Business Scene

Ambassador Zalman Shoval has been elected for a second two-year term as president of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
jib.awards.298.vote (photo credit: )
jib.awards.298.vote
(photo credit: )
Advocate Len Judes was recently elected chairman of the Israel British Chamber of Commerce, succeeding Amnon Dotan who led the Chamber for eight years. Dotan has been elevated to the position of President of the Federation of Bi-National Chambers of Commerce, replacing David Simcha who has completed a four-year term. Dotan is Chairman and CEO of Readymix Industries (Israel), a leading producer of raw materials for the construction industry. Ambassador Zalman Shoval has been elected for a second two-year term as president of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce. Shoval who has twice served as Israel's ambassador to the US is the owner of the Bank of Jerusalem, chairman of the Export Investment Corporation and of the FaireFund First American Israeli Real Estate Fund. More than 400 companies representing 70 percent of Israel's overall trade with the US are members of the Chamber. In addition, the Chamber has established the Forum of American companies in Israel. The forum's focus is to assist US firms in the conduct of their business in Israel and to enhance their involvement in the local market. Headed by Gus Felix, the general manager of Citibank, the forum currently comprises 38 large US companies operating in Israel. REPLACING Yaacov Dori as deputy manager of Tempo is Amotz Bachar, 40 who previously worked in managerial positions with Strauss-Elite. An industrial engineer by training, Bachar also holds an MBA. His field of expertise is in supply logistics. This is the area for which he will be responsible in his new post. THE new director of the Friends of Tel Aviv University is Sigal Adar who previously headed TAU's students social integration division in which capacity she was responsible for fund raising, activating social projects and training people in social awareness and initiative. In tandem with her work at the university, Adar was also involved in training programs for women embarking on social welfare projects. From 1997-2000, Adar worked for the Ministry of Social Affairs. While in the IDF, she was an education officer. ISRAEL Prize laureate Prof. Asher Koriat who heads the Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making at the University of Haifa has been awarded the Rothschild Prize for Social Sciences for 2006. An eminent psychologist who works in experimental research, Koriat has won numerous awards over the years. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Science. THE financial publication TheMarker Magazine, will have a new editor in Chief from the beginning of March. Michael Dagan, 38 will succeed Sagi Chemetz who is taking leave of absence to study abroad but who will continue to contribute features and personal columns. Dagan has been deputy editor of the magazine for the past three years. LAWYER and television personality Pnina Dvorin has been appointed to the board of directors of the Israel Electric Corporation. ELECTRA CEO Shlomo Sherf is stepping down from the company's top job after 30 years in a variety of management positions including 15 as CEO of Electra Real Estate. Sherf will retain the latter post, but will be succeeded as CEO of the Electra Group by Itamar Deutscher 42, who is leaving Danya Cebus, where he served as CEO for nine years, in order to join Electra. His appointment becomes effective January 15. THE Foundation for Jewish Campus Life opened a Hillel program at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. The new Hillel chapter which was launched on Monday, offers Jewish programming and extracurricular activities to the 3,200 undergraduate and graduate students studying on the IDC Herzliya campus. The IDC Hillel Director is Ishai Ashkenazi, an IDC alumnus. The Hillel Israel Steering Committee is headed by Joseph Ciechanover, the chairman of The Challenger Fund Group. A lawyer by profession Ciechanover is a member of the Israeli and New York State bars. He is a former director-general of the Israel Foreign Ministry, a former president of PEC-Israel Economic Corporation, a former chairman of the Israel Discount Bank and a former chairman of the Board of El Al Airlines. He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute. TRANSPORTATION Minister Meir Sheetrit has appointed Shaul Tzemach, 37, the deputy head of the budgets division at the Ministry of Finance as acting chairman of the Israel Airport Authority. Tzemach has for three years sat on the IAA Council as the representative of the government, and has served as the chairman of the council's finance committee. The appointment was made with the approval of Finance Minister and acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. THE prestigious $100,000 Charles Bronfman Prize established by the children of philanthropist Charles Bronfman in honor of his 70th birthday, will be awarded today, January 10, to Dr. Alon Tal, from the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Studies. The ceremony will take place in the Jerusalem Municipality Council Chambers in the presence of Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski. The panel of judges that selected Tal includes former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, former justice minister Dan Meridor and the Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Silverman. Tal is an expert in environmental law and policy. He holds degrees from the University of North Carolina and the Hebrew University. He completed his doctoral studies at Harvard University where he served as an adjunct faculty member between 1989 and 1998. In 1990, he returned to Israel to found Adam Teva V'din - the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, a public interest advocacy group, which is now Israel's second largest environmental organization. In 1996, he founded the Arava Institute, where he served as Director and more recently as Director of Research. Tal served as Chairman of Israel's umbrella group for environmental organizations between 1999 and 2004 and is presently on the Board Directors of the Jewish National Fund.