past conference event 2017

2017 Event

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2017 Photo Gallery
2017 Video Gallery
2017 Timetable
2017 Speakers
2017 Award Winners

2017 Photo Gallery

2017 Video Gallery

2017 Timetable

DAY ONE | TUESDAY, OCT 31, 2017

	Main Hall - 'Rovina' Fuel Choices Summit	'Habima 4' Hall Side Event	'Bertonov' Hall Side Event	'Rovina' Gallery B2B Area	'Habima' Square
07:15	Side events' registration
08:30	Side events' registration	08:30 - 12:30 A Roundtable on Smart and Autonomous Public Transportation: Collaboration Between Leading Cities in Israel and in Europe For city representatives, by invitation only
09:00	08:00 - 11:00 Fuel Cells - Workshop Side Event		08:30 - 12:00 International Cooperation in Transport under the EU Horizon 2020 Program
09:30				09:30 - 12:30 B2B Meetings (Pre arranged)
10:00					10:00 - 17:00 Startups Exhibition
11:00
12:00	Summit's Registration
12:30	Summit's Registration
13:00	Official Opening of the Summit MC: Mr. Elliott Gotkine Welcome & Opening Remarks Dr. Anat Lea Bonshtien, Chairman and Director of the Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Initiative
13:10	Opening Lecture: The Israeli Approach to Smart Mobility & Alternative Fuels Dr. Anat Lea Bonshtien, Chairman and Director of the Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Initiative
13:30	Digital Transformation & Mobility for All Keynote Speech Peter H. Harris, Chief Customer Officer, Volkswagen Group
13:45	Redefining Mobility - The Automotive Industry Approach Keynote Speech Dr. Youngcho Chi, Chief Innovation Officer Strategy & Technology, Hyundai Motors Group
14:05	Redefining Mobility - Where the Automotive Industry is Heading Moderator: Eyal Rosner, Founder, Beyond Mobility Panel Discussion: Dr. Zhang Wensong, Senior Vice President and Chairman of Engineering and Technology Committee, Didi Eran Sandhaus, Vice President Services, Delphi Electronics & Safety Mark Joseph, Global Chief Development Officer, Transdev Jim Adler, Managing Director and Board Member, Toyota AI Ventures
14:50	Networking Break			15:00 - 17:00 B2B Meetings (Pre arranged)
15:10	A New Era - Autonomous Mobility Moderator: Michael J. Granoff, Founder and President, Maniv Mobility Panel Discussion: Mats Rosenquist, Director External Research Collaboration, Volvo Group Trucks Technology Alex Starns, Technical Program Manager, Lyft Rani Wellingstein, CEO and Co-founder, Oryx Dror Jerushalmi, CEO & Co-founder, Valens
16:00	Redefining Mobility – Roadmap to Electric Cars Gilles Normand, SVP, Electric Vehicle Business, Renault
16:15	Future Energy and Mobility – Batteries and More... Moderator: Dr. Bracha Halaf, Chief Scientist, Ministry of Energy Panel Discussion: Andreas Schamel, Director Global Powertrain Research & Advanced, Ford Bart Biebuyck, Executive Director, FCH JU Virgilio Cerutti, Vice President Group Business Development, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Doron Myersdorf, CEO and Founder StoreDot Paul Smith, Director, Future Mobility Hubs Eric Partington, Director of Product and Technology Planning, Lear E-Systems
17:05	End of day one

17:20 - Transportation to Intercontinental Hotel for the Gala Dinner (*Participation in the Gala is by invitation only)

18:00 - Gala Reception

19:00 - 21:30 Gala Dinner and Prize Ceremony

SECOND DAY | WEDNESDAY, NOV 1, 2017

	Main Hall - 'Rovina' Fuel Choices Summit	'Bertonov' Hall Side Event	'Rovina' Gallery B2B Area	'Habima' Square
08:15	Registration and Refreshments
09:00	Registration and Refreshments		09:00 - 11:00 B2B Meetings (Pre arranged)	09:00 - 17:00 Startup Exhibition
09:00	Welcome & Opening Remarks MK Mr. Yuval Steinitz, Israel's Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources
09:10	From Tel Aviv to the Mobility of the Future Keynote Speech Luca de Meo, President of the Executive Committee and CEO, SEAT
09:25	Redefining Mobility – Regulation Under Uncertainty Moderator: Elliott Gotkine Panel Discussion: Dr. Young Tae Kim, Secretary-General of the International Transport Forum (ITF) Elliot Katz, Chair at McGuire Woods Gloria Boyland, Corporate Vice President, FedEx Ola Altera, Strategic Advisor, Sustainable Innovation
10:10	Smart Mobility in Cities Moderator: Gunnar Heipp, Director of Strategic Planning Projects Department, Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG) Panel Discussion: Lauren Sager Weinstein, Chief Data Officer at Transport for London Oren Shoval, Co-founder, Via Alex Barth, Vice President of Business Development, Mapbox Nisso Moyal, Director of Business Development and Big Data, Mobileye Lu Haifeng, General Manager, SAIC Israel Innovation Center
10:55	Networking Break
11:10	Big Data and Mobility Moderator: Dr. Yoram Turbowitz, Board Member of Champion Motors Panel Discussion: Scott Corwin, Global Future of Mobility Leader, Deloitte Ben Volkow, Co-founder & CEO, Otonomo Igal Raichelgauz, CEO and Founder Cortica Daisy Cai Wei, Partner, Baidu Venture Jarmila Placha, Head of Skoda Auto DigiLab	11:00 - 13:00 Smart Ports and Smart Maritime Mobility Technologies
12:00	Revolution of Clean Vehicles – Lowering Air Pollution in Israel Yisrael Dancziger, Director General, Ministry of Environmental Protection
12:10	Future Energy and Mobility - Infrastructure & Grid Moderator: Albert Cheung, Global Head of Analysis, BNEF Speakers: Albert Cheung, Global Head of Analysis, BNEF Dr. Joachim Kolling, Head of Energy Services, BMW Group Robbie Diamond, SAFE’s Founder and CEO Dr. Torben Fog, Head of e-Mobility Solutions E.ON
12:55	Lunch Break
13:55	Interview: Ratan Tata, Former Chairman Tata Sons Moderator: Eyal Rosner, Founder, Beyond Mobility		13:30 - 16:30 B2B Meetings (Pre arranged)
14:15	Samson Prize Winners Moderator: Elliott Gotkine Engineering Yeast for Production of Advanced Biofuels Prof. Jens B Nielsen, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden Battery Research for Smart Mobility: Achievements and New Directions Prof. Jean-Marie Tarascon, College the France
14:55	Cleaning the Air - Government Efforts to Integrate Smart Mobility in Urban Areas Moderator: Daniella Gera Margaliot, Deputy Managing Director, Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Initiative Panel Discussion: Daniel Zucker, Head of Local market Implementation, Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Initiative Michele Ziosi, Head of Institutional Relations Europe, Middle East, Africa Asia Pacific, CNH Industrial Gil lazer, CEO of CAR2GO and Active Chairman of GoTo Amiram Ohayon, Business Development Director, Egged - Israel Transport Cooperative Society Ltd Amir Zalzberg, Head of Transportation and Fuel Department at Ministry of Environmental Protection
15:40	Networking Break
16:00	Smart Mobility Made In Israel Moderator: Ariel Sella, Managing Director Capsula Studio Panel Discussion: Omer David Keilaf, CEO & Co-Founder, Innovitz Keren Fanan, Global Head of Growth, Gett Hagai Zyss, CEO, Autotalks Oren Ezer, CEO, Electroad Dror Meiri, VP Business Development, Adasky
16:45	Participation of Hungary in the Global Autonomous Vehicles Development Arena Hungarian State Secretary Prof. Dr. Mr László Palkovics, Coordinator of the Hungarian Autonomous Vehicle Program
17:00	Closing Remarks Dr. Anat Lea Bonshtien, Chairman and Director of the Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Initiative
17:15	End of day two

2017 Speakers

Click here for the full list of speakers

Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister of Israel

MK Mr. Ofir Akunis

Israel's Minister of Science, Technology and Space

Ofir Akunis serves as a Member of Knesset for the Likud Party, and Minister of Science and Technology. His prior positions include Minister in the Communications Ministry, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection, and Chair of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee.

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MK Mr. Yuval Steinitz

Israel's Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources

Yuval Steinitz is Israel's Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources, in charge of Israel Atomic Energy Commission and a member of the Security Cabinet. He is a member of the Knesset from the Likud party.

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Eli Groner

Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office

Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Israeli head of the China-Israel Joint Economic Task Force, oversees the National Cyber Bureau, and was designated by the government to lead Israel's National Intelligent Mobility Initiative. Mr. Groner graduated from Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, and has an MBA from New York University.

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Dr. Anat Lea Bonshtien

Chairman and Director, Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Initiative Prime Minister's Office

Dr. Anat Lea Bonshtien serves as the Chairman and Director of the Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Initiative, at the Prime Minister's Office. Dr. Bonshtien holds a MSc and a PhD in Biochemistry from Tel-Aviv University, Israel. In addition, Dr. Bonshtien is a former Mimshak Fellow, a science and policy fellowship program which integrates scientific knowledge with decision making.

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Ratan N Tata

Former Chairman, Tata Sons

Ratan N Tata was the Chairman of Tata Sons, one of the two promoter holding companies of the Tata group, from 1991 till his retirement in 2012. Mr. Tata is also associated with various organizations in India and overseas. He is the chairman of two of the largest private-sector-promoted philanthropic trusts in India. He is a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry. He is the president of the Court of the Indian Institute of Science and chairman of the Council of Management of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

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Dr. Young Tae Kim

Secretary-General of the International Transport Forum (ITF)

Ole Harms

CEO, MOIA - Transportation on Demand Services

Ole Harms is the CEO of MOIA, Transportation on Demand Services. Prior to MOIA, Harms served as an Executive Director, Head New Business Models & Mobility Services at Volkswagen Group.

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Dr. Youngcho Chi

Chief Innovation Officer Strategy & Technology, Hyundai Motors Group

Dr. Chi is the Chief Innovation Officer in charge of the Strategy & Technology at Hyundai Motor Group. Previously, he worked at Samsung Electronics as the Executive VP in charge of the Corporate Strategy. He has 30 years of global ICT industry experience, and holds a Ph.D. in Fracture Mechanics from Brown University.

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Luca de Meo

President of the Executive Committee and CEO, SEAT

Italian business executive and since 2015 serves as the CEO of SEAT. He has been Member of the Board of Management for Sales and Marketing at AUDI AG since 2012. Mr. de Meo held various positions at Renault, Toyota, Lancia, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Volkswagen AG, AUDI AG and SEAT.

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Eran Sandhaus

Vice President Services, Delphi Electronics & Safety

Eran Sandhaus is vice president, Services, Delphi Electronics & Safety. Prior to Delphi, Sandhaus held multiple executive and senior leadership roles since 1996 at Cypress Semiconductors, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Marvell Semiconductors leading business and product development in the networking, mobile and IoT market segments.

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Andreas Schamel

Director Global Powertrain Research & Advanced, Ford

Director Global Powertrain Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford. Previous Chief Engineer Powertrain at Ford. Schamel holds a PhD in Automotive from Loughborough University, in Loughboroug, UK.

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Ola Altera

Strategic Advisor, Sustainable Innovation

Strategic Advisor at Sustainable Innovation and previous state secretary for the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communication for the Swedish Government.

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Mats Rosenquist

Director External Research Collaboration, Volvo Group Trucks Technology

Director External Research Collaboration, Volvo Group Trucks Technology. Hwe specialize in Intelligent Transport Systems & Services. He holds an MSc in electrotechnology.

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Lu Haifeng

General Manager, SAIC Israel Innovation Center

Mr. Lu Haifeng is the General Manager of SAIC Israel Innovation Center. With the master degree of Mechanical Engineering and EMBA, Mr. Lu has twenty years’ experience in automobile sector globally. Mr. Lu has led R&D teams globally in leading vehicle OEMs as well as components companies within SAIC.

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Amir Zalzberg

Head of Transportation and Fuel Divisionת Ministry of Environmental Protection

Amir Zalzberg is the head of the Transportation and Fuel Division at the Ministry of Environmental Protection. He is in charge on formulating policy to reduce harmful emissions to air from transportation and fuel combustion.

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Bracha Halaf

Acting Chief Scientist Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources, Israel

Chief Scientist (Acting) and Senior Manager, Oil Replacement Program, at the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources. Dr. Halaf holds M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and Ph.D in Biophysics from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

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Dr. Nili Mandelblit

Director of Aerospace, Transport, Nano materials and production, Research infrastructure, ISERD

Dr. Nili Mandelblit is the director of the Space, RI, Transport and NMP programs in ISERD. Holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science, and a B.Sc. in Computer Science. Before, she specialized in marketing and business development in international software companies.

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Daniel Zucker

Head of Local Market Implementation, Fuel Choices & Smart Mobility Initiative

Daniel Zucker is head of Local Market Implementation at the Fuel Choices & Smart Mobility Initiative within the Israeli Prime Minister's Office. Daniel leads the Initiative efforts' to promote the usage of both CNG and electric transportation. In addition, Daniel coordinates the progress of the Israeli National Plan for Smart Mobility.

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Eyal Rosner

Founder, Beyond Mobility

Founder of Beyond Mobility. Prior to this, Chairman of the Fuel Choices & Smart mobility Initiative, under PM Netanyahu. In the past, CEO of the BMG and Vice President at Bankers Trust.

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Peter H. Harris

Chief Customer Officer, Volkswagen Group

Peter has been with the Volkswagen Group since late 2010 and is currently driving the digital transformation across the Group focusing on Customer, Retail & Marketing. Prior to Volkswagen Peter held senior marketing and brand positions with both Vodafone Group and The Coca-Cola Company.

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Paul Smith

Director, Future Mobility Hubs, BP

Paul Smith is the Director for Future Mobility Hubs, a position he has held since January 2017 where he is responsible for identifying and developing material, scalable and sustainable mobility opportunities for BP’s Downstream business in a low carbon, digitally enabled future.

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Eric Partington

Director of Product and Technology Planning, Lear E-Systems

Bart Biebuyck

Executive Director, FCH JU

Bart Biebuyck is the Executive Director of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU). Prior to this, Mr. Biebuyck served as a Technical Senior Manager at Toyota Motor Europe.

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Dr. Zhang Wensong

Senior Vice President and Chairman of Engineering and Technology Committee, Didi

Dr. Zhang Wensong is senior vice president and chairman of Engineering and Technology Committee at Didi. Prior to Didi, he worked in Alibaba Group as vice president of Alibaba and CTO in AliCloud. He is also the founder and developer of the Linux Virtual Server project.

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Gunnar Heipp

Director of Strategic Planning Projects Department, Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG)

Gunnar Heipp is the Director of Strategic Planning Projects Department at the Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG), the Public Transport Company of Munich. He is responsible for all the infrastructure projects to develop the metro, bus, tram system of Munich, as well as the development of MVG as a multimodal and fully integrated mobility provider. This includes e.g. a multimodal mobility platform, carsharing, a Bikesharing system (MVG Rad), investment program in E-Mobility for the city of Munich, autonomous vehicles, etc.

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Dr. Joachim Kolling

Head of Energy Services, BMW Group

Dr. Joachim Kolling specializes in developing future digital services for BMW Group. He was part of BMW´s project i developing the mega city vehicle and co-founded DriveNow, Car Sharing services as well as Digital Energy Solutions Company.

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Virgilio Cerutti

Vice President Group Business Development, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Vice President Group Business Development at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. he has been CEO for Latin America at Magneti Marelli, the Company which first launched the Flex Fuel Technology in Brasil revolutionizing the Country’s energy matrix in transportation

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Hagai Zyss

CEO, Autotalks

Hagai, CEO of Autotalks, has spent over 20 years driving cutting edge technologies from definition to profitable business. Before joining Autotalks, Hagai served as VP R&D at EZchip. Previously, Hagai served in various executive positions at Ceragon Networks. Prior to Ceragon, Hagai served 7 years at the Electronic Research Department, a top research and development unit of the Israeli Defence Forces.

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Albert Cheung

Head of Global Analysis, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF)

Albert manages the global research team at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), the leading provider of independent research on transformation in the energy sector. Albert’s group is responsible for BNEF’s research in renewable energy, energy storage, energy smart technologies and advanced transport, as well as cross-sector modelling.

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Shahar Dave Waiser

Founder and CEO, Gett

Shahar Waiser is a serial entrepreneur. 2005 - Founded and successfully sold Loyalize, a start-up based in SF (acquired by Viggle). 2010 - Founded Gett - the largest international on-demand player by revenues, operating in 52 cities.

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Oren Shoval

CTO / Co-Founder, Via

Oren Shoval is Via's co-founder and CTO. He is a former strategy business consultant at McKinsey, and has spent 10 years in the Israeli Air Force developing and deploying real-time avionic systems. Oren holds a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

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Omer David Keilaf

CEO & Co-Founder, Innoviz

Omer has spent over 15 years driving cutting edge technologies from inception to commercialization. Prior to building Innoviz, he led the system and product definition efforts at ConsumerPhysics, building the world’s first handheld molecular sensor for mobile devices. Previous roles includes leading the system architecture and engineering teams at bTendo and Anobit. Omer spent 7 years in the elite technological unit of the Intelligence Corps of the Israel Defense Forces.

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Elliot Katz

Chair, McGuireWoods

As Chair of McGuireWoods’ Connected and Automated Vehicle practice, Elliot counsels automakers, global tech companies, and municipalities on legal and policy issues pertaining to these types of vehicles, and the greater mobility ecosystem. An advocate who recognizes the important societal and economic benefit of highly automated vehicles, Elliot regularly speaks at automated vehicle events throughout the US and around the world.

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Scott Corwin

Global Future of Mobility leader, Deloitte

Scott Corwin, Managing Director at Deloitte, works closely with leaders across a wide range of industries to successfully develop and implement strategy-based transformations. He also leads Deloitte’s Future of Mobility initiative that aims to systematically explore different scenarios about the potential evolution of the extended automotive, transportation, and mobility ecosystem.

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Michael J. Granoff

Founder and President, Maniv Mobility

Michael Granoff is founder of Maniv Mobility, which became the first Israel-based venture capital firm exclusively focused on the new mobility future. Aside from several startup boards, Granoff serves on the board of Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), a Washington, DC-based policy and advocacy organization he helped establish. Past board roles included that of electric car network developer Better Place.

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Ben Volkow

Co-founder & CEO, Otonom

As founder and CEO of three successful companies, Ben brings an extensive track record and rich entrepreneurial experience. Prior to founding otonomo, Ben served as a Business Unit General Manager at F5 Networks (NASDAQ:FFIV), which he joined after the acquisition of Traffix, where he was Co-Founder and as CEO. Before founding Traffix, Ben managed R&D groups in Sendo (UK), which provided advanced mobile data solutions.

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Daisy Cai

Partner, Baidu Ventures

Daisy Cai, Partner at Baidu Ventures, is leading Baidu Ventures’ technology investments globally. Prior to joining Baidu Ventures, Daisy was China Partner at TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm with AUM $23Bn.

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Doron Myersdorf

CEO & Founder, StoreDot

Mr. Myersdorf brings vast experience in business and technology management to StoreDot. Prior to founding the company, he served as senior director of SanDisk SSD Business Unit. Previously, he was VP Flash and Operations of msystems, a flash memory global leader. Doron’s diverse record also includes founder and CEO of InnerPresence, a Silicon Valley security software company, and co-founder and VP business development of Siftology, a pioneer in interactive media search. Doron holds PhD in R&D Management.

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Rani Wellingstein

CEO & Co-founder, Oryx

Mr. Wellingstein is the CEO & Co-Founder at Oryx Vision. Rani served as VP and GM in Cisco for 3 years, before joining David Ben Bassat as a founder in Oryx. Before Intucell, Rani has co-founded Celltick, a leader in mobile advertising solutions, and was in the founding team of NKO, a VoIP pioneer that was acquired by ECI.

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Shaul Meridor

Director General, Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources

Shaul Meridor is General Manager of the Infrastructure, Energy and Water ministry in the Government of Israel. Previous to Shaul Meridor’s current position, he held the position of Deputy Director of the Budget Department of the Finance Ministry and led the economic plan & reforms of infrastructure sectors such as energy, transportation, aviation, water & agriculture.

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Dror Meiri

VP of Business Development, ADAKSY

Dror Meiri, President of Business Development. Dror is hands-on, visionary business development and strategic planning executive with over 20 years of experience in creating value and achieving growth of technology based companies. Before joining AdaSky, Dror served as Vice President of Business Development for Wilocity.

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Oren Ezer

CEO, ElectRoad

Oren is the Co-Founder and CEO of ElectRoad. Prior to ElectRoad, Oren served as Chief electronic engineer at ElOp, Electro-Optics division of Elbit Systems and led the excellent group for real-time processors.

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Yisrael Dancziger

Director General, Ministry of Environmental Protection

Mr. Dancziger was appointed director general of the Ministry of Environmental Protection on August 2015. Mr. Dancziger Founded and managed several hi-tech companies, including Digital Fuel, which was sold to VMware on 2011.

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Mark Joseph

Global Chief Development Officer, Transdev North America

Mark Joseph is the Global Chief Development Officer of Transdev North America, a company he has built into the largest multi-modal transportation company in North America. An entrepreneur and innovator, Mr. Joseph is passionate about improving quality of life and economic growth in cities and communities through well-designed, multi-modal public transportation.

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Robbie Diamond

Founder, President & CEO, Securing America's Future Energy

Robbie Diamond is the Founder, President and CEO of Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE). Diamond is also the President and CEO of the Electrification Coalition, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit group of business leaders committed to promoting policies and actions that facilitate the deployment of electric vehicles on a mass scale in order to combat the economic, environmental, and national security dangers caused by the nation’s dependence on petroleum

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Lauren Sager Weinstein

Chief Data Officer, Transport for London (TfL)

Lauren Sager Weinstein is chief data officer for Transport for London (TfL). Lauren oversees TfL’s business intelligence / data science strategy, TfL’s data technical platform development, as well as support for data products and services. Originally from Washington, DC, USA, she has degrees from Princeton University and from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

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Igal Raichelglauz

Co-Founder & CEO, Cortica

Igal brings with him extensive experience in algorithms & architectures for high-dimensional and high volume data processing flows. Prior to founding Cortica, Igal was CTO of LCB Ltd. Prior to LCB, Igal was product engineer and technical leader at Intel Haifa product development division. Prior to Intel, Igal was Co-Founder of a start-up company (Figment) providing advanced content services to cellular network providers in Israel.

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Jarmila Plachá

Head of ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab, ŠKODA AUTO

Jarmila Plachá is Head of ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab. Her mission is to help ŠKODA AUTO create future customer driven mobility solutions and support ŠKODA AUTO on its journey to become a Mobility Service Provider.

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Gloria Roberts Boyland

Corporate Vice President of Operations & Service Support, FedEx Corporation

Gloria Roberts Boyland is Corporate Vice President of Operations & Service Support at FedEx Corporation, a $60B global transportation service provider. Mrs. Boyland currently sits on the board of Chesapeake Energy Corporation and the Memphis Brooks Museum, and is a member of the U.S. Department of Transportation Advisory Committee on Automation in Transportation.

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Prof. Jens Nielsen

Systems and Synthetic Biology, Chalmers University of Technology

Jens Nielsen has a PhD from Technical University of Demark. He is currently Professor at Chalmers, Sweden. He has published more than 600 papers, is inventor of more than 50 patents, and has founded several biotech companies. Samson – Prime Minister's Prize Winner for Innovation in Alternative Fuels for Transportation 2017

2017 Samson Prize Award Winner

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Prof. Jean-Marie Tarascon

Professor at the College de France holding the chair “Chemistry of solids – Energy"

Professor at the College de France holding the chair “Chemistry of solids – Energy". Prof. Tarascon present research is devoted to Li-ion, Na-ion batteries and other chemistries with emphasis on developing new eco-efficient synthesis processes and developing novel reactivity concepts. 2017 Samson Prize Award Winner

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Gill Laser

CEO, CAR2GO and Active Chairman, GoTo

Gil Laser has 20 years’ experience managing technology and shared mobility companies. He is the CEO of CAR2GO and Active Chairman of GoTo. As the CEO of CAR2GO, Gil expanded its operations into new cities in Israel and into Europe. He led the Electric vehicle project in Haifa which will be launched this week and he created GoTo, the technological spinoff of CAR2GO.

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Alex Starns

Technical Program Manager, Lyft

Alex is a Technical Program Manager at Lyft's newly announced Level 5 Engineering Center in Palo Alto, California and is focused on the operational implications of autonomous ridesharing and the scaling challenges that will arise as the industry matures.

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Amiram Ohayon

Business Development Director, Egged

Amiram Ohayon is the business development director of Egged, the leading public transportation company in Israel and one of the big bus operators in Europe. He is responsible to lead Egged to new markets and activities, including light rail operation, smart transportation with door-to-door-on-demand solutions for the public transportation passengers, operation of alternative fuels buses and more.

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Alex Barth

Vice President of Business Development., Mapbox

Alex is an open data expert with years of practice in developing and implementing open data strategies and solutions on behalf of multinational organizations like the United Nations and World Bank. At Mapbox, he leads our business development team and oversees partnerships, strategic expansion into new markets, and corporate development.

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Keren Fanan

Global Head of Growth, Gett

Keren Fanan is Gett's Global Head of Growth, leading the 'startup incubator’ within Gett, responsible for growing new products and enter new mobility segments. Previously, she worked as a Product Manager for different tech companies. Keren holds a BSC in Industrial Engineering and Management from Tel Aviv University.

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Michele Ziosi

Head of Institutional Relations Europe, Middle East, Africa Asia Pacific, CNH Industrial, Italy

Michele Ziosi is responsible for CNH Industrial Head of Institutional Relations in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific since 2014. CNH Industrial is global leader in the capital goods sector that designs, produces and sells agricultural and construction equipment, trucks, commercial vehicles, buses and specialty vehicles, in addition to a broad portfolio of powertrain applications.

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Dror Jerushalmi

CEO & Co-founder, Valens

Dror Jerushalmi draws upon over 20 years of high-level international business development, marketing and management experience in the semiconductor industry to steer Valens on a path of growth and success. Dror is currently overseeing HDBaseT’s successful introduction to the automotive market, to optimize in-vehicle connectivity.

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Torben Fog

Business Manager, Head of e-Mobility Solutions, E.ON Denmark

Mr. Fog, is currently serving as head of e-Mobility Solutions at E.ON Denmark. Managing strategy, business and people, providing differentiating customer oriented solutions and delivery capabilities within the e-mobility commercial operation and all its complexity.

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Jim Adler

Managing Director & Board Member, Toyota Al Ventures

Mr. Adler is managing director and board member at Toyota Al Ventures, where he is making early stage investments in talented, tenacious entrepreneurs from around the world in artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous mobility, data, and cloud. Mr. Adler also serves as VP at Toyota Research Institute.

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Gilles Normand

SVP, Electric Vehicle Business, Renault Group

Mr. Normand Gilles Normand started his career at Renault, in 1988. Today he serves as Senior Vice President, Electric Vehicle of Renault Group. He is a member of the Renault Management Committee.

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Prof. Laszalo Palkivics

Hungarian State Secretary, Hungary Government

Hungarian State Secretary, prior to this served as Minister of State for Higher Education. Holds a Ph.D. in engineering vehicle mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Budapest. Mr. Palkovics is Doctor and Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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Dr. Yoram Turbowicz

Board Member, Champion Motors

Dr. Yoram Turbowicz is a Board Member of Allied Holdings & Champion Motors. He served as Chief of Staff, at Prime Minister's Office, The Government of Israel. Dr. Turbowicz also served as Chairman and General Manager of several public companies.

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THE WINNERS OF THE ERIC and SHEILA SAMSON PRIME MINISTER’S PRIZE FOR INNOVATION IN ALTERNATIVE FUELS FOR TRANSPORTATION

Winners of the 2017 Prize

Professor Jean-Marie Tarascon Professor of Chemistry at the Collège de France and Professor Jens Nielsen from the department of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, who share the Prize equally.

These two distinguished scientists have been awarded the prestigious Prize for their innovative scientific and technological contributions that have the potential to lead to the development of alternative fuels for transportation, replacing the fast depleting fossil fuels which are the major fuels used nowadays in transportation. This is the fifth time this prize has been awarded by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space and Keren Hayesod.

2017 Winners

Prof. Jens Nielsen

Systems and Synthetic Biology, Chalmers University of Technology

2017 Samson Prize Award Winner

Jens Nielsen has a PhD degree (1989) in Biochemical Engineering from DTU, and was appointed full Professor there in 1998. In 2008 he was recruited as Professor to Chalmers, Sweden, where he is currently directing a research group of more than 60 people. Jens Nielsen has published so far more than 600 papers that have been cited more than 42,000 times (current H-factor 102). He is inventor of more than 50 patents and he has founded several biotech companies. He is member of the seven academies including National Academy of Engineering and Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.