing of Rotem Amfert Company and Senior Vice President of Marketing of ICL Fertilizers. Between 1984 to 1993 Mr. Ariav served the Government of Israel in several positions. Mr. Ariav holds a B.A. and M.A. (cum laude) in Economics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Prof. Dana Arieli, Dean, Faculty of Design, Holon Institute of Technology (HIT)

Prof. Shlomo Avineri is the Herbert Samuel Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been a visiting professor at several universities, among them Yale, Oxford and the City University of New York, and also a visiting fellow to the Brookings Institution and the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. During 1975-1977, Prof. Avineri served as Director-General of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the National Democratic Institute (Washington, DC) international teams of observers to the first post-communist elections in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Estonia. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Middle Eastern affairs, political theory and international affairs.

Mr. Eytan Avriel is a founder of TheMarker, a leading and influential business media provider in Israel. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of TheMarker Magazine and as one of the group’s leading op-ed columnists.  Eytan is a frequent guest at many of Israel’s TV and Radio news programs where he comments on business, economic and social issues.  Eytan was business editor and business manager at Reuters Plc, a leading international news and financial data provider. He consulted clients on investment banking, financial IR/PR, and managed a financial information platform that he developed and launched and later sold. Eytan holds a BSc in business and Biology and an MBA, both from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 2004, Eytan initiated and led a SEC-sponsored commission to set an ethical code for financial websites. In 2015 he attended the Singularity University. He occasionally lectures at the Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University, the IDC center in Herzlya and other forums. He is an IDF Navy underwater expert.

Dr. Eitan Azani currently serves as deputy executive director of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and the Head of the BA and MA Specialization in Counter-Terrorism and Homeland Security at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. He is a Colonel (Res.) in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) with operational, research and academic experience in counter-terrorism in the regional and international arenas. Eitan Azani obtained his B.A. in Economy, Political Science and Geography at Bar Ilan University, Israel and his M.A. (with honors) in the Security and Strategy Studies Program of Tel-Aviv University. Dr. Azani’s Ph.D. dissertation for the Hebrew University, Jerusalem was on “The Development of Revolutionary Islamic Movements a case study of Hezbollah.

Mr. Rene Pierre Azria is an investment banker in Manhattan for the past 30 years, specializes in financial and strategic transactions in the US, Europe and Asia. He has accumulated over $200 billion of successful advisory assignments since his banking career began in 1981 in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Azria is a Senior Partner at LionTree Advisors, a fast-growing investment bank based in New York City and focused on the Technology, Media, Communications and Consumer sectors. Prior to joining LionTree, Mr. Azria founded and managed a financial advisory boutique for 7 years after spending 11 years as a Worldwide Partner with Rothschild and 8 years as a Managing Director of Blackstone-Indosuez. Mr. Azria is a director of Phoenix Group plc, a listed UK life insurer, and of Abrams Books and La Martiniere-Le Seuil, two privately owned book publishers. Mr. Azria holds a M.Sc. in Finance and International Business from the HEC School of Management in France, a Trium degree from the London Business School and the NYU Stern Graduate School of Business, as well as a B.S. in Mathematics from Université de Paris Jussieu. He is conversant in several languages. Currently, Mr. Azria is a member of the Board of Governors and the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Committee, and chairs the Paris office of the AJC.  He also supports and advises a number of other charitable organizations.”

Prof. Eileen Babbitt is Professor of Practice of International Conflict Management, Director of the Institute for Human Security, and Co-Director of the Program on Human Rights and Conflict Resolution at The Fletcher School. She is also a Faculty Associate of the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School. Her research interests include identity-based conflicts, coexistence and trust-building in the aftermath of civil war, and the interface between human rights concerns and peace building. Her practice as a facilitator and trainer has included work in the Middle East, the Balkans, and with the United Nations, U.S. government agencies, regional inter-governmental organizations, and international and local NGOs. Before joining Fletcher, Professor Babbitt was Director of Education and Training at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. and Deputy Director of the Program on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. Professor Babbitt’s latest publications include: “Preventive Diplomacy by Intergovernmental Organizations: Learning from Practice,” International Negotiation (2012); “Conflict Resolution as a Field of Inquiry: Practice Informing Theory,” with Fen Osler Hampson, International Studies Review (2011); and Human Rights and Conflict Resolution in Context, co-edited with Ellen Lutz, Syracuse University Press (2009). Professor Babbitt holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a PhD from MIT.

The Honorable Lt. Gen. (res.) Ehud Barak, is the most highly decorated Israeli general, a former Prime Minister, former IDF Chief of Staff, and former Defense Minister. In 1968, Barak completed a BA degree in Physics and Mathematics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and in 1987, a MA degree in Systems Analysis at Stanford University in California.

Dr. Michael Barak is a researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) of Lauder School of Government Diplomacy and Strategy, at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, and serves as the Team Leader of the Global Jihad & Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group and the Team Research Manager of the ICT Cyber-Desk In addition, Mr. Barak is a Teaching Assistant at the IDC in the field of Global Jihad, Iran and Modern Shia, and Hybrid Terrorist Organizations.

Prof. Amatzia Baram is Professor Emeritus at the Department of the History of the Middle East and Director of the Centre for Iraq Studies at the University of Haifa, Israel. Professor Baram served as an officer during his military service and while in the reserves. Professor Baram received his BA, MA, and Ph.D from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Baram served as a resident fellow in a number of international research institutions including Senior Associate Member at St Antony’s College, Oxford, UK, in 1989 and again in 1990. He was a Senior Fellow in Washington, DC, in the United States at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars and at the US Institute of Peace. He was also at the Brookings Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Centre in Bellagio, Italy. He taught as a Goldman Chair Professor at Georgetown University, Washington, DC.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Orna Barbivai is Executive Director of National Initiative Fund and former head of IDF’s Manpower Directorate. She was drafted to the IDF in 1981 and was the first woman to be made Major-General. Barbivai was the first female to hold the IDF positions of Chief Adjutant Officer of a Command, Chief Adjutant Officer, Head of the Ground Forces’ manpower section and Head of the Individuals Sector in the Manpower Directorate. Barbivai holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences and Humanities from Ben Gurion University and a Master of Business Administration Degree from Haifa University. She is also the graduate of the „Turn-point” administration course for senior military officials.

MK Omer Bar-Lev is a member of the Zionist Union Party. He earned in BSc in Agronomy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his MA in International Relations and Strategy at Tel Aviv University.  He served as Colonel in the Israeli Defense Forces. He is married with three children.

Mr. Moshe Bar Siman-Tov is the Director General of the Ministry of Health. He served as Minister for Economic Affairs at the Israel Embassy in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, he was Deputy Director of the Budget Office at the Ministry of Finance where he served 11 years. He was responsible for the social expenditure in the Israeli national budget, including healthcare, education, employment and the welfare system. The role consisted of building the national budget, as long as promoting reforms and structural changes in these fields. Moshe has both a master’s and bachelor’s degrees in economics and business administration from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Moshe is married, has four children and lives in Jerusalem.

Col. (Res.) Pnina Sharvit Baruch is a senior research associate at INSS. She retired from the Israel Defense Forces in 2009, after serving in the International Law Department there for twenty years, five of which, she was head of the Department. In this capacity, Adv. Sharvit Baruch was a senior legal advisor responsible for advising IDF commanders and decision makers at the governmental level on a wide variety of issues relating to international law and administrative law, among them: the laws of armed conflict and occupation of territory; naval law; counter-terrorism; security liaison; border demarcation; and conflict resolution. Adv. Sharvit Baruch served as a legal advisor in Israel’s delegations to negotiations with the Palestinians, from the early contacts and thereafter. In 2000, she also participated in the negotiations with Syria. Following her retirement from the IDF with the rank of colonel, Adv. Sharvit Baruch joined the faculty of the Tel Aviv University Law School, where she teachescourses related to public international law and conflict resolution, and also teaches international law at the National Security College. She has also published several articles on issues relating to these topics. Adv. Sharvit Baruch holds an LL.B. degree (magna cum laude) and an LL.M. degree (magna cum laude) from Tel Aviv University.

Mr. Ori Barzel is assistant academic director at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy, IDC Herzliya. He is also a PhD student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Iris Beck-Codner, is Group Executive Vice President Corporate Marketing & Communications in Teva since April 2013. Iris is a member of Teva’s global leadership team. Her group is responsible for Teva’s global corporate marketing and communications strategy and the company’s CSR activities. The core focus of her group is around planning and implementing the company’s transformation and adapting it to the present and future challenges, to include the shaping and launch of Teva’s global brand.  Prior to joining Teva, Mrs. Beck-Codner served as Group CEO, McCann Erickson Israel, where she was responsible for overseeing the Media, Digital and Creative Advertising business. Prior to that, Mr. Beck-Codner served as Chief Marketing Officer at Orange Telecommunications in Israel, overseeing Brand Proposition, Product & Services, Customer Retention & Acquisition, and Content Generation. Between 1996 and 2002 she held various executive positions with Unilever Israel, the last being General Manager of the Home & Personal Care business. Mrs. Beck-Codner has a Master’s degree in Marketing & Business Administration from the University of Bar Ilan, Israel and a BA in Economics, from the University of Haifa, Israel. She is also a Graduate of THNK, Amsterdam, the School of Creative Leadership and social entrepreneurship.

Mr. Arvid Bell is a research fellow for the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School as well as associate fellow for the Peace Research and is a PhD Candidate at Goethe University Frankfurt. His research interests include U.S. and German foreign policy, Afghanistan and Central Asia, emotions and human motives in international conflict, negotiation in crisis management and conflict resolution, system effects in multi-constituency networks. He earned his master in public policy at Harvard University, Master of Arts in International Affairs at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and his diploma in Political Science at the Free University of Berlin.

Dr. Ayelet Ben-Ezer is the Vice President for Student Affairs at IDC Herzliya. She has served as a faculty member and a lecturer at the Radzyner Law School at IDC Herzliya, the Law Faculty at Haifa University, and as a lecturer at the Law Faculty at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Ben-Ezer serves as an External Director at Dan Company for Public Transportation Ltd. and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the IDC Herzliya. Served as an External Director at Koor Industries Ltd., Chairman of Audit Committee, Chairman of the Financial Statements Review Committee,Chairman of the merging Committee – Koor Industries Ltd. – Discount Investments Ltd. and as a member of the Investment Committee. In addition she served as a Director at Tirat Zvi Ltd. and as a Director at Tnuva Galil LTD. Her Doctorate in Law is from Tel Aviv University.

Prof. Ofra Bengio is a Senior Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies & Department of Middle Eastern History, Tel Aviv University where she earned her PhD. Prof. Bengio delivered a paper (with Bruce Maddy-Weitzman) on „Mobilizing the Diaspora: Kurdish and Berber Movements in Comparative Perspective” at the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA)’s annual meeting in Boston, in November 2009. She spoke on „Kurdish Historiography: Ethnic vs. State Narrative” at an international conference on Iraq Today: Between Unity and Disintegration, organized by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Truman Institute in March 2010.  In September, Prof. Bengio lectured on „Turkey and the Kurdish Problem” at the World Summit on Counter-Terrorism, organized by the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. That same month, she was also interviewed by the Turkish Economic and Social Research Ekopolitik.

Prof. Maj. Gen. (res.) Isaac Ben-Israel, Director, Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center & Head of the Yuval Ne’eman Workshop, Tel-Aviv University; Chairman, Israel National Council for Research & Development, Ministry of Science, Technology, and Space. He was the former Head of the Curiel Center and served in the IDF for over thirty years, holding several posts in operations, intelligence and weapon development units of the Air Force. He served as Head of Military R&D in the IDF and as Director of Defense R&D Directorate in the Ministry of Defense. He has written numerous books and articles on military and security issues and received several awards, including twice the Israel Defense Award. Holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Tel Aviv University.

MK Naftali Bennett is the leader of the Jewish Home party and is Minister of Education and Minister of Diaspora Affairs. He previously held the posts of Minister of Economy and Minister of Religious Services. After serving in Special Forces units, Bennett became a software entrepreneur. In 1999, he co-founded and co-owned the encryption and network security software company Cyota, selling the company in 2005 for $145 million. He has also served as CEO of Soluto, sold in 2013 for a reported $100–130 million. He entered politics in 2006, serving as Chief of Staff for Benjamin Netanyahu until 2008. In 2011, together with Ayelet Shaked, he co-founded the My Israel extra-parliamentary movement and in 2012, he was elected head of the party. Bennett holds a law degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

MK Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Ben-Reuven is a retired major general in the Israel Defense Forces, commander of the military colleges and senior field commander. He is the former deputy commander of the Northern Command, for which he still serves as a reserve. He enlisted in the IDF in 1972 as a member of the Armor Corps, participated in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, fighting both near the Suez Canal and at the Golan Heights. He commanded an armor battalion the 1982 Lebanon War. Ben-Reuven was the deputy commander of the Northern Command in the 2006 Lebanon War. After retirement from the army he became director of the Born to Freedom Foundation which works to secure the release of Israeli prisoners of war. Before the 2015 election, he joined the Zionist Union, taking spot 24 on its list.

Mr. Yarden Ben-Yosef, Director, Public Diplomacy Program, IDC Herzliya. Yarden, born and raised in Holon, lives today in Tel Aviv. Served as an officer and commander in a Special Forces Unit of Intelligence in the IDF, and today serves at the rank of Captain in reserves. After his army service he created, from scratch, the Municipal Youth Council of Tel Aviv, was a teacher in an elementary school in south Tel Aviv and guided youth leadership delegations in Israel and abroad. He is currently studying Law and Government, and was class representative for his class for two years. In the last year he was the active Coordinator for the Department of Student Initiatives in the Student Union. During Operation Pillar of Defense he initiated and managed the IDC Hamal Hasbara. In his free time he likes to read books and listen to old Israeli music.

Dr. Yael Berda is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. An Israeli lawyer by training, she holds a PhD from the Department of Sociology at Princeton University. Born in New York City and raised in West Jerusalem, Yael has been highly engaged in social justice activism and politics in Israel. In 2014-2015 she was an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs in Cambridge, MA. Yael graduated from the faculty of Law at the Hebrew University, and received her MA (Magna cum laude) from the department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University. Before Princeton, Yael was a practicing Human rights lawyer in Israel, first in the law offices of Avidgor Feldman, and then pursued her own practice in Jerusalem focusing on Administrative and constitutional Law, specifically cases of freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of movement. She has argued cases in the Israeli Supreme court, administrative courts and the military criminal courts.

Dr. Ronen Bergman is a Senior Correspondent for Military and Intelligence Affairs for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s largest circulated daily newspaper while also a contributing writer for the New York Times on Middle Eastern politics. Dr. Bergman frequently lectures to academic and military audiences, as well as to the general public. He has been a guest lecturer at academic forums at major universities and institutions in Israel and abroad, including The Council on Foreign Relations, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, NYU, Oxford, and Cambridge, and at military and intelligence forums in Israel, the United States and England. An author of five best-selling non-fiction books, Dr. Bergman covers topics that range from government corruption to Israeli wars and its POWs and MIAs to the Iranian nuclear project. He is currently working on his sixth book, which will tell the never before released history of the Mossad. Dr. Ronen Bergman consults international organizations and companies in the fields of homeland security and risk analysis, assessing current events and strategic developments in the Middle East. He works with some of the largest law firms in the US in research, analysis and the building of cases connected with terrorism, intelligence, etc. Dr. Bergman received a PhD with distinction in History and International Relations from Cambridge University. He also graduated cum laude from Haifa University Law School.

MK Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Anat Berko is a member of Knesset for the Likud Party and an internationally recognized expert on terrorism who specializes in studying the motivations of suicide terrorists. She was born in Israel to refugee parents who fled from Iraq. During her service in the IDF she held a number of command and training positions. In addition, she has a PhD in criminology from Bar Ilan University, writing her thesis on suicide bombing terrorism, and has diplomas in bridging and negotiations from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a directorship diploma from the Israel Management Center. Throughout her career she has worked to change the concept of incarceration in military prisons in Israel and to identify and promote the potential of women serving in the IDF. After 25 years as a career army officer, she completed her military service with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Dr. Reuven Berko, is a specialist in Palestinian Issues. He holds a PhD in Middle Eastern studies and is a commentator on Israeli Arabic TV. He writes for the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, and is considered one of Israel’s top experts on Arab affairs.

Dr. Benedetta Berti joined INSS as a Neubauer doctoral fellow, and is currently a research fellow at INSS, a Kreitman post-doctoral fellow at Ben-Gurion University, and a member of the faculty at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Berti’s areas of expertise include human security, internal conflict, integration of armed groups (political negotiations; security sector reform; disarmament demobilization reintegration), post-conflict stabilization and peace-building, as well as democratization, civil society, social movements and strategic nonviolence. Her current research is related to political violence and conflict in the Middle East, non-state armed groups, as well as well as Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian politics. Before joining INSS, Dr. Berti worked in NGOs and research institutes in Latin America, the Middle East, and the US, focusing on human rights, internal conflict, and political violence. She was a lecturer and researcher at Tufts and Harvard Universities, a legislative and policy assistant on Capitol Hill, and a fellow at the Reut Institute.

The Honorable Antony J. Blinken was confirmed by the United States Senate as Deputy Secretary of State on December 16, 2014. He was sworn in by Secretary Kerry on January 9, 2015. Mr. Blinken has held senior foreign policy positions in two administrations over two decades. He most recently served as Assistant to the President Obama and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor. In that capacity, he chaired the inter-agency Deputies Committee, the administration’s principal forum for formulating foreign policy. During the first term of the Obama Administration, he was Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President. Mr. Blinken served for six years on Capitol Hill (2002 – 2008) as Democratic Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr. Josh Block, is President and CEO of The Israel Project. He has worked for a number of lobby groups in the United States, including serving as a spokesperson for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and as a fellow at the Democratic Party-aligned Progressive Policy Institute. Since 2012, Block has been the CEO and president of The Israel Project (TIP), a Washington- and Jerusalem-based organization that provides information to journalists and the public with the goal of giving a „more positive public face” to the Israel.

Prof. Dan Boneh is Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering & Co-Director, Stanford Computer Security Lab, Stanford University. Professor Boneh’s main research area is applied cryptography and network security. His focus is on building security mechanisms that are easy to use and deploy. He has developed new mechanisms for improving web security, file system security, and copyright protection. He contributed to the security and performance of the RSA cryptosystem and contributed to the study of cryptographic watermarking.

Mr. Aryeh B. Bourkoff, Founder and CEO of LionTree LLC is the Founder and CEO of LionTree LLC, an independent investment and merchant bank focused on the technology, media, telecommunications and consumer related industries.  Built to adapt to today’s dynamic market conditions, LionTree selectively invests alongside its clients in transactions on which it advises.  Founded in 2012, the firm is headquartered in New York with offices in San Francisco and London.  Mr. Bourkoff previously served as Vice Chairman and Head of Americas Investment Banking at UBS, which he joined in 1999, and also served on the UBS Investment Banking Executive Committee.  Other positions Mr. Bourkoff held within UBS include Joint Global Head of Telecom, Media and Technology Investment Banking; Head of the Media and Communications Research Group; and a fixed income research analyst. Before joining UBS, he served as a high-yield research analyst at CIBC World Markets and Smith Barney. A graduate of University of California, San Diego, Mr. Bourkoff recently launched Alma Ventures, a venture fund that invests in technology startups incubated by UCSD undergraduate entrepreneurs.

Amb. Dr. Harald Braun has been the Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations in New York since March 2014. Prior to his nomination, Ambassador Braun was State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office from 2011 to 2014. Between 2009 and 2011 he had been Director-General for Management of the German Foreign Office. Former diplomatic postings include Beirut, London, Bujumbura, Washington and Paris. In 1992-94 he was Chief of Staff to the Foreign Minister and from 2003 to 2005 Deputy Foreign and Security Adviser to the Federal Chancellor.

From 2005 to 2008 he was on leave of absence from the diplomatic service as Corporate Senior Vice President for policy and external relations of Siemens AG.In March 2008 Ambassador Braun was named Research Professor for Global Studies and Diplomacy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Harald Braun studied economics and history in Tübingen and New York and completed a doctorate at SUNY Stony Brook before entering the Foreign Service in 1981. Ambassador Braun was awarded an Honorary Citizenship of Washington D.C. in 2002. He is Grand Officier of the National Order of the French Legion D’Honneur, bearer of the Grand Cross of the Italian Order of Merit and further international distinctions, as well as a member of the Knights of the Order of St. John. He has been married to Dr. Ute Braun since 1980; they have three adult children and two grandchildren.

His interests include classical music, modern literature, arts and sports.

Mr. Yair Briman serves as the General Manager of Healthcare IT, at Philips HealthTech. Prior to this, Mr. Briman managed the Imaging Clinical Applications and Platforms (ICAP), delivering a leading solution for clinical applications that analyzes and virtualizes medical images and provides Best-In-Class Integrated Application platform for Philips Healthcare. He started his career at Philips in 2006 as the CT Global software, Senior Director where he led several hundred engineers, and ramped up a new development site in Bangalore. Mr. Briman served as Vice President of Research and Development, at a startup, developing highly distributed shared memory middleware. At Intel, he held multiple technology and managerial positions, and was later appointed as Manager of Software Development, leading a large team of engineers, across multiple geographies, providing multi cloud computing solutions resulting in extensive savings for Intel. He serves as Board Member at Sanara Ventures. Mr. Briman holds a BSc from the Technion.

Dr. Oded Brosh is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the IDC, Herzliya. A lecturer at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Dr. Brosh previously taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Ben-Gurion University. He served as senior analyst at the Prime Minister’s Office. He holds a PhD in political science from the Hebrew University, and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard University. His research and teaching focuses on the issues of deterrence, strategy, WMD proliferation, and the Iranian crisis.

Mr. Neil Robert Brown is a fellow at the Lugar Diplomacy Institute of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Mr. Brown is a principal at KKR, a leading global investment firm, where he is director of policy and research at the KKR Global Institute. Previously, Mr. Brown served on the senior staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and of Senator Richard G. Lugar, and he was a senior advisor at Goldwyn Global Strategies. As the lead for international energy in the Senate, he spearheaded major laws and strategic initiatives in energy security, infrastructure, transparency, and U.S. State Department reorganization and helped expand counter proliferation efforts through the Nunn-Lugar Global Program. Mr. Brown also serves on the boards of The Lugar Center, U.S. Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative advisory committee for the U.S. Department of Interior, Merton College Charitable Corporation, and Association of American Rhodes Scholars. Mr. Brown graduated with a BA from Harvard University and MSc and MPhil from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Neil is from Iowa, where his family farm is located.

Dr. Jürgen Bühler is an ordained minister and trained physicist who serves as Executive Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. After graduating from Ulm University with a degree in physics, Jürgen moved to Israel in 1994. Following a five-year research project at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, he obtained his doctorate in chemistry. Jürgen joined the staff of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem in 1999 and served from 2001 to 2011 as National Director for ICEJ-Germany. He has been a member of the ICEJ’s Board of Trustees for eight years and served as the ministry’s International Director for five years. In October 2011, the board of the International Christian Embassy asked Jürgen to serve as Executive Director. He is a licensed minister with the German Pentecostal Federation (BFP), and his unique scriptural insights into issues relating to Israel, the Church and the nations have placed him in great demand as a speaker all over the world. Jürgen and his wife, Vesna, live in Jerusalem and have three young sons and a daughter.

MK Eitan Cabel, is a Knesset member of the Israeli Labor Party and is Chair of the Knesset’s Economic Affairs Committee. He studied in the Noam religious school in Pardes Hanna, and after his 3 years of army service in the paratrooper brigade, he enrolled to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As a student, Cabel put most of his efforts into political activity as vice chairman and later on chairman of the university’s students’ union. As a result, he never finished his BA, and went on with his political career. He was the parliamentary assistant to the minister of agriculture, a personal assistant to Shimon Peres, then chairman of the Labor party, and a professional and personal assistant to the minister of Housing. In 1996, he became member of the Knesset for the first time. In 2005, Cabel was elected Secretary General of the Israeli Labor Party, and in 2006 he became a minister in the Israeli government. Cabel resigned his position as minister in 2007 after the Vinograd report was published – the report placed a blame on the army’s mediocre performance during the 2006 war in Lebanon on the than prime minister Ehud Olmert, and Cabel stated he will not take part in a government whos head refuses to resign following such a report. In 2009, after Labor joined a rightist government Cabel resigned his position as Secretary General and has been one of the fiercest opposition voices against the Netanyahu government.

Mr. Greg Carlstrom is a reporter based in Tel Aviv, where he writes mostly for The Times and The Economist. He as been published in a number of other newspapers and magazines, including Foreign Policy, Politico, New York, Global Post, The National, PRI, the San Francisco Chronicle, World Politics Review, Columbia Journalism Review, MERIP and elsewhere. He has appeared on TV and radio networks including the BBC, CNN, TRT, Sky News and Al Jazeera English.

Mr. Ben Caspit is a Political correspondent for the newspaper Ma’ariv. He is a former presenter of the evening news program on Israel Television’s Channel 1. He worked as Ma’ariv’s police correspondent, municipal correspondent and New York City correspondent. He published a book on the Labor Party and as well as biographies of Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. He holds an LLB from Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Amnon Cavari is an Assistant Professor at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the IDC Herzliya. Dr. Cavari specializes in American politics with specific research interests in the presidency, public opinion and political parties. Dr. Cavari holds an LL.B and an M.A. in Political Science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is laureate of prestigious academic recognitions, including the American Political Science Association Presidency Research Group’s George Edwards III Award for the best dissertation on the presidency in 2011; and the American Political Science Association Presidency Research Group’s Founders Award for the best graduate student paper in 2010.

Mr. Jean-François Copé is a French politician and former president of the current main opposition party Les Républicains. He is currently mayor of Meaux and a member of parliament at the French National Assembly. Following his studies at Science Po Paris and the École nationale d’administration, he spent two years working as a high-ranking civil servant before entering the private sector as Chief of Staff to the President of Dexia. He held various academic positions, including teaching local economics and finance at Science Po as well as at Paris 8 University where he was associate professor from 1998 to 2000. Copé’s first major political role was in 2002, when he became the government’s official spokesman. He was then promoted to Minister of the Budget in 2004, which he carried out until 2007. He thereafter did not occupy any governmental functions, focusing instead on various electoral mandates, including mayor of Meaux, where he was elected four times and currently serves. He was also elected as a member of parliament in two different districts over the course of his career. From 2007 to 2010 he presided the then UMP political party at the National Assembly, before becoming Secretary General of the party in 2010. It is following the 2012 French presidential election and the void left by Nicolas Sarkozy at the top of the party that Jean-François Copé was elected president of the UMP, a position he kept until 2014 before returning to fulfill his local mandate in Meaux.

Prof. Irwin Cotler is the Fmr. Minister of Justice and Fmr. Attorney General of Canada. He is also an Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, former Minister of Justice & Attorney General of Canada, and an international human rights lawyer. A constitutional and comparative law scholar, Prof. Cotler intervened in landmark Charter of Rights cases in the areas of free speech, freedom of religion, minority rights, peace law and war crimes justice. As Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Irwin Cotler initiated the first-ever comprehensive reform of the Supreme Court appointment process and helped make it the most gender-representative Supreme Court in the world; appointed the first-ever aboriginal and visible minority justices to the Ontario Court of Appeal; initiated the first-ever law on human trafficking; crafted the Civil Marriage Act, the first-ever legislation to grant marriage equality to gays and lesbians; issued Canada’s first National Justice Initiative Against Racism and Hate; quashed more wrongful convictions in a single year than any prior Minister, and made the pursuit of international justice a government priority.

Mr. Henrique Cymerman is an award-winning journalist and university lecturer who works in 5 languages (Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, French and English) and has covered current affairs in the Middle East for 25 odd years.

He established relationships of trust with those heading the chief regional political processes in Israel, the Middle East and extended Arab world.  Born and raised in Portugal went to Israel when he was 16. His level of analysis is unparalleled and on occasions allows him to serve as a unique bridge between the nations involved in the Middle East and Arab – Israeli conflict. Henrique also plays a role in Judeo-Christian relationships being one of the two closest Jews to the Pope. His book “Voices from the center of the World” including interviews with key personages in the region, such as Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin (last interview alive), Shimon Peres, Ahmed Yassin and Omar Bin Laden, as well as Mahmoud Abbas, was translated into 6 languages and distributed worldwide. Pope Francis named him his “Angel of Peace” in enabling His Holiness’ Pilgrimage to Middle East, and assisting in the Prayer for Peace event which took place in the Vatican last June. He also wrote the book “Francis, From Rome to Jerusalem”, depicting the behind the scenes of the Papal visit last May.

Mr. Imad Dahleh, Mayor of Turan

Dr. Robert M. Danin is senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a senior fellow at the Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. Prior to joining CFR, he headed the Jerusalem mission of the Quartet representative, Tony Blair, from April 2008 until August 2010. A former career State Department official with over twenty years of Middle East experience, Dr. Danin previously served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs with responsibilities for Israeli-Palestinian issues and Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. He also served at the National Security Council for over three years, first as director for Israeli-Palestinian affairs and the Levant and then as acting senior director for Near East and North African affairs. A recipient of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award, Dr. Danin served as a Middle East and Gulf specialist on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and as a State Department senior Middle East political and military analyst. Prior to joining the State Department, he worked as a Jerusalem-based journalist covering Israeli and Palestinian politics. He has served as a thought leader for the World Economic Forum since 2012.

Mr. Yossi Daskal, CEO, Bombardier Israel. After 26 years of military service as an intelligence officer in the IDF, Daskal knew he wants to keep serving his country and decided to dedicate his life to the development of the Israeli public transportation in general and specifically mass rail transportation. In 2003, Daskal founded BT’s subsidiary in Israel and to this day he is president of Bombardier Israel, projects manager and the organization’s coordinator of the railway and aviation sectors in Israel and the Middle East. Bombardier won its first Israeli tender in 2000 and became a pioneer and a co-partner in the tremendous changes in the Israeli Railways and the way the rail transport has been Perceived by the government. Thanks to great government support, Israel enjoys a real rail revolution with a yearly increase of approximately 10% – 15% in the number of train passengers and the numbers keeps rising. Daskal now aspires to continue the process and complete the existing gaps between the Israeli public transportation and the Western world. Daskal is Married, father of four children and has a Master Degree in Political Science from Haifa University.

Mr. Jonathan Davis is Vice President for External Relations and Head of the Raphael Recanati International School at IDC Herzliya. Prior to this position, he was Director of the Division for Development and Public Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and had senior roles in the coordination of social and cultural services, actively participating in the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry during „Operation Solomon” and promoting immigration from the FSU, North America and South Africa. Born in England and raised in the United States, Mr. Davis was educated at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He earned his BA in Jewish History and in International Relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and pursued graduate studies at Tel Aviv University in the economics of developing countries. Davis serves as a reserve officer in the IDF Spokesman’s Office briefing foreign journalists, lecturing on the situation in the Middle East and more. During the Second Lebanon War, Major Jonathan Davis briefed hundreds of foreign journalists and appeared on numerous networks on behalf of the IDF Spokesman’s Office.

MK Aryeh Mahlouf Deri is the leader of the religious party Shas and serves as Minister of the Economy and as Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee. He is also a member of the Security Cabinet. Deri has previously served as Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister without portfolio, Secretary General of the Shas party, and Director General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Amb. Edward P. Djerejian is the director of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. His career in the U.S. Foreign Service spanned the administrations of eight presidents from John F. Kennedy to William J. Clinton. Djerejian is a leading expert on national security, foreign policy, and the complex political, security, economic, religious and ethnic issues of the Middle East and South Asia. He has played key roles in the Arab-Israeli peace process and regional conflict resolution. He is the author of “Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador’s Journey Through the Middle East.” Prior to his nomination as U.S. ambassador to Israel, he served both President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and President Ronald Reagan and President Bush as U.S. ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic. He was special assistant to President Reagan and deputy press secretary for foreign affairs in the White House. Djerejian’s assignments in the Foreign Service included political officer in Beirut, Lebanon, and Casablanca, Morocco; deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan; and consul general in Bordeaux, France. He headed the political section in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow during the critical period in U.S.-Soviet relations marked by the invasion of Afghanistan. He served in the United States Army as a first lieutenant in the Republic of Korea following his graduation from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Georgetown, as well as a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from Middlebury College.

Ms. Gili Drob-Heistein, is the manager of the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center (ICRC) and Executive Director of the Yuval Ne’eman Workshop, both at Tel Aviv University.

Prof. Zvi Eckstein is a professor and dean of both the Arison School of Business and of the Tiomkin School of Economics at IDC Herzliya. Prof. Eckstein served as deputy governor of the Bank of Israel and is an Emeritus Professor at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics of Tel Aviv University. At IDC, he heads the Aaron Economic Policy Institute. He is a research fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). He was Visiting Professor at the Finance Department of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and as The Walras-Bowely Lecturer of the Econometric Society at the 2008 North America Summer Meetings. Prof. Eckstein was a visiting associate professor at the department of economics in Carnegie Mellon University,GSBA, a Visiting associate professor at the department of economics at University of Pittsburgh, a professor at the Department of Economics at Boston University and at the University of Minnesota. Prof. Eckstein served as director for private corporations and as chairman of numerous professional private and public committees. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Tel Aviv University and a doctorate from University of Minnesota.

Col. (Res.) Miri Eisin is a former International Media Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, serving in the Olmert Administration, and a former Israeli Government Spokesperson. She was in the Israeli Defense Forces for twenty years, serving as Deputy Head of the Combat Intelligence Corps, the Assistant to the Director of Military Intelligence and as the intelligence officer in combat units and research departments. Over the last decade, Miri has been one of Israel’s main presenters and has spoken mostly on regional geo-politics, security related issues in the global media, and the different narratives within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Currently, Miri teaches at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. She holds a B.A. from Tel Aviv University in Middle Eastern studies and Political Science, an M.A. from Haifa University in Security studies, and is a graduate of the Israeli National Defense College. She is also a fellow at the Center for International Communication at Bar Ilan University.

Mr. Raanan Eliaz is Co-Founder and Director General, ELNET – The European Leadership Network. He is senior Coordinator for Foreign Affairs at the Israeli National Security Council under Prime Ministers Sharon and Olmert, responsible for policy planning issues concerning Israel’s relations with the European Union and NATO; held positions at the Washington Institute, the Hudson Institute and in AIPAC; and was instrumental in the creation of Europe Near East Forum (ENF) and European Friends of Israel (EFI), Brussels

Prof. (Emeritus) Michael Eppel is Senior Lecturer, Middle East History Department, University of Haifa and Oranim College of Education. His fields of interest include Political and Social History of the Modern Middle East, The history of Iraq and Syria, The Palestine Conflict and the Israeli-Arab Relations, The Inter-Arab Relations and the Middle Eastern international arena, The Kurdish history, The history of Israel, The Soviet and Russian policy in the Middle East, and Philosophy of time and being. He holds a B.A. with distinctions in Middle Eastern History and minors in Philosophy, International Relations and Sociology.  He earned both his M.A. with distinctions and Ph.D. from the University of Tel Aviv.

MK Gilad Erdan was born in Ashkelon, Israel in 1970. He completed his military service with the rank of Captain. An attorney by profession he holds an L.L.B. from Bar Ilan University. He is married and the father of three children. Erdan served as Advisor to MK Ariel Sharon (1996) and Advisor to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and director, department for public petitions of the Prime Minister`s Office (1996-1998). He established and chaired the Lobby for Soldiers Missing in Action and served as chairman of Al Sam, an association that deal with the drug problem. He was also Director General of the Corporation for developing the institutionalization of the Center for Contractors and Builders. A Member of Knesset since 2003, Erdan has been a member of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice, Finance, Economic Affairs, Education, Culture, and Sports, State Control, Labor, Welfare, and Health, House, Foreign Workers, and Drug Abuse Committees, as well as chairing the Economic Affairs Committee. An active lobbyist on such issues as the environment, closing the social gaps, and Ethiopian immigrants, he chaired the Lobby for the War Against Road Accidents. Gilad Erdan was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection in March 2009, serving until March 2013 when he was appointed Minister of Communications (until November 2014) and Home Front Protection (until June 2014). In November 2014 he was appointed Minister of the Interior, serving until May 2015. In May 2015 he was appointed Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Information.

Nir Erez is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience creating and leading technology startups. Nir is currently the CEO and Co-­founder of Moovit. He is also a Co-­founder and Co-­owner of Eyron, a holding group of software companies and a seed investment group. Nir founded and was CEO of ActionBase Corporation, a U.S.­based enterprise software company acquired in 2003. He also founded and was COO of Optimal+, a leading software company that revolutionized testing of semiconductors. Prior to founding Moovit in 2011, Nir led the investment arm of Eyron Group focused on early ­stage software companies. Nir holds a B.Sc. in Physics from Bar ­Ilan University and is a graduate of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Computer Science Academy.

Dr. Reuven Erlich is the Head of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies and head of intelligence studies at the Lauder School of Government at the IDC, Herzliya. He served in the IDF Intelligence Corps, mainly as an analyst specializing in Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian affairs. He retired in 1994 with the rank of colonel after 30 years of service. Between 1985 and 2000 he served as deputy to Ambassador Uri Lubrani, Israel’s government coordinator for Lebanese affairs. Between 1991 and 1993 he was a member of the Israeli delegation to the Israeli-Lebanese peace negotiations in Washington. In 1998 he was awarded a PhD from Tel Aviv University.

Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, Born in 1959, Eshel was drafted into the IDF in 1977. After graduating from the IAF Flight Academy as a fighter pilot in 1979, Eshel flew the A-4 Skyhawk, first out of Etzion and then from Ramon. He also flew the Skyhawk during the 1982 Lebanon War. After serving with the flight academy as a combat instructor, Eshel went on to fly the F-16 out of Ramat David Airbase. Between 1993 and 1995 Eshel commanded 201 Squadron at Tel Nof. Flying the Kurnass 2000 variant of the F-4 Phantom II, Eshel led the squadron during Operation Grapes of Wrath. Between 1997 and 1999 Eshel headed the IAF’s Operations Department. In 1999 Eshel was assigned command of Ramon Airbase. Eshel, the son of Holocaust survivors, in September 2003 led a formation of three IAF F-15 Eagles on a fly-over of the Auschwitz concentration camp

Prof. Amitai Etzioni served as a Professor of Sociology at Columbia University for 20 years after receiving his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1958. During part of that time, he served as the Chairman of the department. He was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in 1978 before serving as a Senior Advisor to the White House from 1979-1980. In 1980, Dr. Etzioni was named the first University Professor at The George Washington University, where he is the Director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies. From 1987-1989, he served as the Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School.

Mr. Eran Etzion, is a former career diplomat and director of the Forum for Strategic Dialogue. He is also founder of the Israel Center for Strategic Futures (ICSF). He joined the Israeli Foreign Service in 1992 and completed its Cadets Course. He went on to become the Advisor to Foreign Ministry Director General, a position he held from 1994 to 1996. In 1996 he was appointed Israel’s Consul to the Pacific Northwest, based in San Francisco. In 2000, he was appointed Chief of Staff of Israel’s National Security Council (NSC), a position he held until 2004. In this capacity, he was involved in a wide array of defense, foreign policy, homeland security and domestic policy issues. He was part of the core planning group for the Gaza Disengagement plan, participated in numerous interagency projects, cabinet meetings, strategic dialogues and international negotiations.  In 2004 he was appointed Deputy Head of NSC, in charge of the Foreign Policy Division. In this capacity, Mr. Etzion was responsible for policy planning and policy coordination processes in the Prime Minister’s Office, on a wide variety of issues. Under Mr. Etzion’s leadership, the foreign policy department of the NSC dealt with policy matters regarding the Palestinian Authority, Syria; Turkey and other key Middle Eastern countries. It was also in charge of policy planning vis a vis the US, the EU, Russia, China and other major international actors. In May 2008, Mr. Etzion was nominated as Head of Policy Planning in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this capacity he is led a first-ever comprehensive „net assessment” of Israel’s foreign policy, as well as the formulation of the Ministry’s annual strategic goals. Mr. Etzion holds a BA (with honors) in Philosophy and Far Eastern studies, and an MBA (Masters in Business Administration).

Col. (res.) Dr. Shmuel Even earned his Sc.D. at the Technion and the University of Haifa. He is an economist and a senior research fellow at INSS. As the owner of Multi Concept (Consultants) Ltd., Dr. Even is involved in business research and consulting in the fields of business, management, and strategy. Previously Dr. Even served as the head of the Tnuva group; as a partner in a banking investment company; and as a financial consultant to leading companies in Israel. Dr. Even retired from the IDF with the rank of colonel, following a long career in the IDF’s Intelligence Branch. Dr. Even’s fields of research at INSS include: the Israeli economy; intellectual prperty; the gas and oil markets; national security strategy; defense expenditures; cyber issues; intelligence; the political process with the Palestinians; and more. Among his recent monographs: The Intelligence Community – Where To? (with Amos Granit, 2009); and Cyber Warfare: Concepts, Trends, and Implications for Israel (with David Siman-Tov, 2011).

Dr Yaacov Falkov, lecturer in history at Tel Aviv University, is an unrivalled expert on Jewish and Soviet resistance in the Russian borderlands. His PhD on The Use of Guerrilla Forces for the Intelligence Purposes of the Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941-1945, examined the intelligence work of Soviet Partisans in the German occupied territories of the USSR and Eastern Europe (Baltic States, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania), and their relationships with local populace and resistance forces. His publications, which to date are in Hebrew, include, ‘To Set the Fascist’s Rear Ablaze: The Input of Guerrilla Warfare in the Soviet Military Effort, 1941-1945’, Maarachot, Vol. 446 (December 2012), pp. 57-63; ‘From Failure in June to Success in December: The Impact of Intelligence on Operation ‘Barbarossa’, Maarachot, Vol. 438 (August 2011), pp. 46-55; ‘Current Research on the Soviet Partisan Movement’, Zmanim. A Historical Quarterly, Vol. 116 (Autumn 2011), pp. 18-31; and ‘Jews as a Nation are Exterminated, as Everywhere Else’. The Murder of the USSR Jews as Reflected in Intelligence Reports Submitted by Soviet Partisans”, DAPIM: Studies on the Holocaust, The Institute for Research of the Holocaust, University of Haifa and The Ghetto Fighters House, Vol. 22 (2008), pp. 239-264. Dr Falkov is fluent in English, Russian, German, Latvian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Polish, Slovakian, Hebrew, and Yiddish. He has an expert knowledge of the archival system of the former Soviet Union and Israel. He will contribute expertise on the emergence and development of Jewish resistance in the Russian borderlands and its often difficult links to non-Jewish resistance.

Adv. Orit Farkash-Hacohen, is currently the Chairman of Israel’s Public Utilities Authority, heading the Israeli most central electricity market regulatory agency. This authority, is responsible for setting electricity Tarrifs for Israeli consumers, for economic regulation and suprevision on the various  particiapnts in the Israeli electricity market, including the Israeli Electricity Comapny (IEC), a state owned monopoly, and other private players. This agency additionaly is responsible for creating the economic regulation by which a sustainable but efficient renewable energy industry will develop in the Israeli energy market. It is also responsible for energy-efficient and demand side arrangements.  Prior to this position, Orit was the General Legal Advisor to this agency. Born in Petah-Tikva and completing her national service at the Sharei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem, Orit graduated from the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She held a legal internship both in a private law office and at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem; and joined the Israeli civil service after working for five years in private practice. Initially she joined the Israeli Antitrust Agency, where she worked mostly as a trial lawyer in various cases of antitrust violations. Then in 2003, she joined the Israeli Electricity Public Utility Agency as a general Legal counsel, helping to set the conditions for future competition in the electricity market, which is taking place now. Orit also holds a Master in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government as a Wexner Israel Fellow.

Mr. Joshua Feingold-Studnik is Head of Business Development at Pythagoras Ltd. He has successful national and international experience in opening new markets, penetrating existing markets and building positive strong customer relationships as well as strategic alliances. He holds an MBA and MA.

Col.(Ret.) Jonathan Fighel served in various operational and field positions in the Intelligence Gathering and Research Department of the Intelligence Corps of the IDF. Since 1999 Jonathan Fighel is a senior research scholar and Director of the Intelligence Assistance for Terrorism Prosecution Department at ICT, IDC Herzliya-Israel. He is an expert on Palestinian terror organization, counter-terrorism, and Middle East affairs. Col. Fighel holds M.A degree in Middle East Studies from Tel Aviv University and combines academic and operational experience in combating terrorism.

Dr. Peter Fitzgerald is the Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Technology and Director of the Cardiovascular Core Analysis Laboratory (CCAL) at Stanford University Medical School. He is an Interventional Cardiologist and has a PhD in Engineering. He is Professor in both the Departments of Medicine and Engineering (by courtesy) at Stanford.  Presently, Dr. Fitzgerald’s laboratory includes 17 postdoctoral fellows and graduate engineering students focusing on state-of-the-art technologies in Cardiovascular Medicine.  He has led or participated in over 175 clinical trials, published over 550 manuscripts/chapters, and lectures worldwide.  He has trained over 150 post-docs in Engineering and Medicine in the past decade.  In addition, he heads the Stanford/Asia MedTech innovation program.

Peter has been principle/founder of twenty-one medical device companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has transitioned fourteen of these start-ups to large medical device companies. He serves on several boards of directors, advised dozens of medical device startups as well as multinational healthcare companies in the design and development of new diagnostic and therapeutic devices in the cardiovascular arena. In 2001, Peter was on the founding team of LVP Capital, a venture firm, focused on medical device and biotechnology start-ups in San Francisco. In 2009, he co-founded TriVentures in Israel, which is a venture fund focused on early-mid stage medical technology and digital healthcare.

Dr. Karnit Flug is the Governor of the Bank of Israel. She received her M.A. (cum laude) in Economics from the Hebrew University in 1980, and her Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University in 1985. In 1984, Dr. Flug joined the IMF as an economist. In 1988, she returned to Israel and joined the Research Department of the Bank of Israel, where she worked and published papers on topics including macroeconomics, the labor market and social policies. In 1994–96, while on leave from the Bank of Israel, Dr. Flug worked at the Inter-American Development Bank as a senior research economist. In 1997, upon return to the Bank of Israel, she was appointed Deputy Director of the Research Department, and in June 2001 she was appointed Director of the Research Department and a member of the Bank’s senior management—a position she held for 10 years. Dr. Flug has served on a number of public and government committees, including the Committee on Increasing Competitiveness in the Economy, the Committee for Social and Economic Change („the Trajtenberg Committee”), the Committee for the Defense Budget („the Brodet Committee”), and the Committee to Study Raising the Retirement Age for Women. Dr. Karnit Flug was appointed Governor of the Bank of Israel by the President of Israel on November 13, 2013.

Mr. Jay Footlik, is the founding president and CEO of Global Policy Initiatives (GPI), a political and policy development consultancy.  Jay served as Special Assistant to President Clinton in the White House, helping build support for a range of domestic and foreign policy issues.  He also served as the president’s liaison to the American Jewish community. A former US Congressional Candidate, Jay has held various senior positions on numerous political campaigns over the past 25 years, including Bill Clinton’s successful campaign for president in 1992; Senior Middle East Advisor for John Kerry’s Presidential campaign in 2004; and Director of Constituency Outreach for Joe Lieberman’s presidential campaign, among others. He is a frequent speaker on topics ranging from US politics and presidential elections to foreign policy and the Middle East and has lectured extensively to audiences throughout the US, Europe, Canada, Israel and Brazil.  He has also appeared on television and radio, including Al Jazeera English, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS and others. Currently, Jay serves on the board of trustees of the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL), the board of directors of the American Friends of the Rabin Center and is a founding board member of SAFE (Securing America’s Future Energy), an organization dedicated to reducing America’s dependency on oil.

Mr. Aaron Fogel is former General Director of the Israeli Ministry of Finance. He is Chairman of the Board of Zim and chaired the boards of both Ness Technologies and Migdal Insurance. He previously served as Chairman of the Advisory Committee to the Bank of Israel and is a former Director of the Economic & Control Division of Clal Israel. He has held senior positions in the Ministry of Finance, including Budget Director and Deputy Budget Director for Economic Affairs. He received an MA in Economics from the Hebrew University.
Mr. Ralf Fücks is the President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation affiliated with the German Green Party. While at university, studying social sciences, economics, and political science, he was active in the student movements in Heidelberg and Bremen. Mr. Fücks joined the Green Party in 1982. In 1985, he was elected to the Bremen state parliament. He served as Co-President for the national Green Party in 1989/90. Ralf Fücks has been a member of the executive board of the Heinrich Böll Foundation since 1996. At the Foundation, he is responsible for the divisions of domestic political education, Europe and North America, German-Israeli-Relations as well as for the foundation’s scholarship program. Mr. Fücks is currently a member of the Green European Foundation. In 1991, he edited the book „Sind die Grünen noch zu retten?” (‘Is There a Future for the Green Party?’). He is a regular contributor to numerous newspapers and political periodicals and co-author to numerous books. He is the author of the book “Intelligent Wachsen – Die grüne Revolution (Intelligent Growth – The Green Revolution)”, which was released on February 25, 2013.

Mr. Moshe Fadlon is the Mayor of the City of Herzliya. He pursued a military career in combat and training units, and reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He served as Director of several departments in the Herzliya municipality. Mr. Fadlon holds a BA in Political Sciences and Government and an MA in Public Administration in Local Authorities from the University of Haifa.

Mr. Avi Gabai served as Minister of Environmental Protection between 2015 and 2016. He was born in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem. During his IDF national service he was in the Intelligence Corps. After leaving the army he began studying for a BA in economics, later gaining an MBA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He worked for four and half years in the Ministry of Finance, before joining Bezeq, initially as an assistant to CEO Ami Erel, later becoming VP of Human Resources. In 2003 he became CEO of Bezeq International, and went on to become CEO of Bezeq in 2006, a position he held until leaving the company in 2013. Prior to the 2015 Knesset elections he was amongst the founders of the new Kulanu party. Despite not being elected to the Knesset, he was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection in the Netanyanu government. On 27 May 2016, he submitted his resignation from the government in protest at the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as Ministry of Defense. Gabai lives in Tel Aviv, and is married with three children.

MK Maj. Gen. (res.) Yoav Galant is Minister of Construction. Galant began his military career in 1977 as a naval commando. He later moved into the ground forces and in 1993 took up command of the Menashe (Jenin) Brigade of the West Bank Division. After serving for three years as commander of the 13th Flotilla, Galant moved up to command the Gaza Division. In 2001 he became the Chief of Staff of the GOC Army Headquarters. Galant attained the rank of a major general when he became the Military Secretary of the Prime Minister in 2002 and in 2005, Galant was appointed as commander of the Southern Command. After retiring from army service Galant joined the new Kulanu party in January 2015 and was elected to the Knesset. In May 2015 he was appointed Minister of Construction.

Amb. Dan Gillerman, Fmr. Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations (2003-2008). Dan Gillerman was Israel’s 13th Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He was appointed in July 2002 and assumed his post on January 1, 2003, serving through 2008.  Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Gillerman had been the CEO of Nagum Ltd. and Agrotechnology Ltd. Since 1985, he has served as Chairman of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce. He has also served as a member of the board of the First International Bank of Israel, a Director of Bank Leumi and the Central Bank of Israel, as well as numerous other boards of private and public entities. Ambassador Gillerman has also served on the Prime Minister’s National Economic and Social Council, the President’s Committee of the Coordinating Council of Israel’s Economic Organizations, and Chairman of the Israel-British Business Council, as well as being a member of the executive board of the ICC (The International Chamber of Commerce – The World Business Organization).Ambassador Gillerman was was educated at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He and his wife Janice have two children and three grandchildren.

MK Zehava Galon is the Chairwoman of Meretz party. Galon was elected to the Knesset in 1999, and served as chairwoman of the Knesset committee for the struggle against trafficking of women. Galon also served as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense committee, the Law and Constitution committee, the committee for Women’s Rights and the Knesset committee. Prior to her election to the Knesset, Galon was co-founder and CEO of the B’Tzelem organization. Gal-On holds a B.Ed. in Special Education and Language, an MA degree in the Philosophy of Education from the Hebrew University, and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Gender Studies from Bar Ilan University. In 2014, Gal-on received the prestigious “Knight of Quality Government” recognition by the Movement for Quality of the Government.

Prof. Boaz Ganor is the Dean and the Ronald Lauder Chair for Counter-Terrorism at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy, as well as the Founder and Executive Director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), at IDC, Herzliya. Prof. Ganor serves as the Founding President of the International Academic Counter-Terrorism Community (ICTAC). Prof. Ganor previously held positions at Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley, the Hoover Institution (Koret Distinguished Visiting Fellow), the Monterey Institute of International Studies, the National Memorial for the Prevention of Terrorism, Hebrew University and Bar Ilan University. He was also a member of the International Advisory Team of the Manhattan Institute (CTCT) to the New York Police Department (NYPD). Prof. Ganor is a member of the International Advisory Council of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS) in Singapore and a co-founder of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR). Prof. Ganor has been a Member of the Executive Committee of the Academic Advisory to the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy (ISGAP). Prof. Ganor has published numerous articles, edited several books and contributed chapters on terrorism and counter-terrorism for many publications. He obtained his B.A. in Political Sciences from the Hebrew University, his M.A. in Political Studies from Tel Aviv University  and his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University.

Gil Golan leads General Motors’ (GM) Advanced Technical Center Israel. Gil joined GM in 1999 and has severed in several leading management positions in the corporation including: Managing Director of the GM-UMIT JV and Director of Global Strategy for R&D Labs based in Michigan. In 2008, Gil returned to Israel and established Advanced Technical Center Israel (ATCI) as a new GM entity. The ATCI site incorporates some of the world’s best talent (scientists and engineers) who lead work on cutting edge non-traditional automotive technologies such as: Autonomous Vehicles, Connectivity, Infotainment, User Experience and Cybersecurity. Gil is also a member of GM Ventures team, with oversight responsibilities for investment opportunities in the Israeli ecosystem. Additionally, the Israeli site also takes part in supporting GM’s procurement from an Israeli supply base (local portfolio size ~ $100M/yr). Golan received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School – executive education as well as GM-Stanford University, Graduate Business School program.

Prof. Galia Golan is the founder and former head of the MA Specialization in Diplomacy and Conflict Studies at IDC Herzliya She specializes in international crises, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and current political issues. Prof. Golan is the recipient of the Israel Political Science Association Award for Lifetime Achievement. A specialist on the foreign policy of the former, she was the chairperson of the Department of Political Science, the Darwin Professor of Soviet and East European Studies, and the chairperson of the Lafer Center for Women’s Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has been a consultant to the IDF and the Foreign Ministry, and she is the author of nine books in the area of international relations and the Middle East. Prof. Golan is a member of the editorial board of the Israel Journal of Foreign Policy, the International Feminist Journal of Politics, and the Journal of Communist and Post-Communist Studies.

Amb. Dore Gold  is the Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was born in the United States. He holds a BA and MA in Political Science from Columbia University, as well as a PhD in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies. He became an Israeli citizen in 1980 and served in the IDF. He currently resides in Jerusalem, and is married with two children. From 1985 to 1996 Gold was a senior research associate at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. He was an advisor to the Israeli delegation at the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991, and from June 1996 to June 1997 served as Foreign Policy Adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He was a member of the Israeli delegation at the 1998 Wye River negotiations between Israel and the PLO, and served as an advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (2001-2003), accompanying him to Washington and to the 2003 Aqaba Summit. From 1997 to 1999, Dore Gold served as the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. Since 2000 Gold has served as president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. In June 2015, Ambassador Gold was appointed Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Dr. Ori Goldberg is a research Fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS), IDC Herzliya and lecturer at Israeli’s National Defense College. Dr. Ori Goldberg’s research focuses on the interaction between religious faith and political behavior. His specialty is Shi’a Islam and Iran. His doctoral dissertation, published by Routledge in 2011 (Shi’i Theology in Iran: The Challenge of Religious Experience), dealt with the role of religious experience in the creation of revolutionary Shi’i discourse in Iran. Dr. Goldberg is the author of Lachshov Shi’it (Thinking Shi’a), published as part of IDF Radio’s „Broadcast University” series. He is the co-author (with Shaul Mishal) of Understanding Shiite Leadership: The Art of the Middle Ground in Iran and Lebanon (Cambridge University Press, 2013).  Dr. Goldberg is the recipient of many academic prizes, including the Dan David Prize and the Wolff scholarship. He has served as a research fellow in several prominent institutions and foundations abroad, including Yale University, the Mellon Foundation, the Volkswagen Stiftung and others. He has served as a senior research fellow at the Dado Center for Interdisciplinary Military Though (IDF) and is a faculty member of the Israeli National Defense College. Dr. Goldberg teaches and has taught at the IDC, Tel Aviv University, and other institutions.

Dr. Nimrod Goren is the Founder and Head of Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies and a Teaching Fellow in Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and Political Psychology from the Hebrew University, and his dissertation topic was „The role of external incentives in promoting peace: the cases of Israel and Turkey”. After completing his doctorate, Dr. Goren was selected to take part in Public Policy training at Syracuse University as the Israeli participant in the U.S. State Department’s Fulbright Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program. Dr. Goren was the former Executive Director of the Young Israeli Forum for Cooperation (YIFC), and in this capacity he was awarded the 2009 Victor J. Goldberg IIE Prize for Peace in the Middle East. In addition, Dr. Goren served as a consultant in a Northern Ireland conflict resolution process, and has worked at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, The Nehemia Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies, and at The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace.

Mr. Gidi Grinstein is the Founder and President of The Reut Institute, a Tel-Aviv based nonprofit and nonpartisan institution, described by Tom Friedman of the New York Times as „Israel’s premier strategy group”. Gidi’s first book Flexigidity: The Invisible Hand of Jewish Adaptability was published in 2013. Gidi names his biggest achievements in fifteen years of public service to be the following: Reut, that he founded in 2004 and developed to become a leading force in Israel; the ISRAEL 15 Vision, which he co-authored in 1998 and has promoted since, which became a formal national objective in 2010; the cadre of leaders that Reut has provided with a formative personal and professional experience; his role in designing the Birthright Israel program between 1995-99; and his contribution to the reform of Israel’s electoral system.Reut, which Gidi conceived of, established and leads, aspires to be the most effective non-governmental institution in advancing Israel’s societal innovation and ensuring Israel’s security and prosperity within the framework of 21st Century Zionism. Its mission is to impact the future of Israel and the Jewish World, and make a significant contribution to humanity within the spirit and value of Tikkun Olam. In 2012, Reut had a staff of 28, working in two taskforces in the areas of national security and economic development, with a 2.2 million USD budget funded by nearly 100 private donors and foundations from Israel and the Jewish world.

Dr. Sky Gross is Director of Social Science and Humanities at the Israeli Ministry of Science, Technology and Space. Sky has a BA in Business Administration and Sociology-Anthropology (Summa cum Laude), An MA degree in History (Magna cum Laude) and a PhD in Sociology. Now in her fourth postdoctoral year (Sociology, Medical Ethics, End-of-Life studies, Health-Systems Management in three major universities), she has chosen to complete an additional BA in Psychology, with a view towards career opportunities outside the ivory tower. Sky Gross is fluent in both qualitative and quantitative methods, and in a wide range of disciplinary outlooks. She has experience working in several languages and in different research environments (including the EU Commission and UNESCO). Her academic career provided her with ample research and teaching opportunities in fields associated with the professional, organizational, social, and ethical aspects of medicine, psychiatry and the neurosciences. Among the courses she has taught: academic writing, anthropology and sociology of psychiatry and medicine, medical ethics and science and technology studies (STS).

Mr. Philippe Guez is Managing Director, Rothschild Group. He was born in Tunisia in 1960. He then moved to France in 1967. He obtained his Baccalaureate in 1979 from the Lycée Carnot in Paris. Philippe lived in Israel between 1979 to 1986 and graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with a degree in Economics, Accounting and Finance. He also attained an MBA in Finance from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prior to joining Rothschild in 2011, Philippe worked for Warburg and Deutsche Bank for more than 15 years. He held different management responsibilities in equity, equity capital markets and corporate finance. During his last 5 years at Deutsche Bank, Philippe was the Head of Investment Banking in Paris.  Additionally, Philippe is active in the Jewish community in France with several positions.  He is a member of the Executive Committee of AUJF (the Keren Hayesod arm in France) and is a Board Member at the CCFI (France – Israel Chamber of Commerce).  He was appointed at the head of the council of business leaders France-Israel at Medef International

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen is the former Commander of the IDF Northern Corp. He served in the IDF for 42 years, commanding troops in battle on the Egyptian and Syrian fronts. When he retired, he was the last serving IDF officer to have fought in the Yom Kippur War. He was the last active IDF commander to have fought against Syrian troops on Syrian soil; and was the only active IDF commander to have battled the Egyptians. Hacohen served as commander of the IDF Military Colleges and commander of the Northern Corps. For the past decade, he has been in charge of designing the IDF’s major war games exercises. He also commanded over Israel’s disengagement from Gaza. Last year he published What’s National in National Security (Hebrew: Ministry of Defense Publishing House), which is a discourse on values and vision in the crafting of national security doctrine.

Mr. Benjamin Haddad is a research fellow at Hudson Institute specializing in European and transatlantic affairs. A lecturer in international affairs at Sciences Po Paris, Haddad has briefed and advised senior French leaders on foreign policy issues. Haddad’s articles have appeared in publications that include Politique Etrangère, The American Interest, L’Opinion, Global Policy, and Atlantico. He holds an MA in international security from Sciences Po Paris and an MA in economics from HEC.

Prof. Su Hao is a professor in the Department of Diplomacy at the China Foreign Affairs University. He was chairman of Diplomacy Department, director of China’s Foreign Relations Section, general secretary of East Asian Studies Center, and director of Center for Asia-Pacific Studies , and a founding director of Center for Strategic and Conflict Management within this university. He is also affiliated with some institutions in China, such as, president of Beijing Geopolitical Strategy and Development Association, members of Chinese Committee for Council of Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP) and Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC); board members of China Association of Arms Control and Disarmament, Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, China Association of Asia-Pacific Studies, China Association of Asian-African Development Exchange, and China Association of China-ASEAN. He got his B.A. in history and M. A. in international relations from Beijing Normal University and Ph. D. in international relations from China Foreign Affairs University. He took his advanced study in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 1993-1995; and was a Fulbright scholar in Institute of War and Peace Studies of Columbia University, and in Institute of East Asia of University of California at Berkeley in 2001-2002; and a guest professor in Department of Peace and Conflict Studies of Uppsala University in Sweden in 2004.

The Honorable Jane Harman is President of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and is a former Member of the US House of Representatives. Harmen represented the aerospace center of California during nine terms in Congress, she served on all the major security committees: six years on Armed Services, eight years on Intelligence, and eight on Homeland Security.  During her long public career, Harman has been recognized as a national expert at the nexus of security and public policy issues, and has received numerous awards for distinguished service. She is a member of the Defense Policy Board, the State Department Foreign Policy Board, and the Homeland Security Advisory Committee.  She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission and the Advisory Board of the Munich Security Conference. Harman is a Trustee of the Aspen Institute and the University of Southern California.  She is also a member of the Presidential Debates Commission. Harman is a magna cum laude graduate of Smith College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and Harvard Law School.  Prior to serving in Congress, she was Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, Deputy Cabinet Secretary to President Jimmy Carter, Special Counsel to the Department of Defense, and in private law practice. She has four adult children and six grandchildren.

Mr. Ohad Hemo is the correspondent for Palestinian Affairs with Israeli Channel 2 News. He served in the same positions with Channel 1 and Channel 10. He earned his MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

MK Isaac Herzog is Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of the Labor Party and heads the joint parliamentary list of „Zionist Union” for which he contested the 2015 legislative elections. He has previously served as Government Secretary, Minister of Welfare and Social Services, Minister of the Diaspora and the Fight Against Anti-Semitism, Minister of Housing and Minister of Tourism. MK Herzog studied Law at Tel Aviv University, Cornell University and New York University. Prior to his election to the Knesset, Herzog worked at a law firm founded by his father, Herzog, Fox & Ne’eman. Herzog is one of the few Knesset members who continue to serve in the military reserve (with the rank of Major).

Mr. Larry J. Hochberg is Co-Founder and Chairman of Friends of ELNET (FELNET). He is the former Chairman, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) as well as former member of the policy-making Board of Directors at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He is an international philanthropist and supporter of numerous initiatives that support Israel primarily in Europe and the U.S. He is also the founder, CEO and Chairman of Sportmart INC., acquired by Sports Authority and Co-Founder, Children’s Bargain Town, now part of Toys „R” Us

Mr. Malcolm Hoenline is the Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the coordinating body on international and national concerns for 52 national Jewish organizations. Previously, he served as the founding Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater New York, the central coordinating agency for Jewish organizations in the metropolitan New York area. Prior to that, he was the founding Executive Director of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. Malcolm Hoenlein received his B.A. in Political Science from Temple University and completed his Masters degree and doctoral course work from the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of International Relations. A National Defense Fellow in the University’s Near East Center, Mr. Hoenlein taught International Relations in the Political Science Department and served as a Middle East specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. In addition, he served on the editorial staff of ORBIS, the Journal of International Affairs. Mr. Hoenlein serves as an advisor to many public officials and is frequently consulted on public policy issues. He appears regularly in the media.

Adv. David J. Hoffa is Counsel to the American law firm of Robbins Geller Rudman and Dowd LLP and Board member of the Yitzhak Rabin Foundation. Hoffa is based in Michigan and works out of the Firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Since 2006, he has been serving as a liaison to over 110 institutional investors in portfolio monitoring, securities litigation and claims filing matters. His practice focuses on providing a variety of legal and consulting services to U.S. state and municipal employee retirement systems and single and multi-employer U.S. Taft-Hartley benefit funds. In addition to serving as a leader on the Firm’s Israel Institutional Investor Outreach Team, Hoffa also serves as a member of the Firm’s lead plaintiff advisory team, and advises public and multi-employer pension funds around the country on issues related to fiduciary responsibility, legislative and regulatory updates, and “best practices” in the corporate governance of publicly traded companies.

Ms. Valerie Hoffenberg is President of Connecting Leaders Club and the President and Co-Founder of the Israeli Connecting Leaders Club. Ms. Hoffenberg served as Director of the American Jewish Committee in France between 2002 and 2009. Her political career started when she was appointed in 2009 by the former president of France Nicolas Sarkozy as a French special envoy for the economic development in the Middle East Process. Ms. Hoffenberg was elected as counsellor of Paris, a position she held until 2014, and as national secretary of the UMP in charge of the relations with international political parties and think tanks. Since 2013, she has put aside her political career. She is currently the CEO of V conferences, a communication and events organisation company. She held a famous monthly economic event in cooperation with a French newspaper called “Les Matins de l’Economie”. In addition to these activities, she is the CEO of a consulting company for individuals and entrepreneurs.

Dr. Ronen Hoffman is the organizer of the 16^th annual Herzliya Conference of the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS). He was a Yesh Atid MK in the 19th Knesset. Prior to joining Yesh Atid, he was a lecturer of Government, Political Psychology and Persuasive Communications at IDC Herzliya. Hoffman holds degrees in Science, Political Science and Philosophy from Tel Aviv University, and a doctorate in Political Negotiations. He served on the faculty at Kings College of London where he taught War Studies.  Hoffman is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Policy, Advocacy, and Political Struggle. He is also a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He led the way to governance reform by reducing the government to 18 ministers and a maximum of four deputy ministers, in order to maximize the government’s cost effectiveness. During this process, he also abolished the corrupt institution of a “minister without a portfolio,” and raised the threshold of the percentage of votes needed to legitimize a party and allow them to enter into Knesset (current threshold: 3.25%).  Dr. Hoffman is one of the founders, directors and a former CEO of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the IDC Herzliya, which advises government officials both in Israel and abroad on anti-terrorism policies.

Mr. Yossie Hollander is the Chairman of the Israeli Institute for Economic Planning and is a co-founder of the Fuel Freedom Foundation, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to reducing the cost of vehicles by opening the market to cheaper fuel choices. He is a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist with more than 40 years of experience building successful software companies. In addition, he is the founder and chairman of Our Energy Policy Foundation, which is dedicated to creating an open dialogue and consensus on U.S. energy policy. Mr. Hollander serves on the executive board and management committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science. He is a member of several Boards of Councilors of USC and a member of the advisory board of the Cornell University Center for a Sustainable Future.

Mr. Koby Huberman is founder of ‘Israel Yozemet’ (The Israel Initiative). He is an executive leader of large international hi-tech organizations with over 27 years of experience in business development, strategic planning, M&A, strategic alliances, sales and marketing, focusing on thought leadership in hi-tech and in non-profit organizations. He is an active strategy advisor to CEOs committed to transformational growth strategies – in high-tech (telecom, analytic software, semiconductor), agro-tech and professional services companies.  Co-author of „Strategy, Leadership and the Soul”, with Jennifer Sertl of Rochester NY, to be published on June 10, 2010 by Triarchy Press Ltd. He has Focused on building bridges between Jews and Arabs in Israel and the Middle-East. He was co-author of the IPI – The Israeli Peace Initiative (www.israelipeaceinitiative.com) – a proposal for a regional peace initiative, based on the Arab Peace Initiative (2002).
Governor Michael Dale „Mike” Huckabee hails from Hope, Arkansas where he served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas. He earned a BA in religion from Ouachita Baptist University and attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and is an ordained Southern Baptist minister. In 1992, Huckabee turned his attention to politics, running unsuccessfully for United States Senator. The following year, he ran for Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas in a special election and won. Huckabee served as lieutenant governor from 1993-1996 until then-Governor Jim Guy Tucker resigned. Huckabee was sworn in as Governor of Arkansas in 1996, and remained in that post until 2007 when he was term limited. Upon leaving office, Huckabee was the third-longest serving governor in Arkansas history. During his tenure, he served as chairman of the National Governors Association from 2005 to 2006. He hosted the Fox News Channel talk show Huckabee and he was a 2008 and 2016 Republican candidate for United States President. In addition to his political career, Huckabee is a public speaker, a musician, and the author of a number of best-selling books. He is husband and father of three children.

Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi is a major general in the Israel Defense Forces and the current chief of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate. He earned his BA in Philosophy and Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After, he obtained his M.A. in National Resources Management at the National Defense University, Washington D.C. He also completed the Division Commanders’ Course and the Brigade Commanders’ Course. He has had a long and successful career in the Israeli Defense Forces. Before serving as Chief of Defense Intelligence, he was Commander of the IDF Command and Staff College, Commander of the IDF Galilee Division, Commander of the IDF Operational Division, Commander of the IDF Paratroopers Brigade, Commander of the IDF Menashe Regional Brigade/Judea and Samaria Division (deployed in the Jenin/northern Samaria area), Commander of the IDF Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), Head of the IDF Operational Planning Branch, Served in various positions in the CTU, Served in various combat and command positions in the Paratroopers Brigade. He was born in 1967 in Jerusalem
and is married with four children.

Dr. Orly Idan is lecturer (adjunct) at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya and at Tel Aviv University, teaching psycholinguistics and academic research. Her current research interests are the effect of linguistic cues on regulating emotions within the context of intractable conflicts; resilience sources; salutogenic interventions in conflictual settings. She was a postdoctoral associate at the Salutogenic Research Center and the Conflict Management Program at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, focusing on a sense of coherence-based assessment aimed at evaluating an acute psychiatric in-patient unit’s needs and development of an intervention program. Her PhD dissertation from Tel Aviv University focused on resilience sources, socio-emotional self-perceptions, family climate and hopeful thinking among students

Dr. Liza Ireni-Saban is Deputy Dean and Head of the Government & Leadrship program and Head of the Specialization in Public Policy at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, IDC Herzliya. She received her Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv University. Her research interests include comparative politics, public policy and regulation, ethics, biotechnological policy development and bioethics.

H.E. Jan Jambon is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of Belgium. Jan Jambon was born on 26 April 1960 in Genk. He is a Flemish politician, as well as a member of the N-VA. On 11 October 2014, he became Vice-Premier and Minister of Security and Home Affairs, in charge of State Buildings.

Mr. Meir Javedanfar is the owner and editor of the Iran – Israel Observer. He is a lecturer in the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at IDC Herzliya, where he teaches Contemporary Iranian Politics. He has been a guest lecturer in five languages (Persian, Hebrew, English, Spanish and Portuguese) at events and universities in more than 20 countries. He has briefed officials and academics from more than 30 countries on Iran. Mr. Javedanfar is the co-author of the first biography of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the author of the chapter “The Islamic Republic of Iran: The Ministry of Information and Security (VAVAK)” for the book “PSI Handbook of Global Security and Intelligence: National Approaches“. Meir serves as an expert to The U.N. Alliance of Civilizations – Global Experts Resource Project. He is also a member and contributor to the Gulf 2000 Middle East Project at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Mr Javedanfar has a Masters in International Relations and Strategic Studies from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. He runs the Middle East Economic and Political Analysis Company (MEEPAS) from its offices in Tel Aviv.

Sir John Jenkins is Executive Director of The International Institute for Strategic Studies – Middle East. He took up the position in January 2015 after a 35 year career in the British Diplomatic Service. He holds a BA (Double First Class Honours) and a PhD from Jesus College, Cambridge.  He also studied at The School of Oriental and African Studies in London (Arabic and Burmese) and through the FCO with the London and Ashridge Business Schools. He is an alumnus of the Salzburg Seminar. He joined the FCO in 1980 and served in Abu Dhabi (1983-86), Malaysia (1989-92) and Kuwait (1995-98) before being appointed Ambassador to Burma (1999-2002).  He was subsequently HM Consul-General, Jerusalem (2003-06), Ambassador to Syria (2006-07), FCO Director for the Middle East and North Africa (2007-09), Ambassador to Iraq (2009-11), Special Representative to the National Transitional Council and subsequently Ambassador to Libya (2011) and Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2012-2015). He took an active part in Sir John Chilcott’s Iraq Inquiry and was asked by the Prime Minister in March 2014 to lead a Policy Review into the Muslim Brotherhood and Political Islamism. Until his departure from the FCO he was the government’s senior diplomatic Arabist. He was created a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in 1989, a Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 2007 and a Knight Commander of the same order (KCMG) in 2012. He is married to Nancy, who is Principal of the American International High School (AISR), Riyadh

Mr. Bian Kabalan, Mayor of Beit Jann

Dr. Ely Karmon is a Senior Research Scholar at The International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy at IDC Herzliya. He lectures on Terrorism and Guerrilla in Modern Times and CBRN terrorism at the M.A. Counterterrorism Studies program. He served as an advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and participated in UN seminars preparing security at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympics. In addition to his work at the IDC, Dr. Karmon is an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence, in London. He is a member of the International Permanent Observatory on security measures during major events at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute in Turin, Italy, member of the International Institute for Security and Cooperation, in Sofia, Bulgaria. A member of the Atlantic Forum of Israel, he is involved in NATO workshops on terrorism and on the Mediterranean Dialogue, and has been a Fellow at the Proteus Management Group at the Center for Strategic Leadership, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Dr. Karmon holds a B.A. in English and French Culture from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, a License in International Relations from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques and a License in Bantu languages from the Ecole de Langues Orientales, in Paris. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Haifa University.

Mr. Yaakov Katz is The Jerusalem Post’s editor-in-chief. He previously served for close to a decade as the paper’s military reporter and defense analyst. He is the co-author of two books: „Weapon Wizards – How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” and „Israel vs. Iran – The Shadow War”. In 2012-2013 he was a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and is a faculty member at Harvard’s Extension School where he teaches an advanced course in journalism.

MK Yisrael Katz is Minister of Transportation and Road Safety as well as Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy. He holds a B.A. degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is a resident of Moshav Kfar Ahim and is married to Ronit with two children. Yisrael Katz has been a Member of Knesset since 1998, serving as a member of the Knesset Finance, House, Constitution, Law & Justice, Internal Affairs and Environment, and Foreign Affairs & Defense Committees. He has also been a member of the Committee for Public Petitions, the Joint Committee for the Defense Budget, and the Special Committee for Discussion of the Security Service Law. He has also served as President of the Likud Party Convention. Yisrael Katz served as Minsiter of Agriculture and Rural Development from February 2003 until his resignation in January 2006. In March 2009 he was appointed Minister of Transportation and Road Safety, and reappointed in March 2013.  In May 2015, Yisrael Katz was appointed Minister of Transportation and Road Safety and Minister of Intelligence and a member of the Security Cabinet.

Amb. Bilahari Kausikan is currently Ambassador-at-Large in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore, who, according to The New York Times, “is known around Asia and in Washington for his candor”.  From 2001 to May 2013, Mr. Kausikan was, first, the second Permanent Secretary, and subsequently the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He had previously served in a variety of appointments, including as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York and as Ambassador to the Russian Federation.

Mr. Suat Kiniklioğlu, is Executive Director of the Center for Strategic Communication (STRATIM) in Ankara, Turkey. He is also a Senior Mercator Fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington. Mr. Kınıklıoğlu writes weekly columns for Today’s Zaman and Radikal in Turkey. In 2014 he managed the local election campaign of CHP Ankara mayoral candidate Mansur Yavas. From 2007 to 2011, he served as a Member of Parliament. Mr. Kınıklıoğlu was spokesman of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the Turkey-US Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group. He was founding director of the German Marshall Fund office in Ankara. Mr Kınıklıoğlu began his career as liaison officer in the Turkish Air Force in 1986. He earned a B.Sc. in Electronics from the Turkish Air Force Academy, a BA in Political Science from Carleton University in Canada, and a MA in International Relations from Bilkent University in Ankara.

Dr. Henry A. Kissenger severed as the 56th Secretary of State, a position he held until January 20, 1977.  He also served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from January 20, 1969, until November 3, 1975.  In July 1983 he was appointed by President Reagan to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America until it ceased operation in January 1985, and from 1984-1990 he served as a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.  From 1986-1988 he was a member of the Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy of the National Security Council and Defense Department.  He has served as a member of the Defense Policy Board since 2001. At present, Dr. Kissinger is Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm.  He is also a member of the International Council of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; a Counselor to and Trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; an Honorary Governor of the Foreign Policy Association; and an Honor Member of the International Olympic Committee.  Among his other activities, Dr. Kissinger served as a  member of the Board of Directors of ContiGroup Companies, Inc. from 1988-2014 and remains an Advisor to the Board, a position he also holds at American Express Company since 2005, after serving on the Board from 1984.  He is also a Trustee Emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a Director Emeritus of Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.; and a Director of the International Rescue Committee. Among the awards Dr. Kissinger has received have been a Bronze Star from the U.S. Army in 1945; the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973; the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation’s highest civilian award) in 1977; and the Medal of Liberty (given one time to ten foreign-born American leaders) in 1986. Dr. Kissinger is the author of many books. He has also published numerous articles on United States foreign policy, international affairs and diplomatic history.  His column, syndicated by Tribune Media Services International, appears in leading U.S. and international newspapers. Dr. Kissinger is married to the former Nancy Maginnes and is the father of two children by a previous marriage.

Mr. Dan Koller is a member of the Board of Management and Head of Financial Markets and International Banking at Bank Hapoalim. He joined Bank Hapoalim in 1999 and was appointed to the Board of Management in 2008. He was appointed Head of Financial Markets in December 2013 and as of February 2016 his responsibilities also include International Banking. Prior to his current positin, Mr. Koller served as Chief Risk Officer (2008-2012) and Head of International Banking (2012-2013). Before joining the Board, he served as ALM Division Manager (2003-2007).

Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, is with the Pritzker School of Law, Northwestern University and heads the International Law Dept. at Kohelet Policy Forum. Professor Kontorovich’s research spans the fields of constitutional law, international law, and law and economics. He has authored a series of papers that extend „transaction cost” analysis from private law to constitutional law. Prof. Kontorovich is also a leading expert on maritime piracy, universal jurisdiction and international criminal law. His scholarship has been relied on in important foreign relations cases in the federal courts, and historic piracy cases in the U.S. and abroad. He is working on a book, Justice at Sea: Piracy and the Limits of International Criminal Law, under contract with Harvard University Press. Prof. Kontorovich has also written and lectured extensively about the legal aspects of the Israel-Arab conflict. He went to college and law school at the University of Chicago, where he also taught for two years as a visiting professor. After law school, he clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Before coming to Northwestern, he was a professor at George Mason University Law School. During the previous academic year, Prof. Kontorovich was honored with the Bator Award, given by the Federalist Society to leading professors under 40, as well as with a resident membership at Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Mr. Thomas Krens is former Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Krens attended Williams College, Williamstown, MA, initially studying economics and then political science. He received a master’s degree in studio art from the State University of New York (SUNY), Albany in 1971. Krens directed the artist in residence program at Williams between 1976 and 1980. He was named the director of the Museum of Art, Williams College, in 1981. Krens earned an M.B.A. from Yale University and embarked upon a career in major museum management. Krens was appointed director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which oversaw The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, SoHo. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. by his alma mater, SUNY Albany.

Amb. Prof. Daniel C. Kurtzer is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Following a 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Kurtzer retired in 2005 with the rank of Career-Minister. From 2001-2005 he served as the United States Ambassador to Israel and from 1997-2001 as the United States Ambassador to Egypt. He served as a political officer at the American embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv, Deputy Director of the Office of Egyptian Affairs, speechwriter on the Policy Planning Staff, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. Throughout his career, Kurtzer was instrumental in formulating and executing U.S. policy toward the Middle East peace process. He remains active in Track II diplomacy related to the Middle East. Secretary of State John Kerry has appointed Kurtzer to the Secretary’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Governor Chris Christie has appointed Kurtzer to serve on the New Jersey-Israel State Commission. Previously, Kurtzer served as an advisor to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, and as a member of the Advisory Council of the American Bar Association’s Middle East Rule of Law Initiative. In 2007, he was named as the first Commissioner of the professional Israel Baseball League. He is the co-author of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East; co-author of The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011; and editor of Pathways to Peace: America and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Professor Eugene Kandel is President of Stand-Up Nation Central and former Head of the National Economic Council and former Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister. Professor Kandel has a BA and an MA in economics from the Hebrew University and an MBA and doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago. Professor Kandel has worked to shape economic policy in Israel and was a member of central public committees. Professor Kandel served as an adviser to governmental bodies, financial institutions and economic organizations around the world. In this framework, he worked to design regulatory systems, evaluate the profitability of corporations and develop optimal pricing policy, as well as strategic and financial consultation. Professor Kendal also served as a member of Israel’s antitrust court. Professor Kandel is a senior professor at the Hebrew University Business School and Economic Department, and had served as the Chair of the Economic Department. Previously he worked in leading institutions including the University of Chicago, the University of Rochester and Washington University. Prof. Kandel is also a member of the Center for the Study of Rationality in the Hebrew University, a research fellow of the Center for Economic Policy and Research in London and a fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute.

Mr. Shimon Lankri is the Mayor of the city of Akko (Acre). Prior to his election, he was CEO of the Akko Community Centers Network. He has served in numerous public positions, such as Member of the Minister of Education’s Advisory Committee of Government-Funded Culture; Member of the Managing Committee of Warsaw Ghetto Fighters House; Member of the General Council of Mifal Hapayis (State Lottery) and many more. He has also served as Chairman of the Young Generation Committee, Center for Local Authorities; Chairman of the Board Akko Economic Co. Ltd.; Member of the National Planning and Building Commission and more. Mr. Lankri holds an M.A. in Sociology of Education from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Ms. Tal Laor is a former Spokesperson of Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations. She is currently a journalist and a Ph.D. Student in Law and Communications from Bar Ilan University. She is also a lecturer at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, and the Sami Ofer School of Communications at the IDC, Herzliya.

MK Yair Lapid is the Israeli Minister of Finance and chairman of the Yesh Atid Party. Prior to his entry into politics in 2012, he was a journalist, author, TV presenter, writer and news anchor.  The Yesh Atid Party, which he founded, became the second largest party in the current nineteenth Knesset. In September 2013, Mr. Lapid was ranked number 1 on the „The World’s 50 Most Influential Jews” list compiled by the Jerusalem Post.

Ms. Isabelle Laserre is Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Le Figaro, France

Dr. Noam Lemelstrich Latar is the Founding Dean of the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at IDC Herzliya, and Chairman of the Israeli Communication Association. He is a member of the Governing Body of the Israeli Press Council. He pioneered the teaching of new media at Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, and Ben-Gurion University, and is one of the founders of the Tel Aviv University School of Journalism. His current research focuses on data mining and the effect of artificial intelligence on the media. He holds a PhD in Communications from the MIT.

Amb. Ronald S. Lauder is an international philanthropist, Jewish communal leader, investor, art collector, and former public servant, and serves as the President of the World Jewish Congress since June 2007. From 1983 to 1986, Ronald S. Lauder served as United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Affairs. In 1986, he was appointed by President Reagan as US Ambassador to Austria. In 1997, Amb. Lauder was elected as President of the Jewish National Fund and after a successful 10-year tenure became Chairman of the Board. From 1999 until 2001 Amb. Lauder served as Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. In 2008, Amb. Lauder was also elected as President of the World Jewish Restitution Organization. Amb. Lauder also serves as Chairman of the Jewish Heritage Council; Director of the International Board of Governors of the International Society for Yad Vashem; Member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; Member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Member of the Board of Directors of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; Member of the Board of Trustees of the Anti-Defamation League Foundation; Member of the Board of Trustees of The Abraham Fund; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sakharov Archives at Brandeis University and Member of the International Board of Governors of the Tel Aviv Museum. Amb. Lauder has been a major supporter of The Shalem Center since its founding. He is also an Honorary Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art. Amb. Lauder is the founder of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at IDC Herzliya, which was established in 1999

Lt. Col. (res.) Avital Leibovich is the Director of AJC Jerusalem. Her distinguished career spans over 20 years in a wide range of senior media and public relations positions within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), where she served as the face of the IDF to the international community during critical events such as the ‘Cast Lead’ and ‘ Pillar of Defense’ operations, Gilad Shalit’s return and many others. Immediately before coming to AJC, Lt. Col. Leibovich served as Head of the Interactive Media Branch of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, a branch which she was uniquely positioned to create as a response to the rapidly growing influence of social networks and internet platforms in the media world. Previously, Lt. Col. Leibovich had additionally held the position of Head of the Foreign Press Branch, where she established strong connections between the IDF and the International Media, working with audiences worldwide and appearing in thousands of media interviews. Lt. Col. Leibovich received a BA in English Literature and Political Science from Bar Ilan University and an MA in International Relations from University of Haifa, as well as a diploma in Spokesmanship, Communications, and Public Relations from the Department of Foreign Affairs at Bar Ilan University.

Ms. Shani Leitman is a correspondent at The Marker-Haaretz.

Dr. Zeev Lerer is the former Head of Research to the IDF Chief of Staff Advisor on Gender Issues. He is a social psychologist with unique focus on intra-organizational negotiations. In 2009 he retired as a Colonel from the Israeli Defense Forces after a long and intensive career where he served in a number of key positions at the behavioral science department of the IDF.  He established the academic magazine titled: “Military Psychology”. Dr. Lehrer Specializes in the psychology of combat and crisis and acts as the head of the Sociology of the Military at the Israeli Sociological Association. Dr. Lerar is a graduate of Tel-Aviv University (B.A and Ph.D) and Bar-Ilan.

Col. (res.) Ronit Lev, is the Assistant to Fmr Minister of Defense, Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon. A retired Colonel, she held senior positions in the General Staff as Secretary of the Supreme Command and other personnel positions.

Ambassador Itzhak Levanon served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary for the State of Israel to the Arab Republic of Egypt from 2009-2011. Mr. Levanon first entered the field of public service in 1969 as an assistant for Arab Affairs to Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek. He joined the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1972 and served in various positions to the UN, Venezuela, Colombia, France and Canada. In 1994, he was a member of the Israeli delegation at the peace talks in Washington D.C. following the Madrid Conference for Peace. Later that year, he was appointed Consul General of Israel to New England; a position he held until 2002. Upon his return to Israel, Ambassador Levanon was made Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Nations in Geneva. Subsequently, he became spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Arab World. Itzhak Levanon studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, McGill University and the American University of Beirut and hold Certificates of Honor from, among others, Massachusetts Congress, B’nai Brith International, Hadassah International and more.

Mr. Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French philosopher and one of the most esteemed and bestselling writers in Europe. He is the author of over 30 books, including works of philosophy, fiction, and biography, as well as several documentary films. His latest book, L’Esprit du judaïsme, appeared in France in February 2016. An English translation, The Spirit of Judaism, will be published by Random House in early 2017. Lévy’s play, “Hotel Europe,” premiered in Sarajevo on June 27, 2014, and in Paris on September 9. The play is a cry of alarm about the crisis facing the European project and the dream behind it. Works available in English include American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville, a New York Times bestseller in 2006; Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism (2008); and, with Michel Houellebecq, Public Enemies: Dueling Writers Take on Each Other and the World (2011).

Prof. Varda Liberman is one of the founders of the IDC and served as the Vice Dean of The Arison School of Business. She is the head of Judgment and Decision Making area and the director of the Mathematical and Statistical studies at the IDC. Prof. Liberman served as an associate researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University and at Stanford University where she continues to serve as a visiting researcher every summer. Her research interest deals with probabilistic judgments and decision making in which she co-authored the book Critical Thinking with the late Amos Tversky. As an expert on decision making, Prof. Liberman gives lectures and executive training courses for Israeli organizations such as banks, investment companies and the Israel Defense.

Amb. Dr. Alon Liel served for almost 30 years in the Israeli Foreign Service in different positions, among them: Ambassador to South Africa, Consul General in the south-east of the USA and Charge D’affairs (head of mission) in Turkey. He also served as Director General of the Ministry of Economy and Planning (1994-1997) and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2000-2001). Liel holds a Ph.D in International Relations from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Amb. Hua Liming was previously the Chinese Ambassador to Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Netherlands, and the Chinese Permanent Representative to the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons from 1991 to 2001. He was conferred Medal of Independence by the President of the UAE, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in 1998. Ambassador Hua was born in Shanghai in 1939. After graduating from Beijing Foreign Languages Institute (now known as Beijing Foreign Studies University) and Peking University, majoring in English and Persian respectively, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of China in 1963. Amb. Hua was the Persian interpreter of many Chinese ex-state leaders, including Zhou En-lai, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. Amb. Hua has been Distinguished Research Fellow at CIIS since 2006.

Mr. Yoav Limor is an Israeli journalist and defense/military commentator who worked with several printed and broadcast media outlets. Since 2012, he is the anchor of a daily morning TV show for Channel 2. He published a book on the Second Lebanon War and holds a degree in Law.

Dr. Gallia Lindenstrauss is a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies. She specializes in Turkish foreign policy. Her additional research interests are ethnic conflicts, Azerbaijan’s foreign policy, the Cyprus issue, and the Kurds. Her commentaries and op-eds have appeared in all of the Israeli major media outlets, as well as in international outlets such asNational Interest, Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey Analyst and Insight Turkey. Dr. Lindenstrauss, who completed her Ph.D. in the Department of International Relations at Hebrew University, lectures at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. She formerly lectured at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Davis Institute for International Relations at Hebrew University.

Dr. Shlomit Lir, obtained her PhD from Bar-Ilan University during which she researched cyber-activism in the program on Gender Studies. As a social feminist environmental activist dedicated to creating social change in Israel and bringing new ideas to public attention, Shlomit was a nominee of the Green Party for the 18th Knesset. Shlomit regularly writes on issues concerning social justice and Mizrahi feminist thinking, and is the editor of publications such as To My Sister, Mizrahi and Feminist Politics. In recent years Shlomit has been the driving force behind a number of important social, feminist and environmental projects such as The Internet as a Platform for a Feminist Revolution Convention at the Bar Ilan University, and an eco-feminist project designed to re-think environmental concerns from a feminist viewpoint. A trained IT professional, Shlomit has built and designed various social internet websites including leading feminist website: A Site of Your Own. Shlomit was manager of the Woman for Presidency campaign, which promoted the election of a woman for the Israeli presidency. She was an active lobbyist in promoting the amendment to Israeli law for equal rights for women and dealt with just representation of women in Israel’s public policy positions.

MK Yakov Litzman is the Minister of Health. He served as Director of the Hassidic Beit Yaakov in Jerusalem and initiated the project to set up Haredi residential neighborhoods in Ashdod, Tel Aviv, Arad, and Beit Shemesh. He is married and the father of three children. A Member of Knesset since 1999, he served as Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee. He also served as a member of the State Control, Internal Affairs and Environment, Science and Technology, and Labor, Welfare, and Health Committees. He also served as chairman of his party’s parliamentary group in the Knesset. In April 2009 Yakov Litzman was appointed Deputy Minister of Health, serving until February 2013. In May 2015 he was again appointed Deputy Minister of Health and in September 2015 was sworn in as Minister of Health.

Ms. Eti Livni is a practicing attorney specializing in business and intellectual property law, and a mediator and strategic counselor. She lectures and participates in international conferences and Jewish organizations and is a board member of some of Israel’s largest industrial companies as well as governmental organizations. Ms. Livni is a member of the managing team of a Jewish nongovernmental organization in peace, negotiations, women, and culture. While in the Knesset, Ms. Livni served as the deputy speaker and chair of the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women. She was a member of the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, as well as a member of the Committee on the Status of Women, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of the Child. During the summer of 2005, Ms. Livni was instrumental in passing the legislation that mandates women’s inclusion in peace negotiations and foreign and security policymaking in Israel. Following her career as a public servant, she has actively promoted a non-violent solution to the Middle East conflict through many NGOs and as a member of the International Women’s Commissionfor a just and sustainable Palestinian-Israeli peace. In 2004, Ms. Livni was a fellow at the Women in Public Policy Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She holds a bachelor of law degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

MK Tzipi Livni is a Member of the Knesset for the Zionist Union party. Livni served as a minister in the cabinets of Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert from 2001 to 2009, most notably as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009, during which she led peace talks with the Palestinians. She then served as Leader of the Opposition. As leader of the liberal Hatnuahparty she founded, Livni served as Minister of Justice in Benjamin Netanyahu’s third government. She also led the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, was charged with overseeing Israel’s diplomatic initiatives with the United States and Europe, and was chief negotiator in peace negotiations. In December 2014, she teamed up with Labor Party chief and opposition leader Isaac Herzog to form a joint list, the Zionist Union, to contest Israel’s 2015 elections. She is a graduate ofBar-Ilan University‘s Faculty of Law.

Dr. Esther Lopatin is the Director of the Center for European Studies at the IDC Herzliya. From 2005 until 2010, she was a Professorial Lecturer at George Washington University’s Political Science Department, teaching courses on EU politics and International Relations Theory. She was also a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown University, and prior to her graduation she worked as a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington DC, where she provided policy advice on immigration and border security issues.  Recently, Dr. Lopatin was a Visiting Professor at Sciences Po Lille, France, where she taught a course on EU Immigration and Asylum Policy. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich in 2004 for which she obtained a fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service.

Mr. Rom Lotan, Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy, IDC Herzliya

Dr. Edward N. Luttwak is a CSIS senior associate and has served as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force, and a number of allied governments as well as international corporations and financial institutions. He is a frequent lecturer at universities and military colleges in the United States and abroad and has testified before several congressional committees and presidential commissions. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Bath (United Kingdom). Luttwak is the author of numerous articles and several books, including The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire (John Hopkins, 1976–2005); Turbo-Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy (HarperCollins, 1999); The Endangered American Dream (Simon & Schuster, 1993); and Coup d’etat (Harvard, 1985), which has been published in 14 languages. His new edition of Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace (Harvard, 2001) has been published in Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Estonian, and Turkish as well as English editions. Luttwak serves on the editorial board of theWashington Quarterly and Geopolitique (Paris). He received his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University, and he speaks French, Italian, and Spanish among other languages.

Col. (res.) Pesach Malovany is a former senior researcher at the IDF Intelligence Directorate with an expertise on Iraq. He recently published a book on the Iraqi military.

Dr. Yossi Mann is a researcher in IPS center and the Department of Middle Eastern studies in Bar-Ilan University. Over the past few years, he has focused on the commodities market and on the renewable energy industry in EU countries. He now deals mainly with issues related to the oil and gas industries in the Middle East. He spend long period of time at the Universities of Gdansk and Szczecin in Poland and also attended Oxford University for post-doctoral research

Dr. Shavit Matias is formerly the Deputy Attorney General of Israel for International Affairs. Currently, she is Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS), IDC Herzliya and a Research Fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. At the Hoover Institution, she is a member of the Jean Perkins Task Force on National Security and Law. During her government career, she headed inter-ministerial committees examining and advising on questions of law, policy, and national security. Dr. Matias represented the State of Israel in UN committees and was a commissioner at the United Nations Commission for International Trade Law. She participated in numerous bilateral and multilateral negotiations, including trade matters with the EU, joining the OECD, and more. Dr. Matias formed and headed the Department for International Agreements and International Litigation. Since 1992, Matias has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, the Hebrew University, Tel-Aviv University, and Stanford University. She is a recipient of the 2008 Award from Georgetown University Law Center for outstanding achievements in the profession. She received her LLB from Tel-Aviv University, her LLM from Georgetown University, and her doctorate from George Washington University.

Prof. Yossi Matias is Vice President of Engineering at Google’s Search and he is also the founder and Managing Director of Google R&D Center in Israel. He is also the executive lead for Google’s university research program across Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and was responsible for technology innovation in YouTube and Data Analytics across EMEA. He is the executive lead and founder of Google’s Campus Tel Aviv. Prof. Matias is also on the Computer Science faculty of Tel Aviv University, and formerly a research scientist at Bell Laboratories and a visiting professor at Stanford. Matias has been extensively involved in the high-tech industry in leadership roles as an entrepreneur and executive. Matias has authored over 100 scientific and technological research papers and is the inventor of over 30 patents. He earned his PhD (with distinction) from Tel Aviv University and his MSc (with excellence) from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He served in the IDF as an Air Force pilot. Matias is a recipient of the 2005 ACM-EATCS Gödel prize in Computer Science. His work was instrumental in setting up a scientific field of algorithms for big data, and technologies now extensively used in industries involving big data. In 2009 he was elected an ACM Fellow.

Dr. Doron Matza is a well-known researcher on Palestinian Affairs and former senior official with the Prime Minister’s Office . He served in the Prime Minister Office in the Research Division for Strategy and Policy as well as was manager in the Research Department in the Palestinian Issue and in the Israeli Society Field.  He is a member in Study Group (‘HCVRUTA’) at the Hebrew University for the Palestinian Minority Issue. He lectures and presents on The Rule of the Arab Intellectuals in the Construction of the Palestinian Discourse – The Case of the Arab Vision Documents; The Political Discourse of the Israeli Institution Towards the Palestinian Minority – The Third Decade; Oriental Discourse – The Rule of the Adviser for Arab Affairs in Construction of the Hegemonic Israeli Discourse Towards the Palestinian Minority.

Mr. Robert McNally is the founder and President of The Rapidan Group. Mr. McNally has over 20 years government and market experience as an international energy market consultant, investment strategist and White House policy official. Mr. McNally’s background and expertise spans the convergence of energy with economic, security, and environmental sectors, from global oil market fundamentals to regulatory policies. He has testified to Congress on energy markets and national security, published on energy in Foreign Affairs (co-authored with Michael Levi) and has been interviewed by CNN, The Economist, NPR, Financial Times, Washington Post, New York Times, PBS’ Great Decisions in Foreign Policy series, Bloomberg News and other leading journals and programs. Mr. McNally is a Member of the National Petroleum Council and is a non-resident fellow at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy.  From 2001 to 2003, Mr. McNally served as the top international and domestic energy adviser on the White House staff, holding the posts of Special Assistant to the President on the National Economic Council and, in 2003, Senior Director for International Energy on the National Security Council.  Mr. McNally started his professional career as an oil market analyst and consultant with Energy Security Analysis, Inc. In 1994, he joined Tudor Investment Corporation and for 12 years analyzed energy markets, macroeconomic policy, and geopolitics for Tudor portfolio managers. Mr. McNally served in the Peace Corps in Senegal from 1988-1990. He earned his double major BA/BS in International Relations and Political Science from American University and his MA in International Economics and American Foreign Policy from Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Prof. Rafi Melnick is a Professor at the Tiomkin School of Economics and at the Lauder School of Government at IDC Herzliya. He is the former Provost of IDC Herzliya and former Dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy. He also held teaching positions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and visiting positions at Boston University and the University of California, Davis. Until recently, he served as a member of the Bank of Israel’s Monetary Committee. Previously, Melnick served as a senior economist and deputy director of research for the Bank of Israel, and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Economic Council at the Prime Minister’s Office, the Advisory Committee to the Minister of Finance, the Committee for Social and Economic Change and Chair of the Macroeconomic Forum of the director general of the Treasury. Prof. Melnick developed the State of the Economy index for the Israeli economy. He has also served as chairman of the investment committee of Migdal insurance company, chairman of the investment committee of Hamagen insurance company, economic consultant to Bank Leumi, member of the board of directors of Psagot-Ofek Securities and Investment Ltd. and research associate of the Center for Social Policy Studies Research in Israel. Prof Melnik holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Amb. Sallai Meridor served from 2006 to 2009 as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States. He is currently the Chairperson and Co-Founder of a cyber security focused VC fund and volunteers as the Chair of the Jerusalem Foundation, as a board member of the Israel Democracy Institute, and in several NGOs. Between 1999 and 2005, Mr. Meridor served as the Chairperson of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization. Prior to that, he served on the executives and as the Treasurer of those organizations and as the Chairperson of the Settlement division of the World Zionist Organization. Before joining the Jewish Agency for Israel, Mr. Meridor served as the adviser to Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense, Moshe Arens. He was one of Israel’s representatives to the Madrid Conference and the ensuing negotiations. Mr. Meridor was born and raised in Jerusalem. He served as an officer in the IDF Intelligence unit 8200. He received a BA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the History of the Jewish People and the History of the Muslim Countries.  Sallai Meridor is married to Noa and they live in Kfar Adumim. They have three daughters and six grandchildren.

Mr. Shaul Meridor has been the Chief Executive Officer of Greenergy Renewable Energy Ltd. since February 23, 2015. Mr. Meridor served as Deputy Budget Director in the Ministry of Finance from 2010 to 2013. He earns Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Political Science and Philosophy from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ms. Judith Miller Adjunct Fellow of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MI) and 2002 Pulitzer Prize recipient. A contributing editor of MI’s magazine City Journal. Also works as a commentator for Fox News speaking on the Middle East, terrorism and other national security issues. As a former investigative reporter for the New York Times, served jail time to defend a reporter’s right to protect confidential sources. The first woman to be named chief of theNew York Times’ bureau in Cairo, Egypt. The author of four books, two of which are best-sellers. Holds an MA from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Prof. Alex Mintz is Director of the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) at IDC Herzliya, Head of the Israeli Political Science Association and Chair of the Herzliya Conference series. He served as Dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at IDC from 2008-2014. Professor Mintz is editor-in-chief of the journal Political Psychology, and editorial board member of the journals American Political Science Review, International Studies Quarterly, Foreign Policy Analysis, International Studies Perspective and more. He also served as Associate Editor of the Yale-based Journal of Conflict Resolution and as editor of the University of Chicago Press book series in Leadership and Decision Making in the International Arena. Mintz is the author of over 10 books and edited volumes, and has published in top journals in the field of Political Science, Political Psychology and Conflict Resolution. Mintz served as President of the Foreign Policy Analysis section of the ISA and sits on the board of the Center for Conflict Management and Prevention in Sydney, Australia. Prof. Mintz is the 2005 recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Foreign Policy Analysis section of the International Studies Association (ISA), and the 1993 recipient of the Karl Deutsch Award of the ISA.

Prof. Shaul Mishal is the Director of the Middle East Program at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, IDC Herzliya, and Brian Mulroney Professor of Government at Tel Aviv University. Prof. Mishal is also Chairman and Founder of Etrog Strategies for M.E. Risk Analysis. He serves as senior advisor to the Department of Political Planning at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defense and as a consultant to international and regional private and public institutions. Prof Mishal founded and directed the Center for Israeli Arab Studies, and authored and co-authored five books and numerous articles. He is a Visiting Professor at Yale University, visiting Scholar at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard and Senior Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. Prof. Mishal Received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed post-Doctoral studies at Yale University.

Adv. Jonathan Missner serves as Managing Partner and Chair of the Global Practices and Corporate Strategy Groups at Stein Mitchell Cipollone Beato & Missner LLP. As Chair of the Corporate Strategy Group, Mr. Missner focuses his practice on evaluating litigation risks and benefits, controlling costs, advising growing businesses, and creating value-driven partnerships. As Chair of the Global Practices Group, he leads the firm’s effort to offer its services in more areas and markets around the world. Mr. Missner also serves as Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center from 2000 till present. Prior to joining the firm, he spent more than a decade at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), most recently as Managing Director, National Affairs. He led AIPAC’s strategic planning, grew and managed its network of national offices, and worked closely with its Board of Directors. Prior to joining AIPAC, Mr. Missner led two high-growth businesses in the health care field. With Phillips Health, he led the company through substantial growth and served as in-house counsel for all regulatory matters. Mr. Missner co-founded AmericasDoctor.com and developed the company’s marketing and business development plan, strategic growth, funding, and affiliate programs. In less than two years, he helped the company establish a sustainable base of revenue and execute a strategic exit. Mr. Missner holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, an M.B.A. from the George Washington University and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.

Prof. Assaf Moghadam, Director of Academic Affairs, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT); Director of the MA Program in Government, Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, IDC Herzliya.

Dr.  Assaf Moghadam is associate professor at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel, and Director of Academic Affairs at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), also at IDC. Moghadam is also a non-resident fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, where he previously served in a variety of positions, including director of terrorism studies. At West Point, Prof. Moghadam was also an assistant professor at the Department of Social Sciences, teaching courses on terrorism and international relations.  Moghadam’s research examines the dynamics in terrorist organizations. Moghadam has lectured widely on terrorism issues before audiences in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East and has consulted a number of government agencies on terrorism-related issues. A leading expert on suicide missions, Moghadam serves on the editorial boards of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Democracy and Security, and Perspectives on Terrorism. His articles have appeared in International Security,Security Studies, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, Perspectives on Terrorism, CTC Sentinel, Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune and other outlets. Moghadam has also authored various chapters in edited volumes, and his book reviews have appeared in Perspectives in Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Transcultural Psychiatry and Democracy and Security, among other journals.  Moghadam held pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard. He holds a Ph.D. in international relations and an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy (MALD), both from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a B.A. in political science from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Mr. Nicolas Moreau is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and has an actuarial degree from the Centre d’Etudes Actuarielles. From 1988 to 1991, he was an auditor with Arthur Andersen in Paris. In 1991, he joined AXA as Vice-President of the Finance Department and was appointed Senior Vice-President of the AXA Group Finance Department in 1994. In 1997, Mr. Nicolas Moreau joined AXA Investment Managers and became Chief Executive Officer of AXA Rosenberg in 1999. In March 2000, he became Chief Operating Officer of AXA Investment Managers. He was appointed Vice-Chairman of AXA Rosenberg in January 2001. Mr. Moreau also coordinated the private equity business as well as the relationship between AXA Investment Managers and the insurance companies of the AXA Group. In April 2002, Mr. Nicolas Moreau was promoted as Chief Executive Officer of AXA Investment Managers and, following his appointment as Group Chief Executive Officer of AXA UK, he became non-executive Chairman of the Board of AXA Investment Managers. Mr. Nicolas Moreau was appointed to the Board of AXA UK plc in July 2006. From 2006 to 2010, he was Group Chief Executive of AXA UK. Since 2003, he has been a member of the AXA Executive Committee and since April 2010, a member of the AXA Management Committee. On October 2010, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of AXA France and Chairman & Chief Executive Officer on March 2012. On January, 2012 Mr. Nicolas Moreau took on the additional responsibility of overseeing the worldwide operations of AXA Assistance and AXA Global Direct. Since September 2015, he is also in charge of overseeing AXA Partners, a dedicated unit to develop partnership business globally.

Mr. Ohad Naharin is the Artistic Director of the Batsheva Dance Company. Ohad Naharin was born in 1952 and raised in Kibbutz Mizra (Northern Israel). His creative streak didn’t just fall from the sky, he was brought up in an artistic home with a father who was a doctor in psychology as well as an actor and a mother who was a dance instructor. Ohad did not start dancing until his later years. In 1974 he had started taking classes with Batsheva Dance Company. That year a guest choreographer Martha Graham, came to visit Israel and had offered Ohad a place in her company. He toured the United States with the Graham company as well as attending Julliard and the School of American Ballet oh scholarship. After touring around the world, he had returned to New York in 1980 which led to his choreographic debut at the Kazuko Hirabayshi studio. That same year he established the Ohad Naharin Dance Company with his wife, Mari Kajiwara (former Alvin Ailey dancer) who had passed away from cancer in 2001. For the next decade (1980-1990) Naharin’s vision and company continued to develop and had performed abroad. As his work continued to develop he received multiple commissions from companies including Batsheva, Kibbutz and Nederlands Dans Theater. In 1990 he was appointed artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company.

Miriam Naor President of the Supreme Court of Israel. She was born in Jerusalem in 1947. Following service in the Israel Defense Forces (1965-1967)m Naor completed her law studies  at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1971 (cum laude) and was awarded a law degree from its Faculty of Law in 1972. From 1972 until 1979 she worked for the State Prosecution of Israel. Sworn in as a judge in the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court in January 1980, she was at the time the youngest judge in Israel. In May 1989 she became a judge in the District Court of Jerusalem. In August 2000 she was appointed Deputy President of Administrative Matters and from June 2001 until the end of March 2002 sat as an acting justice in the Supreme Court.  In June 2003 Miriam Naor was appointed as a permanent Justice of The Supreme Court of Israel and in May 2012, was appointed Deputy President of the Supreme Court. On January 15, 2015, she became President of the Supreme Court. Naor is married and the mother of two.

Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah is a special Middle East analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, was formerly foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and deputy head for assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence.

Mrs. Netta Ness is an entrepreneur, speaker, and seasoned executive, Netta Ness is the creator of the Chance Management Process. Netta is known for her ability to distill the emotional to the intellectual – integrating trends, patterns and overall potential into innovative strategies. Netta is the former VP of a hedge firm where she managed the portfolios of clients, stakeholders, and strategic partners. Previously, she headed international business development and strategic communications in diverse industries including OmniGuide Surgical, a technology company based in Cambridge, MA. Additionally, she was responsible for community relations in a number of NGO’s and associate director for APCO World Wide, a strategic consulting firm. Netta holds a B.S. in political science, public communications and journalism from Bar Ilan University in Israel, and a Masters degree in Global Marketing, Communications and Advertizing from Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts. She resides in Tel Aviv, Israel with her husband and children.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of the State of Israel. On May 14, 2015, he formed the 34th Government as Prime Minister, also holding the Foreign Affairs, Health, Communications, and Regional Cooperation portfolios. As a member of the Knesset for the Likud party, he has also held numerous ministerial posts, including Minister of Economic Strategy, Minister of Health, Minister for Senior Citizens, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Finance. Prior to his election to the Knesset, Netanyahu was part of Israel’s diplomatic mission in the United States – serving as Deputy Chief of Mission, a member of the first delegation to the talks on strategic cooperation between Israel and the United States, and Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. Netanyahu studied at MIT in Boston and received a B.Sc. in architecture and a M.Sc. in Management Studies. He also studied political science at MIT and Harvard University.

MK Ayman Odeh is Head of the Joint Arab List, the third-largest party in the current Knesset. Odeh studied law at Mihai Eminescu University and successfully passed the Israeli Bar Association’s qualifying exams in 2001. Between the years 1998-2003 Odeh represented the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) in the Haifa City Council, and between 2003-2006 worked as a project director for Sikkuy – the Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality.  A former board member of the Al-Midan Theater, Odeh has been serving as the Secretary-General of Hadash since 2006, and is currently a member of the Knesset House Committee, the Knesset Committee on Labor, Welfare and Health, the Mahmoud Darwish Foundation’s board of directors, as well as the chairman of the Cultural Affairs parliamentary group. The author of three monographs, Odeh partook in the formulation of, and is a signatory to the High Follow-Up Committee’s Vision Documents, Mada Al Carmel’s Haifa Declaration and Adalah’s Democratic Constitution document. MK Ayman Odeh was listed among Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2015. Odeh is married to Nardine Aslih, a physician, and has three children.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Israela Oron served as Deputy National Security Advisor at Israel’s National Security Council (NSC). In this role, she was responsible for many strategic assessments, developments, and policies regarding the Israeli Palestinian conflict. She joined the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the 1970s and served in various key positions, breaking through the gender barrier as the first woman to command an all-male officer training course in the Air Force. She was the first woman appointed as IDF Deputy Spokesman and was the first female to serve on the faculty of the National Defense College. Ms. Oron’s last military posting was as the Commander of the IDF’s Women’s Corp, where she initiated significant reforms regarding the role of women within the IDF and Israeli society at large.

Today, she serves on the boards of leading security, peace, and social justice organizations, including The Geneva Accord; the Acharai Movement; the New Israel Fund International Council; the Council of Peace and Security; Commanders for Israel’s Security; and the Executive Committee of Ben Gurion University. Ms. Oron holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Haifa University and a master of science in business management from Tel Aviv University.

Mr. Jambu Palaniappen is the Regional General Manager for Uber in the Middle East, Africa and Central Eastern Europe. In this role, Jambu oversees market strategy, expansion and operations for over 25 cities in the region. He joined Uber in the summer of 2012 and has been a key part of Uber’s growth into more than 400 cities across 70+ countries worldwide. Jambu grew up in Silicon Valley and studied Public Policy and Economics at Vanderbilt University.

Mr. Uri Pasovsky is a senior writer and columnist for Calcalist, Israel’s leading financial daily, where he been a staff writer since 2012. Uri covers topics at the intersection of economics, finance and innovation, and holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University.

MK Amir Peretz was born in Morocco in 1952 and immigrated to Israel in 1956, his family settling in the town of Sderot in the Negev served in the IDF as a munitions officer in a paratroopers division, reaching the rank of captain. He was seriously injured in Sinai during the Yom Kippur War. Following a long rehabilitation, he learned to walk again, and established a farm on Moshav Nir Akiva near his home town of Sderot. Peretz ran for mayor of Sderot on behalf of the Labor Party in 1983, and at the age of 30 won his first election, serving for five years. In 1995 Peretz was chosen Chairman of the Histadrut Labor Federation and was voted in by a large majority once again three years later. He became a leader for the working class, leading many labor struggles. As a Member of Knesset since 1988, he served, among others, on the Foreign Affairs and Defense, Labor and Welfare, Constitution, Law and Justice, and the House Committees, as well as the Committees on the Status of Women and Foreign Workers. He was also a member of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Social Disparity. Peretz established the Am Ehad („One Nation”) party in preparation for elections for the 15th Knesset in 1999. In 2004, Am Ehad was reunified with Labor, and in November 2005 Peretz was elected Chairman of the Labor Party. Amir Peretz served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense from May 2006 until June 2007, after failing to win re-election as Chairman of the Labor Party. After serving in the 18th Knesset as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Economic Affairs Committee, and the Committee on the Status of Women, Amir Peretz was re-elected to the 19th Knesset as a member Hatenua Chaired by Tzipi Livni. In March 2013 he was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection, serving until his resignation in November 2014. He is married and the father of four.

President Shimon Peres was the ninth President of the State of Israel. He also served two terms as Prime Minister of Israel and three terms as Minister of Foreign Affairs.  In 1959, Peres was elected a Member of Knesset and served until his election as President in June 2007. He served in numerous ministerial posts, including Deputy Minister of Defense, Minister of Immigrants Absorption, Minister of Transportation and Communications, Minister of Information, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Minister of Regional Cooperation and more.  He initiated and conducted the negotiations that led to the signing of the Declaration of Principles with the PLO in September 1993 – which won him the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, together with Rabin and Arafat.  He also played a key role in the signing of the Treaty of Peace with Jordan  and strove to promote relations with additional Arab countries in North Africa and the Persian Gulf – part of his vision of a „New Middle East”. In October 1997 Shimon Peres created the the Peres Center for Peace with the aim of advancing Arab-Israeli joint ventures. President Peres has studied at The New School, New York University, and Harvard University.

MK Yaakov Peri was born in Tel Aviv in 1944. He holds a BA in Middle Eastern Studies and Jewish History from Tel Aviv University and a graduate certificate from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.
Perry joined Israel’s General Security Services in 1966, after his army service. In 1975 became head of its training division. In 1978 he became head of its Northern Command, and in 1981 of the Jerusalem, Judah and Samaria Command. In 1987 he became Deputy Director, and subsequently served as Head of the General Security Services from 1988-1995. He also served on a voluntary basis, as the Prime Minister’s coordinator for prisoners and missing persons from 1995 – 2010. From 1995-2003 he was CEO of Cellcom Israel. Perry was elected to the Knesset in January 2013 on the Yesh Atid list and served as Minister of Science, Technology and Space from March 2013 until December 2014.

Ms. Smadar Perry is Editor for Middle East Affairs and the Arab World at the Yedioth Aharonoth newspaper. She Graduated from Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a degree in Middle East History and Arabic Language and Literature. 

Amb. Alon Pinkas is a Foreign Relations Expert & Former Consul General of Israel in New York. With nearly two decades of experience in foreign affairs, Ambassador Alon Pinkas has devoted his career to Israeli international relations. He served as the liaison between the state of Israel and US national media, national Jewish organizations, public officials, and varied business interests. One of the lead negotiators in Israel’s withdrawal of Lebanon in 2000 and a veteran of negotiating sessions around the world, Pinkas is an expert on border issues currently afflicting Israel and the Middle East. Discussing all matters of foreign affairs with a special emphasis on Israel and the Middle East, he is an expert on its conflicts and politics, as well as the future of the region. A frequent contributor to Fox News, CNN, and other national news outlets, Pinkas provides an incisive and trenchant analysis of current events around the globe. A native of Tel Aviv, Israel, Alon Pinkas earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hebrew University (summa cum laude) and a master’s in government from Georgetown University (cum laude). He began his career in foreign relations as an assistant military attaché to the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC, before serving as Chief of Staff/Minister of Foreign Affairs to both Shlomo Ben-Ami and David Levy. A key policy advisor to former Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres and eventual Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Pinkas was instrumental in Israel’s acceptance to the United Nation’s Western European and Others Group (WEOG). Pinkas has extensive experience writing on international relations for the Jerusalem Post, Maariv, and the Davar Daily.

Mr. Charles Powell is Director of the Elcano Royal Institute, Spain.  He was born in 1960 to an English father and a Spanish mother. He read History and Modern Languages at Oxford University, where he later wrote a D. Phil. thesis on Spain’s transition to democracy. He was subsequently a Lecturer in History at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the J. A. Pye Research Fellow at University College, Oxford, and a Junior Research Fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, where he is currently a Member of the Senior Common Room. From 1997 to 2000 he was deputy director of the European Studies programme of the Ortega y Gasset University Institute, and was later appointed deputy director of the Ortega y Gasset Foundation’s Spanish Centre for International Relations (CERI). In 2001 he joined the Elcano Royal Institute as Senior Analyst for Europe, and in 2004 he was appointed Deputy Director for Research and Analysis. Since 2001, he is also a professor in Contemporary History at the CEU San Pablo University (Madrid).

His recent published work on international affairs includes: ‘El amigo americano. España y EEUU de la dictadura a la democracia’ (Galaxia Gutenberg, 2011); ‘España en Europa, Europa en España’, in Emilio Lamo de Espinosa (ed.), ‘Europa después de Europa’ (Academia Europea de Ciencias y Artes, 2010); and (co-edited with Fernando Reinares) ‘Las democracias occidentales frente al terrorismo global’ (Editorial Ariel, 2008). Since 2011, he is a member of the council of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

Amb. Ron Prosor is the Abba Eban Chair of International Diplomacy, Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy, IDC Herzliya and former Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, former Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom, and former Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He joined the Foreign Service in 1986 and has held a series of positions in Israel and abroad, including Head of the Communications and Information Division, Ministry Spokesperson, political advisor at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, media advisor at the Embassy in London, and Director of the Ministry’s situation room. He received a master’s degree in Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Mr. Yuval Rabin serves as the President and Chairman of W.T.P. Israel (Waste to Products) Ltd. Mr. Rabin serves as Senior Technology Advisor of Singulariteam Ltd. He serves as Fund Manager of Genesis Angels Fund. He has 30 years of extensive experience and contacts working with multinational enterprises as well as governments, states and federal entities. He has been a Managing Partner at the Washington based RSLB, (Rabin, Sheves, Lipkin-Shahak, and Birger), the first non-Americans to lobby the US administration on behalf of foreign countries. Prior to RSLB, he has held senior executive positions serving companies as diverse as AARP, The Principal Group, Visteon, Ericsson, Airbus Industries, Nokia, ARKLA (Arkansas Louisiana Gas), Samsung and the American Bureau of Shipping. He led initiatives for manufacturing and service companies, utilities and governments in the US, Israel, Europe and the Far East. He is a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, having achieved the rank of major during his eight years of service. He has deep business experience with governments, state and federal processes, and a remarkably extensive network and contacts around the globe, including Africa, Arab countries, and Eastern European countries. Mr. Rabin serves as the Chairman of Beyond Verbal Communication, Ltd. He serves as a Director of Effective Space Solutions LTD. He serves as a Member of Board of Advisors at PositiveID Corporation. He served as a Director of Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. from May 30, 2013 to January 26, 2015.

Mr. Barak Ravid is the diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz newspaper. He joined Haaretz in April 2007, covering the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Defense, dealing with issues such as U.S.-Israeli relations, EU-Israeli relations and the peace process. Before joining Haaretz, Barak Ravid worked for two years for Maariv daily newspaper, spending a year covering the Palestinian Authority and a year as a diplomatic correspondent.

Ravid has a BA in the history of the Middle East from the University of Tel Aviv. He served for six years as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, and concluded his service with the rank of captain. He and his wife live in Tel Aviv.

Mr. Oudi Recanati is the Chairman of the IDC Herzliya Board of Directors and founder of IDC’s Recanti International School. An investor and philanthropist, Mr. Oudi Recanati served as the CEO of Discount Investment Corporation. Mr. Recanati served as Chairman of Discount Bank and Trust Company from 1999 until June 2002. He served as Co-Chairman since from 1999 and Co-CEO since 1996 of IDB Holding Corporation Ltd. until April 1, 2001. He is engaged in investment and finance, and WHO, for more than five years prior to 1998. He served as a Vice Chairman of PEC Israel Economic Corporation and its Director since 1996. He serves as a Director of IDB Development and Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club. Mr. Recanati served as a Director of Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., since 1996.

Prof. David Reibstein is the William Stewart Woodside Professor of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Prof. Reibstein’s research focuses on competitive marketing strategies, marketing metrics, and product line decisions, among other issues. Most recently, Professor Reibstein’s research on competitive marketing strategies addresses competitors’ reactions to marketing actions, offering companies insight into ways to anticipate these reactions and use them as a part of strategizing. His marketing metrics work has focused on linking marketing metrics to financial consequences resulting in his most recent book, entitled Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance, 2nd ed. Professor Reibstein is the Immediate Past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Marketing Association. A former Executive Director of the Marketing Science Institute, he consults extensively with companies worldwide, including GE, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Rohm and Haas, and others. His teaching interests include Marketing Strategy in the MBA Program, as well as teaching Competitive Marketing Strategy, Marketing Metrics, Pricing Strategies, and various other programs for Wharton’s Executive Education Program. Professor Reibstein received his PhD from Purdue University and his BS and BA degrees from the University of Kansas. Professor Reibstein has conducted a series of in-depth interviews wtih CEOs and CMOs on the topic of marketing measurement. You can view the video series below.  And, he currently has his own radio show on SiriusXM, Channel 111.

Prof. Uriel Reichman is Founder and President of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. Before establishing the IDC, he was Dean of the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University. He also served as Dean of Ramot Mishpat College. He chaired the “Constitution for Israel” Movement, was the head of the Human Rights Committee of Israel’s Bar Association and is a member of a number of public and governmental commissions. He is a member of the Directorate of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at IDC. An expert in the field of Property Law, he earned his Doctorate in Law from the University of Chicago. He also holds LLB and LLM degrees from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.   In 2010, Prof. Reichman was awarded an honorary doctorate by Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany. Prof. Reichman has served on the board of directors of the First International Bank and Bank Hapoalim. He also headed and served as a member of several public committees, and proposed reforms in the real-estate laws and in the professions of real-estate surveying and brokerage.

Col. (Res.) Adv. Daniel Reisner is the former Head of the International Law Branch of the IDF Legal Division. Daniel is widely recognized as one of Israel’s leading public international law experts, a result of his 19 year career in government in this field, 10 years of which (1995 -2004) he served as head of the Israel Defence Force’s International Law Department. In this capacity, Daniel was the senior lawyer responsible for advising the Israeli leadership on a wide variety of international-law related issues. In addition to the above, from 1994 onwards, Daniel served as a senior member of Israel’s peace delegations with both Jordan and the Palestinians, working in the triple role of negotiator, legal advisor and drafter. In this capacity, he advised Prime Ministers Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu, Barak and Sharon, and participated in all of the negotiation sessions and summits, including those in Amman, Wye River, Camp David and Taba. Following his retirement from government service, Daniel opened his own law firm, focusing on representing international clients (both private and governmental) in two specialist fields: commercial and regulatory aspects of large-scale Defence and Homeland Security projects; and (more uniquely) a diverse range of public international law issues. In 2008, Reisner’s firm merged into HFN. As a result of his diverse background, in addition to his public international law expertise, Daniel Reisner is today also viewed as a leading authority on Israeli defence and other regulatory regimes, specializing in advising and representing private clients in their relations with the Israel Ministry of Defence and other regulatory bodies. Parallel to his professional career, Daniel has also pursued an active academic career. He teaches in three of Israel’s leading academic institutions, has published articles on a variety of issues and is a highly sought after lecturer and panelist, both in Israel and abroad. Concurrently, he continues to advise the senior members of the Israeli government on a variety of issues relating to the Middle East peace process and security issues.

President Reuven (Rubi) Rivlin is the President of the State of Israel. President Rivlin served in the Israeli Knesset as a member of the Likud party since 1988 and until his election as President in 2014, and served as Minister of Communications (2001-2003) and Speaker of the Knesset (16th and 18th Knessets). President Rivlin is one of Israel’s most prominent advocates for democracy, free speech and political pluralism. President Rivlin received his degree in Law from the Hebrew University. In 2012, President Rivlin received the prestigious “Knight of Quality Government” recognition by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel.

Mr. Guido Pardo Roques is the President & CEO at Philips Israel. He was born in Milan, Italy in 1956. The Pardo-Roques family comes from a Jewish Portuguese ancient ancestry with an extended history in Spain and Portugal. The family was expelled from Spain in 1492 and migrated to Pisa, Italy, in 1586. In 1975, Pardo-Roques made aliyah (immigration to Israel). In 1980 he completed his Bachelor’s degree and in 1986, his Master of Science’s degree in Electrical Engineering at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology). In 2014, Pardo Roques contributed to the creation of a Healthcare Technological Incubator under the auspices of the Israel Chief Scientist, in the Israel Ministry of Economy with the participation of Philips and Teva (as part of Sanara Ventures investment platform). In 2006, Pardo-Roques completed his M.B.A at the University of Haifa. Pardo-Roques is married to Ketty and has three children

Ambassador Jacob Rosen is a Senior Counselor at the Center for Political Research in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Rosen is a veteran diplomat. Prior to his current position, he was Israel’s ambassador to Jordan from 2006 to 2009. His other diplomatic postings were in Atlanta, New Delhi, Cairo, New York, London, and Hauge. In November 2002, he took up the post of Political Advisor for International Affairs to the Mayor of Jerusalem. Rosen was born in Poland and immigrated to Israel at the age of 9. He served in the IDF from 1966 to 1969 and then went on to earn his B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies at Hebrew University. He is fluent in Polish, Dutch, English, Arabic, and Hebrew and is the author of „Crossing the Jordan River: The Journeys of an Israeli Diplomat” (Atlanta, 2004).

Mr. Itay Rosenfeld was named corporate vice president and general manager of the Process Diagnostics and Control (PDC) group at Applied Materials, Inc. in August 2011. He oversees operations including maximizing profit, establishing innovative and world-class quality products, and growing company share in the Inspection and Review segments. This includes products for mask and wafer inspection, SEM review and solutions that enhance overall performance. He is also president of Applied Materials Israel, with responsibility for partnering effectively to lead Applied’s country strategy and overall presence in Israel. Mr. Rosenfeld first joined Applied in 1996 and went on to hold leadership roles in Applications and Wafer Inspection for Applied Materials Israel. He played a critical role in the development of the company’s high-end wafer and mask inspection tools. In July 2011, he was recognized as an Applied Materials Fellow for his long-term sustained and distinguished achievements and contributions to the success of the company. Prior to Applied, he worked in communications for the high-tech industry. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Reuven (Ruvik) Rosenthal journalist, author and editor, was born in Tel Aviv in 1945 and still lives there today. He writes for the mass circulation daily Maariv and has also been editor of the op-ed section. He is the chairman of journalism studies at the Open University and editor of the Teachers’ Association periodical, Panim. His weekly column, „The Language Arena”, makes him Israel’s best-known writer on language in the media, and he is often interviewed on language issues on TV and the radio. Rosental was awarded the Sokolov Prize for Journalism (2004) and the Rishon LeZion Prize for Creativity in Hebrew Language (2014).

Mr. Haim Rousso served as an Executive Vice President of Engineering & Technology Excellence at Elbit Systems Ltd. since April 2009. Since April 2008, Mr. Rousso served as an Executive Vice President and General Manager of Electro-Optics Elop Division at Elbit Systems Ltd. He served as Managing Director, General Manager, and Vice President of Elbit Systems Electro-Optics Elop Ltd since 2000. During a 36 year career at Elop, he held a wide variety of senior positions. He served as Corporate Vice President and Co-General Manager of El-Op from 2000 to April 2008. He served various managerial positions in El-Op since 1972. He serves as a Director of OrSense Ltd. He is the Chairman of Capital Nature Ltd. Previously, he was a Director at the firm. In October, 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Israeli “Industry Prize“ in recognition of his leadership role in positioning Elop as the global leader in electro-optics. Mr. Rousso holds M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion – Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.

Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers is a German politician who was Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2005 to 2010. In the state parliament election of 2005, Jürgen Rüttgers was the opposition Christian Democratic Union’s front-runner for the second time. He is the former minister for education, science, research and technology in Chancellor Helmut Kohl‘s Cabinet in 1994 to 1998, he has headed the CDU in the state since 1999 and has been its leader in state parliament since the last election. Rüttgers has also been one of the CDU’s party chairman deputies since 2000. Rüttgers is one of the heads of the „Sorbonne declaration„, the joint declaration on harmonisation of the architecture of the European higher education system, in 25 May 1998. Rüttgers holds degrees in Law and History from the University of Cologne and a Dr. Jur. (Ph.D.) in Law.

Dr. Bernard Sabella is Professor of Sociology at Bethlehem University; Ph.D. in Sociology, Viriginia University, USA; member of various Palestinian institutions; scientific and research interest focuses on Palestinian society; co-author of many academic publications; Executive Secretary of the Department of Services to Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East Council of Churches. Publications include a series of articles, an Introduction to Sociology (1983), and Christian Emigration-Comparison Between Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem Areas (1991), A Date with Democracy – Palestinians on Politics, Economy and Society (1983) as well as articles on the issue of emigration of Christian Arabs from the Middle East.

Mr. Gerald Jay Sanders is the Chairman and CEO of SkyTran Inc., a NASA Space Act company. He is the subject of a popular Harvard Business School case study on entrepreneurship and serves as an Associate Fellow and guest lecturer at Oxford University’s Saïd Graduate School of Business. Sanders is also the founder of San Francisco Science™, a storied technology group, and of The Triana Group™, an EU/US technology accelerator. Sanders serves as US State Department accredited Honorary Consul for The Republic of Haiti, as a Director of the French American School of San Francisco, and as an advisor to the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI).

Prof. Oded Sarig served as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor at Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel from 1987 to 2000. Mr. Oded served as Dean of the Business Administration School at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya from 2002 to 2006. He served as Head of the Finance and Accounting Department at Tel Aviv University. He served as the Chairman of Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. from February 18, 2015 to September 10, 2015 and served as Director of Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. from January 27, 2015 to September 10, 2015. He serves as External Director of the Bank of Israel. Mr. Oded serves as Director of Seculife International, Provisio Capital and Pisot Mehateva Food Design Ltd. He serves as a Director of Fourier Systems (1989) and Natural Bits Food Design Ltd. He has been a Director of Poriah Systems since 1989. He served as a Director of Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, DCL, and Seculife International. He served as a Director of Bank Hapoalim BM from September 10, 2007 to December 30, 2009. Mr. Oded holds a Ph.D from University of California, Berkeley – Finance, an M.B.A. from University of California, Berkeley – Finance and a B.A. from Tel-Aviv University, Israel – Accounting and Economics.

Mr. Udi Segal is a senior Israeli Diplomatic correspondent of Channel 2 News. Previously, he worked as the settlements’ correspondent of Israel’s Gali Zahal Radio. He focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the US-Israel relations regarding that matter. Considered a senior interviewer, Segal interviewed high-profile diplomats and political leaders. Segal teaches communication at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.

Ms. Michal Schreiber is the founder and CEO of Web Done, a leading web presence company, specializing in all aspects of digital branding and marketing solutions. Over the past six years Web Done has become an innovator in digital and web branding, providing solutions in monitoring and crisis management, viral marketing, SEO, web customer research, application development, and new web concept creations. In 2013 Web Done won the Wharton Social Media Leadership Award for its outstanding work managing Israel’s Home Front Command’s social media page during Operation Pillar of Defense.

Dr. Dan Schueftan is director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, where he also serves as a senior lecturer in the School of Political Sciences. He has also taught at the Israel Defense Forces National Security College and the IDFs Command and Staff College. Schueftan has served as an advisor to Israel’s National Security Council, and to former Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon. For over 30 years, Schueftan has served as “a consultant to Israeli decision-makers and to the top echelon of Israel’s foreign policy and defense establishments,” also briefing European and American political leaders and senior officers. He is also the author of several books on contemporary Middle Eastern history. Schueftan is credited with having advanced the concept of “unilateral disengagement” or “unilateral separation”, as articulated in his 1999 book, “Disengagement: Israel and the Palestinian Entity”. The book is cited as having formed the basis for the concept of Separation from the Palestinians.

Prof. Brenda Shaffer is a specialist on energy and foreign policy, energy security policies, Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, Caspian energy and Eastern Mediterranean energy issues. She currently is a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES). Prof. Shaffer is on sabbatical from the University of Haifa, where she is a professor in the School of Political Science. She previously served as the Research Director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard University. Among her articles are „Natural gas supply stability and foreign policy” (Energy Policy, 2013). She has published in Foreign Affairs the articles “Nagorno-Karabakh after Crimea,” “Pipeline Problems” and “Gas Politics after Ukraine.” Prof. Shaffer is also the author of a number of books, including Energy Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity (MIT Press, 2002) and editor of Beyond the Resource Curse (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). Prof. Shaffer served as an advisor to the Government of Israel’s Zemach Committee for natural gas policy and Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Water. She has given U.S. Congressional testimony on issues related to energy and to the Caspian region. Prof. Shaffer’s op-eds have appeared in a number of newspapers and publications, including Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Reuters, Foreign Policy, Christian Science Monitor, and the Boston Globe.

Dr. Salman Shaikh is the founder and CEO of the Shaikh Group, a marketing & commuications company incorporated since 2003 in the Dubai Technology, Electronic Commerce and Media Free Zone (TELCOM). He was director of the Brookings Doha Center where his areas of research included Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Gulf states. His research focuses on negotiations related to conflict resolution, domestic politics, and geopolitics of the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Levant and Gulf region

Amb. Prof. Gabriella Shalev  is a senior faculty member at Ono Academic College and the chairperson of Israel Council for Higher Education’s („Malag”) Committee for Appointment of Professors in Law, Business Management and Social Science. Prof. Shalev completed a two year term (2008-2010) as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, the first woman in Israel to hold this position. Since returning to Israel Prof. Shalev has joined several academic councils and public bodies and has been elected for a second three year term to the Board of Directors of Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd. She served twice (2012, 2013) as the head of the Sapir Prize Committee (the Israeli Booker Prize). Until 2002 Prof. Shalev was a Professor of Law at the Hebrew University inJerusalem. She also taught, as a Guest-Professor, Contract Law and Comparative Law in universities in North America, Europe and Canada. Prof. Shalev is a permanent participant in international conferences as an expert on Contract Law and Comparative Law. For many years Prof. Shalev was the Chief Editor of the Israel Supreme Court judgments and editor of the legal section of the Hebrew Encyclopedia. She is a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law.

Ambassador Daniel B. Shapiro is the 19th Ambassador of the United States of America to the State of Israel. Previously, he was the senior director for the Middle East and North Africa for President Obama’s White House National Security Council. He also served for the National Security Council under Preisdent Clinton, as National Security Adviser Sandy Berger‘s director of legislative affairs and as a Congressional liaison. He has also served as a professional staff member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a legislative assistant and senior foreign policy adviser to SenatorDianne Feinstein, as deputy chief of staff (primarily on foreign policy issues) for U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. In 2007, he became an advisor to Barack Obama on Middle East and Jewish community issues, also assisting as strategist and fundraiser, and as senior policy adviser and Jewish Outreach coordinator for President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University, and a master’s degree in Middle Eastern Politics from Harvard University.

Col. (res.) Dr. Shaul Shay is the Director of Research of the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) at IDC Herzliya. Dr. Shay served for 27 years in the IDF as a paratrooper officer and in Military Intelligence and his last post in IDF was head of the IDF Military History Department (2000-2007). After retiring from the military, he served between 2007 and 2009 as the deputy head of the National Security Council (NSC). Dr. Shay lectures at IDC Herzliya and at Bar Ilan University. His areas of expertise are local and international terrorism, Hezbollah, Hamas, and intelligence and he is the author and editor of 17 books, 9 of them published in the USA and U.K.  Dr. Shay holds M.A and Ph.D. degrees from Bar Ilan University and he is a senior research fellow of the International Institute for counter Terrorism (ICT) at IDC Herzliya.

Dr. Erella Shedmi has a Ph.D. in criminology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an M.A. in industrial relations from the University of Minnesota. Formerly a senior police officer in the Israel Police, she is currently a lecturer in women’s studies and criminal justice at Beit Berl College and Ben Gurion University. Dr. Shadmi is the author of a book on the history of the Israel Police (forthcoming). Her main theoretical and research interests include feminist critique of the Israeli society and the development of and relations between feminist theory and practice in Israel.

MK Ofer Shelah is an Israeli journalist and politician, serving as a Member of Knesset for the Yesh Atid party since 2013. He has served as a member of the Finance Committee and of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset. MK Shelah holds a BA in Economics and English Literature from Tel-Aviv University and an MFA in Literature and Creative Writing from the New-York University

Ms. Bambi Sheleg is an Israeli Journalist and the founder and editor of the Magazine and NGO Eretz Acheret (“A Different Israel”). Eretz Acheret analyzes social, cultural and spiritual developments in Israel and promotes a discourse that places emphasis on issues of society and identity.

Ms. Sima Shine is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and former Deputy Director-General of the Ministry for Strategic Affairs. Sima Shine joined INSS as a senior research fellow following her departure from the Strategic Division at Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs where she served as assistant to the director general and head of the Iran desk (2009-2015). In this framework she was heavily involved in the diplomatic contacts in recent years on the Iranian issue. Prior to that, she served as deputy head of the National Security Council for Strategic Affairs (2008-2009). For most of her professional life, Ms. Shine served in the intelligence community – in the IDF Intelligence Corps and the Mossad – including head of research at the Intelligence Division of the Mossad (2003-2007). In this context, she was responsible for preparing the periodic and annual intelligence assessments on regional and international issues. Ms. Shine holds an M.A. in political science and security studies, a B.A. in Middle East studies, and is a graduate of the National Security College.

Adv. Liat Shohat is the Mayor of Or-Yehuda, where she was born and raised. Since being a teenager, she led public initiatives – headed the Scouts of Or-Yehuda and chaired the local youth council. She earned undergraduate degrees in Political Science and in Law and a Master’s degree in Education. Prior to her current position and as a trained lawyer, she owned a private law practice specializing in civilian affairs. In politics, she is an active member of the Labor Party and she served as the Chairperson of the Party’s Young Guard. Since 2003, she serves on the municipal council of Or-Yehuda and held several public positions dealing with formal and informal education and housing. She was elected mayor in September 2015 following special elections following the resignation of her predecessor. Her youngest daughter – of four children – was born during her mayoral campaign just five weeks before the elections.

Ambassador Zalman Shoval is a former Ambassador of Israel to the United States, who held this position twice. His distinguished career combines politics, diplomacy, banking, and business. In politics, he was elected Member of Knesset for Ben-Gurion’s Rafi party and for the Likud. Ambassador Shoval served as a General Manager of Export Bank and as Chairman of the Bankers Association Council. A member of International Advisory Board at the Council on Foreign Relations, Ambassador Shoval co-founded the „Moshe Dayan Public Forum for Political and Social Questions” and the „Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies” at Tel Aviv University, and is currently a member of its Board of Trustees. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of IDC Herzliya and is the Past-Chairman of IDC’s Institute for Policy and Strategy. Shoval is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Universities, and of the International Board of Governors of the Ariel University Center of Samaria.He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Hadassah Medical Organization, and Chairman of the New Israel Opera. Ambassador Shoval holds a BA in International Relations from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.A. in International Relations, Economics and Political Science from the University of Geneva and a PhD in International Relations and Political Science from Pacific University. 

Amb. Ned L. Siegel is Chairman of the Board of the Yitzhak Rabin Foundation. Ambassador Siegel’s business career encompasses over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience as a developer, owner and manager of vast and diverse holdings in residential and commercial real estate, witnessing first-hand both the best and worst of economic times. Ambassador Siegel’s extensive history and proven track record in residential and commercial real estate, combined with his corporate directorships and government service, along with a broad network of relationships formed over years in the business and political community, enhance his ability to manage and consult to add value and create return driven opportunities by restructuring , repositioning and recapitalizing existing business ventures, finding and developing new investments and strategies, and raising capital in this constrained market. Ambassador Siegel has developed, managed and owned more than one billion dollars’ worth of real estate throughout his real estate career.

Ms. Michal Silverberg, Takeda, Israel. Michal Silverberg joined TVI in September 2014 as Senior Director for External Innovation with a primary focus on Israel and Europe. Since 1998, she has held positions in various sectors of the life science industry including in the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel (The Incubator program), venture capital (Ofer Brothers Hi Tech) and global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Prior to joining Takeda, Mrs. Silverberg worked at Novo Nordisk as Senior Director Business Development and New Product Commercialization, serving as a member of the BioPharm leadership team. Before this, she held various positions in MGVS, an Israeli biotech company and subsequently worked at OSI Pharmaceuticals in a business development role. She received her B.A. in Economics and Business Management from Haifa University, her M.B.A from Tel-Aviv University and M.A. in Biotechnology from Columbia University.

Prof. Sammy Smooha is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Haifa. A specialist in comparative ethnic relations, he has published widely on the internal divisions in Israeli society and on Israel in comparative perspective.
His books include: Israel: Pluralism and Conflict and Arabs and Jews in Israel (two volumes)

Brig. Gen. (res.) Amnon Sofrin, is the former Commander, Combat Intelligence Corps, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Former Head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Mossad. Sofrin is employed (since mid-2008) as manager of Homeland Security Projects and as a consultant in some companies. His last assignment with the IDF has been Chief Combat Intelligence Corps, which he established and commanded for 3.5 years and retired as a Brigadier General.

He served previously in the IDF as Intelligence Officer in fighting units, as analyst and as an instructor in the Intelligence School. BG Amnon Sofrin holds a BA in Political Science from Tel Aviv University and a MA in Political Science & Security Studies from Haifa University (1993). He is working on his PhD thesis at the Hebrew University.

Mr. Tommy Steiner is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy, IDC Herzliya. At the Institute, Tommy works on various policy research projects focusing mainly on EU and NATO relations with Israel, the Mediterranean and the Broader Middle East. A member of the founding team of the Annual Herzliya Conference Series, Tommy managed the Conference series from 2007 through 2013 – a period during which the Herzliya Conference became considered one of the top international policy conferences. Concurrently, Tommy teaches International Relations and Security Studies at IDC’s Lauder School of Government. Tommy served as the executive director of the Atlantic Forum of Israel, a network-based policy organization that promoted and advanced Israel’s relations with the Euro-Atlantic Community, and which was especially instrumental in enhancing NATO-Israel relations. Extending beyond EU/NATO relations with Israel and the Middle East/Mediterranean, Tommy’s fields of expertise also include international security, transatlantic relations, international relations theory, and regionalism in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. In his areas of expertise, Tommy regularly advises Israeli authorities, international organizations, business, media and think-tanks. Tommy earned his MA (cum laude) in International Relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is the recipient of the Yehoshafat Harkaby Award from the Hebrew University’s Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations.

Dr. Tal Steinherz is the Chief Technological Officer (CTO) of the Israel National Cyber Bureau (INCB). Before joining the bureau, he served in various R&D positions within the security forces for almost twenty years, leading significant development teams that specialized in communication and cyber security. Dr. Tal Steinherz graduated the IDF’s elite Talpiot program and received his Ph.D. in computer science from Tel-Aviv University.

Dr. Yuval Steinitz was born in Israel in 1958. He completed his IDF service in the Golani Brigade and served as a reservist in the Alexandroni Brigade. He holds a B.A. and M.A. (with honors) in Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Tel Aviv University. He received the Alon Prize for Ph.D. Students in 1993. He is married and the father of three children. Steinitz was a Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Haifa University. He served as President of the Association for the Public’s Right to Know (1999-2004).A Member of Knesset since 1999, Steinitz has served as member and chairman of the Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, and as member of the Constitution, Law and Justice, and the Science and Technology Committees. He chaired the Committee for the Examination of the Intelligence Services Following the War in Iraq as well as the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee for the Events that Took Place in Amona. Since 2003 he has co-chaired the Joint Congress-Knesset Security Committee, together with Senator John Kyl (Arizona). Yuval Steinitz was appointed Minister of Finance in March 2009, serving until March 2013, when he was appointed Minister of Strategic and Intelligence Affairs responsible for International Relations. In May 2015 he was appointed Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water.

Mr. Dror Strum is President of the Israeli Institute for Economic Planning. He is an expert in economic regulation and regularly provides testimony on this subject before courts and governments. In that capacity, he currently heads a formal committee to advise the government on increasing the competition in the banking industry. He lectures at the Hebrew University and at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya on regulation, antitrust law, and corporate law. He previously served as both director-general of, and legal advisor to, the Antitrust Authority, and was a partner in the law firm of Haim Zadok and Partners. He holds an LLB from Tel Aviv University.

Mr. Eli Sugarman is Program Officer for the Cyber Initiative at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The goal of the Cyber Initiative is to build a more cohesive cybersecurity field and improve cybersecurity policy-making globally.

Previously, he was a consultant and strategist to private sector and nonprofit leaders internationally. From 2009 to 2014, Eli was senior director at Gryphon Partners, an emerging markets advisory firm based in Washington, DC. While at Gryphon, he provided strategic counsel on international policy, regulatory, and business matters to clients in the U.S., Europe, Middle East, and Central Asia. Between 2007 and 2009, Eli helped to establish and subsequently manage the Afghanistan Legal Education Project to build human capital and promote the rule of law in that country. Earlier in this career, he served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State. There, he focused on international security issues in Latin America and participated in high-level diplomatic gatherings. Eli regularly writes about cybersecurity, government surveillance, data privacy, and Internet governance in a monthly column for Forbes. He has also written about technology policy issues in The Atlantic, Time, andThe Christian Science Monitor. A graduate of Middlebury College, he also holds a J.D. from Stanford University Law School.

MK Ksenia Svetlove serves as a member of Knesset for the Zionist Union. She is also a journalist and associate professor at Hebrew University. In 2002 she joined the Russian language „Israel Plus” channel as a commentator on Arab affairs. She has written for newspapers and media outlets, including the Jerusalem Post, the Jerusalem Report, Haaretz and the BBC Russian Service. In her capacity as a journalist, she has interviewed Yasser Arafat, Ahmed Yassin, and Mahmoud Abbas. She studied at the Bat Zion religious boarding school in Jerusalem. She later studied Islamic and Middle Eastern history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gaining bachelor’s and master’s degrees. As of 2015, she is a doctoral candidate in Middle Eastern studies and an associate professor at Hebrew University.[2] She is also a policy fellow at Mitvim, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies.

Dr. Lesley G. Terris is the Academic Head of the International Undergraduate Program in Government, at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, IDC Herzliya. Her research focuses on negotiation and mediation processes in international conflict, while combining game-theoretic modeling with quantitative and qualitative analyses. Her research interests also include the study of international politics through simulations and network analysis.  She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Tel-Aviv University.

Prof. Charles Tenenbaum is Associate Professor at Sciences Po Lille and Director of the Conflict & Development Program, Dr. Charles Tenenbaum holds a doctorate in political science from Sciences Po Paris. Specialized in the study of conflict resolution and international mediation, his research interests currently focus on European Union and Peacemaking, Multilateralism and the influence of religious actors in international relations, and peace building.
Fulbright Visiting Fellow at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (2005, George Mason Univ.) and at the International Peace Institute in New York, Dr. Tenenbaum teaches Peace Studies, International Mediation and Conflict Resolution at the graduate and post-graduate level along with courses on Diplomacy and International & Regional Organizations. Since 2012, Charles Tenenbaum manages the French Political Science Association research group on Multilateralism and the Research Seminar on Religions et multilatéralisme (CERI). In 2011, Charles Tenenbaum took part to a shared project between UNWomen (2011) and an International Mediation NGO. Trainer at the National School of Administration (2008), he was a facilitator for the Wilson Center facilitative initiative in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2009, IRENE). He is a member of the Network on Peace Operations (ROP).

Mr. Yoram Tietz is the Managing Partner of Ernst & Young Israel. Yoram is also the Assurance MP as well as the ABD for the Israeli practice. Before becoming the Managing Partner, Yoram was the head of the High Tech practice, the largest of its kind in Israel. EY Israel has approximately 1700 Employees in 4 locations, the largest being Tel Aviv office. Approximately 900 are Assurance personnel. The Firm has about 85 partners, 50 of which are under Assurance service line. Yoram has over 20 years of experience in serving major clients, providing professional services to hundreds of startups and publicly traded high tech companies.  Yoram has helped many clients in a multitude of issues advising management and the growth and management of their business.  He has helped Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups strategize, raise money and grow their businesses. He has also participated in many M&A’s and IPO’s on NASDAQ and the European and Tel Aviv Public Capital Markets.

Mr. Gadi Tirosh is a Managing Partner at Jerusalem Venture Partners. Mr. Tirosh is a leading member of JVP’s team, as well as a Chairman of the Board of CyberArk Software (NASDAQ: CYBR), Playcast Media Systems and Siano Mobile. He also serves on the board of directors of ThetaRay, GreenSQL and AnyClip Media. Gadi’s experience gives him strong domain expertise in both the consumer infrastructure world and service provider needs. Before joining JVP, Gadi was Corporate VP of Product Marketing and member of the executive committee of NDS (acquired by Cisco for $5bn), a leader in digital pay-TV systems, supporting some of the largest digital broadcast platforms. At NDS, Gadi established the business of digital interactive TV in the late 90s, catering to the likes of Sky Sports, MTV, Discovery, QVC and other leading TV channels. Gadi led the NDS international marketing team responsible for defining the product scope and roadmap for NDS and established products such as conditional access for secure broadcast, middleware for digital set-tops and integrated PVR solutions. Prior to NDS, Gadi held a variety of positions in software and Internet-based R&D organizations, including Director of Product Marketing at ServiceSoft Corp. Gadi holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics as well as an Executive MBA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Mr. Gil Topaz is CEO of Bank of Jerusalem. His last position at CAL was SVP, Head of consumer division and member of the board where he was incharge of P&L from cardholders. Before that he was Cal’s CRO for 3.5 years in charge of fraud, regulation, statistical models for consumer credit. Preceding this he was incharge of the consumer credit at Bank Hapoalim – the largest bank in ISRAEL. Prior to that he was a credit officer and a Customer Relationship Manager of middle market buissnes since 01/08/2005.  Until then he had been managing the strategic unit of Bank Hapoalim strategic division (around 9,000 employees) for the last 3 years. During this time he led multidisciplinary teams in order to assimilate business plans and business models. I have also built the strategic roadmap of the retail division for the next five years. He led negotiations in order to achieve collaboration with other organization.
In my current position I have big influence on the banks objectives and on the way to achieve them.

Dr. Eran Tromer is a faculty member at the School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University. In summer of 2015, he was a visiting scientist at the Simons Institute of UC Berkeley. His research focus is information security, cryptography and algorithms. He was particularly interested in what happens when cryptographic systems meet the real world, where computation is faulty and leaky. He heads the Laboratory for Experimental Information Security (LEISec), where his group investigates side-channel information leakage in computers through physical emanations (e.g., acoustic, electric and electromagnetic) and via software (e.g., cache contention in local and cloud computing).

He co-founded SCIPR Lab, where they construct cryptographic systems for ensuring the integrity of computation conducted on untrusted, faulty and malicious platforms. Other research interests include digital currency, tamper resilience, homomorphic encryption, special-purpose code-breaking hardware and various aspects of network and systems security. See my publications for more information.

Mr. Harel Tubi is the Director-General of the President’s Residence. He is an attorney from Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim in Gush Etzion. Tubi was also the head of Rivlin’s staff while the 74-year-old served as Knesset Speaker.

Mr. Keith O. Tucker is Director of Strategic Studies Group at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. He was educated at the University of Texas at Arlington, The University of Texas at Austin, University of Maryland Far East Division and San Angelo State

Mr. Boaz Tzafri acts as the Railways CEO since September 2011. He earned his B.A. in economics and political science, Tel Aviv University. Acted previously as Chairman and CEO of PETROTE AG, of Israel Corporation Ltd. (deals in biological fuels and recycled materials, traded in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Germany). Before that, Mr. Tzafrir acted as CEO of Soglowek and CEO of Shemen Industries. Mr. Tzafrir has vast experience in managing large scale, complex frameworks of employees and managers. As part of his work, acted to introduce organizational changes, lead companies to advanced management systems, initiate new plants and entry into new fields of activity. He is married with three children.

Mr. Eliezer (Geizi) Tzafrir, is a a Former Senior Official in the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shabak) and Mossad. He served as an Advisor on Arab Affairs to the Prime Minister and (among other positions) as the former head of Mossad Stations in Iraqi Kurdistan, Iran, and Lebanon. A long-life personal experience in Arab and Middle-Eastern affairs with close watch against the Axis of Evil and terror, lately in light of the „Arab Spring”. Since retirement, he is active in writing books, commentary articles and media interviews, and speaking to various forums in Israel and abroad. Finally, Geizi is Associate at the International Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT) at IDC Herzliya and serve as a consultant.

Dr. Matti Tzarfati-Harkabi is the Chairperson of Yoav Regional Council that provides municipal services to 14 villages (including kibbutzim, moshavim and one Arab village). Prior to her current position, she was a product manager for Hazera – a leading Israeli international agricultural corporation. She was also engaged in public activity in her rural community. She earned her PhD from the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University.

Dr. Mira Tzoreff is a Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and African Studies and Lecturer, Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Tzoreff participated in a conference at the Western Galilee College on Peace Processes in the Middle East (March 2010), where she lectured on Mubarak and the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Agreement: Continuity or Change?” In May, she delivered a paper at Israel’s Middle East and Islamic Studies Association’s annual meeting at Ben Gurion University in Be’er Sheva on „From the Personal to the Collective- The Biography of May Ziadeh as a Reflection of the Attitude of Egyptian Society of her time towards „Others” and Strangers.”

Mr. Yoav Tzruya is an experienced investor, executive and general manager.  His investments include CyActive (acquired by Paypal), ThetaRay (co-investment with General Electric), Morphisec (co-investment with Deutsche Telecom, GE), Coro.net, ScadaFence, SDO, Uponit, AnyClip and others.  Hi is specializing in cyber security, media, Internet, value-added services and online content. His experience includes venture capital investments, board memberships, portfolio management, as well as executive positions in General Management, Marketing, Product Management, Sales, Business Development, Corporate Development, Strategy and R&D.

Mr. Matan Uberman, Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy, IDC Herzliya

Brig. Gen. (res.) Sima Vaknin-Gil is the Director General of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern studies and a Master’s degree in national security studies, both with distinction. She served for 30 years in the Israeli Air Force’s intelligence division and was the IDF’s chief military censor for the last 10 years.

Dr. Anann Wahabi, University of Haifa, specializes in National Security, National Defense, Strategic Thinking
Middle East & Islamic world, Psycological warfare, and Terrorism. Anann analyzes the strategic thinking in the Israeli system, and the ambiguous policy in complex threats.

Prof. Steve Weber works at the intersection of technology markets, intellectual property regimes, and international politics. His research, teaching, and advisory work focus on the political economy of knowledge intensive industries, with special attention to health care, information technology, software, and global political economy issues relating to competitiveness. He is also a frequent contributor to scholarly and public debates on international politics and US foreign policy. One of the world’s most expert practitioners of scenario planning, Weber has worked with over a hundred companies and government organizations to develop this discipline as a strategy planning tool.
Steve went to medical school at Stanford then did his Ph.D. in the political science department also at Stanford. He served as special consultant to the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and has held academic fellowships with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and was Director of the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley from 2003 to 2009.
Steve is the faculty director for the Berkeley Center for Long Term Cybersecurity (CLTC).

Mr. Lior Weintraub is Vice President of The Israel Project. He formerly was CEO of She’arim, the Association for the Empowerment of Jewish Renewal in Israel and was also VP-Clients at Gitam BBDO IM. Mr. Weintraub is a former Spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington DC. He has also served as Chief of staff to the Israeli Ambassador in Washington DC and as Spokesman for the Israeli embassy in New Delhi. Mr. Weintraub holds bachelor degrees in International Relations and Affairs and Political Science and Government, and a Master’s degree in Political Science, Government and Political Communication from Tel Aviv University.

Adv. Dov Weissglas is a practicing attorney and senior partner of Weissglas Almagor, Attorneys at Law and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister. Served as Chief of the Prime Minister’s Bureau. Areas of expertise include trade law, criminal law, military law and civilian law. Received an LL.B. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Mr. Danny Weitzner is the Founding Director of the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative and Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. Weitzner was the United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Internet Policy in the White House, where he lead initiatives on online privacy, cybersecurity, Internet copyright, and trade policies to promote the free flow of information. He also was Associate Administrator for Policy at the United States Commerce Department National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Weitzner has law degree from Buffalo Law School, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Swarthmore College. His writings have appeared in Science magazine, the Yale Law Review, Communications of the ACM, the Washington Post, Wired Magazine and Social Research. In 2012 he was named to the Newsweek/Daily Beast Digital Power Index as a top Navigator of global Internet public policy. He received the International Association of Privacy Professionals Leadership Award in 2013.

Dr. Chaim B. Weizmann of the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) is a Senior level Policy Analyst and management professional, with many years of experience in a variety of Public Management fields, senior government consulting, interaction with foreign country leadership, university teaching in Israel and in the United States, research, and public relations and fundraising. Thorough understanding of the culture, politics and Public Policy of Israel.

Prof. Jerry Wind is the co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel (IDC), and since its founding in 1994, the chairman of its academic council.  Professor Wind previously served as the academic trustee of the Marketing Science Institute (1989-1995), chairman of The Institute of Management Sciences College of Marketing (1974-1975) and chancellor of The International Academy of Management (2000-2006). Professor Wind received his PhD from Stanford University and his MA and BS degrees from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem.is the Lauder Professor and Academic Director of the The Wharton Fellows Program and Director, SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Professor Jerry Wind is internationally known for pioneering research on organizational buying behavior, market segmentation, conjoint analysis, and marketing strategy. He consults with major firms around the world, provides expert testimony in many intellectual property and antitrust cases, and has lectured in over 50 universities worldwide. Professor Wind is one of the most cited authors in marketing. He is a regular contributor to the professional marketing literature, with 22 books and more than 250 research papers, articles and monographs on marketing strategy, marketing research, new product and market development, consumer and industrial buying behavior and international marketing. He is the recipient of numerous academic awards, including the four major marketing awards, The Charles Coolidge Parlin Award (1985), AMA/Irwin Distinguished Educator Award (1993), The Paul D. Converse Award (1996), and The Buck Weaver Award (2007).  His 2004 book The Power of Impossible Thinking: Transform the Business of Your Life and the Life of Your Business, draws on the latest research in neuroscience to explain how a person’s mental models can distort perceptions, creating both limits and opportunities.

Dr. Dana Wolf holds an S.J.D. degree from American University Washington College of Law. Her dissertation title is „Post-Occupation Obligations under the Law of Belligerent Occupation.” Her academic interests and professional background include: International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law and International Organizations and Tribunals, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Negotiations. During the academic year of 2014 – 2015, she was a graduate research fellow at Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation. A native Israeli, Dr. Wolf puts particular emphasis in her academic research on the Israeli-Arab Conflict in light of international law. Prior to joining the Washington College of Law’s S.J.D program, Dr. Wolf was Deputy Director of the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Israel (2005-2009). She obtained her LL.M at New York University School of Law where she served as Israeli Counsel in NYU’s moot court proceedings on the legality of the Security Fence. Upon Graduating from NYU, Dr. Wolf served as Adviser to Counselors for Economic and Social Affairs and to the Legal Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations in New York (2004-2005). She represented the State of Israel at the annual UN Commissions on Peacekeeping; the Status of Women and People with Disabilities. Dr. Wolf received her LL.B from the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel and is a licensed Attorney at Law in Israel where she practiced Criminal Litigation at S. Horowitz and Co., one of the country’s top law firms (2001-2003).

MK Lt. Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya’alon is the former Minister of Defense and a former Chief of Staff of IDF. His military career includes additional senior posts such as Head of Military Intelligence, Commanding Officer of Israel’s Central Command during the days of the Second Intifada. After leaving his position as Chief of Staff, Ya’alon spent time in the think tank Washington Institute for Near East Policy and became a Senior Fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center Institute for International and Middle East Studies. Ya’alon also served as the chairman of the Center for Jewish Identity and Culture at Beit Morasha in Jerusalem. He joined the Likud party in 2008 and entered the Knesset in 2009, where he has served as Vice Prime Minister, Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Minister of Defense.  Ya’alon studied at the University of Haifa, obtaining a BA in Political Science

Dr. Michal Yaari, is an expert on Saudi Arabian foreign policy and lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communications of the Open University.

Prof. Yoav Yair is the Dean of the School of Sustainability at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC). His main research fields include atmospheric electricity, lightning (on Earth and other planets), space weather, solar-terrestrial relations and transient luminous events (sprites). He conducted space-based experiments from the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station and was project manager for the Israeli astronaut mission in 2003 (the MEIDEX). He is the author of several textbooks in the atmospheric sciences and authored and co-authored over 75 refereed papers. Prof. Yair is also an expert on ICT and Learning Technologies, and served as head of the Center for Technology in Distance Education at the Open University of Israel, and Dean of Development and Learning Technologies there, where he supervised the testing, dissemination and research of various new technologies in higher education, with focus on video, digital books and mobile reading devices. Since 2012, he heads the Israeli national Inter-University Center for Learning Technologies. Prof. Yair is an experienced speaker, session chair and organizer of numerous professional meetings (EGU, AGU). He gives public lectures and popular radio talks on various topics in educational technology, astronomy, atmospheric science and space physics. He holds B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Dept. of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Tel-Aviv University.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Danny Yatom was the eighth Director of the Mossad, and served from 1996–1998. He was born in Netanya in 1945. He is a graduate of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in mathematics, physics, and computer science. He is married with five children. Yatom enlisted in the IDF in 1963. He served in many positions during his military service, including as the military secretary of Defense Ministers Arens and Rabin. In 1985–1986, he served as commander of the Steel Formation (162nd Division). In 1987, he became a major general, and served as head of the General Staff’s planning division. In 1991–1993, Yatom served as General of the Central Command, and in 1993–1996, he served as the military secretary of Prime Ministers and Defense Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. In 1996, after the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, Prime Minister Shimon Peres appointed Danny Yatom Director of the Mossad. Danny Yatom was the first Mossad Director whose name was exposed to the public. In 1998, following two operational mishaps, he decided to resign. Most of his term was under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Due to the nature of its work, the Mossad is only exposed when mishaps occur. Regarding the achievements of Danny Yatom’s term, silence is golden. From 1999, he served as Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s security and political chief of staff. He was later chairman of Koor Metals’ board of directors. He was elected to the Knesset twice, in 2003 and 2007, representing the Labor party, and served on a number of Knesset committees. He resigned from the Knesset in 2008, and is now a businessman

Adv. Ben Dror Yemini is a journalist with Yedioth Ahronot. He studied Humanities and History at Tel Aviv University and then pursued a degree in law. After graduation, he worked as an advisor to the Israeli Minister of Immigration Absorption and then became spokesman of the Ministry. In 1984, he began his career as a journalist. His book Political Punch is a critique of politics and society in Israel. Since 2003, Yemini has been the opinion page editor of Maariv.

Dr. Yousef Zaknoun, Director, The Cardinal Martini Leadership Institute, Bethlehem University

Mr. Elias Zananiri is Deputy Chairman of the PLO Committee for the Interaction with the Israeli Society. He is an  East Jerusalem Palestinian journalist and political analyst since mid-70s. In 2003, he joined the government of then Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas as spokesman and media advisor to Mr. Mohammad Dahlan, minister of interior and internal security. A while later, following the resignation of Mr. Abbas from his post, Zananiri joined the Palestinian Peace Coalition, a non-governmental body in the Palestinian Territories that promoted the principles of a two-state solution. He first served as media consultant and then director general until January 2007. At present, Zananiri is back to journalism. He also lectures frequently in Israel on current affairs.

Dr. Benny Zeevi is a Managing General Partner at Tel Aviv Venture Partners and leads the fund Life Science investments. In 2012-15 Dr, Zeevi was the Co-Chairman of the IATI – Israel’s largest non-profit umbrella organization for the High-Tech and Life Science sectors (www.iati.co.il ) and Co-Chairman of the IATI Biomed Conference and is deeply involved in the Israeli life sciences and digital health industries. Dr. Zeevi is a certified Pediatric Cardiologist. From 1990-1998 he was Director of Pediatric Catheterization Unit, Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Israel. Dr. Zeevi was a fellow and a visiting Professor and part-time clinical staff at the Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston.  Dr. Zeevi holds a M.D. degree (Magna Cum Laude) from the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Dr. Ronen Zeidel specializes in the modern history of Iraq and is one of the leading experts in Israel on that subject. He is also an experienced lecturer who has been teaching, over the last 20 years in Haifa University as well as other universities in Israel. He teaches Iraqi history and a variety of other subjects within the past and present of the Middle East, among them: geopolitics of the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, a worm’s eye view of Jewish-Arab coexistence in Israel and others. In the field of coexistence he derives much of his knowledge from living in one of the only truly mixed neighborhoods in Israel and from genuine conviction.

Dr. Raz Zimmt is a junior research fellow at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel-Aviv University and the editor of the weekly Spotlight on Iran, published by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. He completed his PhD at Tel Aviv University in 2011. Raz has contributed numerous reviews for the ACIS Iran Pulse and published articles in other media outlets. His fields of specialization include: modern political history of Iran and contemporary Iranian politics and society.

Prof. Eyal Zisser is the Dean of the Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, and the Yona and Dina Ettinger Chair of Contemporary Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University. He is also Head of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and Africa Studies, and writes extensively on the history and modern politics of Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Syrian support of Palestinian terrorist factions, Iranian involvement in anti-Israeli terror, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. “Lebanon: The Challenge of Independence”, and “Commanding Syria, Bashar al-Asad’s First Years in Power” are among his recent publications. He received his PhD from Tel Aviv University.

Galit Zuckerman is the founder and CEO of Medasense, a medical device company specializing in innovative pain monitoring solutions. Galit founded Medasense upon discovering that while advanced algorithms are used frequently in many different industries such as semiconductors, communication, and many others,  the discipline of medicine and specifically pain is still left behind. Currently pain is primarily determined by the patients self-reporting and a review of their basic vital signs by medical professionals. This year Medasense will start commercializing its first flagship product PMD200 following seven years of research, publications in the most important scientific journals, and strategic investments from leading global medical technology corporations. Galit brings over fifteen years of experience in management and R&D, in both startups and large corporations such as Medasense, Applied Material, Seabridge and Nice Systems.    In addition, Galit has been a technology consultant for several startup companies in the field of signal and image processing, including BoneTone Communications which was successfully acquired by DSPG Inc in 2011. Galit holds an M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering (cum laude, Engineering Faculty Excellence Program) and a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering (cum laude, Adi Lautman special program for outstanding students TAU) from Tel-Aviv University. She is also a graduate of the elite Israeli Defense Forces Haman Talpiot program.