IATI MNC Forum

IATI MNC Forum members

About IATI IATI MNC Forum is a part of the IATI- Israel Advanced Technology Industries- which is Israel’s largest umbrella non-profit organization for the Hi Tech and life science industries which brings together as members about 500 companies of Israel’s eco system. For more information go to

IATI promotes and supports the entire ECO-SYSTEM VC funds TTO MNC Researchers Government Mature Israeli companies Angels Entrepreneurs Academia Start-ups Incubators Hospitals Community Service providers Foreign gov., public & private entities Accelerators Related industry organizations

IATI MNC Forum The IATI MNC Forum brings together the leaders of the leading Multinational R&D centers in Israel to promote and advance common interests of these centers in Israel. The Forum is led by a Steering Team and runs 6 work groups.

The IATI MNC Forum Vision and Mission The IATI MNC Forum is the leading forum of the global R&D centers in Israel and acts as a forum for the leaders of these R&D centers to interact and collaborate around common interests for the benefit of the parent companies, the local hi-tech ecosystem, and the Israeli community and economy. The IATI MNC Forum will represent and position the Global R&D centers in Israel in front of local Israeli entities (academia, government, media, education system, community) for the benefit of all mutual interest contributing to the forum and for the cause of its establishment.

Method The IATI MNC Forum’s focus and actions should be executed through its workgroups and its members will address and make progress on a set of agreed upon topics. Academia Work Group Education Work Group Communications & Branding Work Group Collaborations Work Group Government Relations Work Group MNC HR Forum

IATI MNC Forum Work Groups Positioning and Communications Work Group: Handling all communication aspects of the forum including press presence, get relevant information to members, track changes in the industry, and provide facts about Israel and the hi-tech ecosystem, including creating a presentation for the use of the members. Collaboration Work Group: Seeking opportunities for the MNCs in Israel to collaborate where competitive reasons do not prevent that from happening.

IATI MNC Forum Work Groups Academic Collaboration Work Group: Expanding various aspects of MNC collaboration with academic institutions, including how to enable and simplify IP transfer and sharing, how to efficiently utilize academic expertise, exposing MNCs to academic research and vice versa, organizing joint events, etc. Government Collaboration Work Group: This workgroup reviews existing government programs and how to use them effectively (ex. employment grants for headcount growth). The workgroup also seeks opportunities to improve government processes and policies that will encourage additional investments of global companies in Israel.

IATI MNC Forum Work Groups Education Work Group: This workgroup focuses on growing the engineering and technical capacity of hi-tech in Israel by taking actions that will increase the number and quality of students graduating from high-school and universities with a diploma in Engineering, Computing, Science & Math. HR Work Group the work group collaborates to address the high tech industry challenges as well as the unique issues of Israeli sites of Multi National Companies.

Forum Top Priorities Create and develop hi-tech talent - Short-term benefit should derive through shortening the hiring turnaround time (example could be work to include talent pools not present enough in hi-tech today such as women and qualified resources from the religious and/or Israeli’s Arabs communities). - Mid-term, by increasing STEM students at the academia, influence curriculum of Colleges and Long-term benefits by increasing the number of potential STEM students in high schools. Create visibility and positive perception of the Israeli R&D centers in the eyes of the parent companies by demonstrating/proving the ROI of developing ideas and projects in Israel Maintain and increase the competitiveness of R&D in Israel

IATI MNC Forum steering team the MNC Forum is led by a Steering Team that is headed by Yoram Yaacovi of Microsoft, Erez Tsur of Cadence and Roni Yore of IATI. For more information:

Yoram Yaacovi General Manager, Microsoft Israel R&D Center Yoram is the general manager of the Microsoft Israel R&D center, responsible for all technology activities in Israel, including the R&D centers in Haifa and Tel Aviv, new core R&D projects, and partnering with the local venture-capital community and academic institutions. Yoram started his career at Elbit Computers. In 1984 he joined Intel where he worked in engineering, consulting and training roles. In 1993 Yoram joined Microsoft in Redmond where he spent 11 years in software development and development management roles. Between 2004 and 2008 Yoram was a Vice President at Amdocs (NYSE:DOX) - a leading telecom software provider. In 2008 He returned to Microsoft to act as CTO of the Microsoft Israel Development Center (ILDC) and General Manager for technologies at ILDC. Yoram is the co-author of 23 patent applications (7 approved so far) and several IETF RFCs. He has a BSc in Computer Science from the Technion.

Erez Tsur Erez Tsur is General Manager at Cadence Design systems Israel (CDNS). Tsur also acts as a Board member of the IATI. In his recent roles at Cadence Design Systems, Tsur was Head of international Business and services Development and Director of business and product development EMEA where he architected programs to respond to the critical challenges facing entrepreneurs and venture capital firms. In his professional career prior to Cadence Design Systems, Tsur held several senior management and product marketing / development positions at Snapshield, Aloda Information System and Amit Software Engineering. Erez Tsur holds a B.A in communications and computers from Bar-Ilan University and an MBA in marketing and risk management from Heriot-Watt University.