Prof. Ton Backx received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. Electrical Engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) from 1972-1977. After gaining some working experience in industry, he returned to TUE for his PhD focused on Systems Identification and Model Based Process Control which he finished in 1987. He attained a position as part-time professor at TUE in the Control Systems group in 1990. or the past two decades Ton has had senior management positions within Setpoint, AspenTech, IPCOS and Eindhoven University of Technology. Ton Backx is specialized in the field of process identification, model based process control and model reduction and its applications to a wide range of processes in hydrocarbons processing, chemical processing, glass manufacturing and steel production.

Mr. Assaf Barnea, CEO of Sanara Ventures is a seasoned entrepreneur and a venture capital professional with significant multidisciplinary experience in building innovation platforms and commercialization processes in Healthcare and Cleantech. Sanara Ventures is a healthcare investment platform, jointly held by Teva Pharmaceuticals and Philips Healthcare, aimed to invest in early stage medical devices and healthcare technologies. Mr Barnea is also a business consultant at the World Bank/IFC venture capital team, supports the IFC investments in technologies that are relevant for developing countries. Formerly, Mr. Assaf was the CEO of Kinrot Ventures, managing the Business Development activity at Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, and Director Business Development of Comverse. Mr. Assaf holds a degree in Law & Business.

Raoul Bino is strategic advisor to the Executive Board of Wageningen University & Research (WUR). He is specialized in Food Technologies, Plant Sciences, Biochemistry and Metabolomics with special attention to human health. Raoul has experience as board member of many Dutch research and education programs, and is chairperson of the program board of OnePlanet Research Center and strategic advisor of a number of startup companies.

Uzi de Haan is professor (Em.) at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and visiting professor at Cornell Tech in NYC. His area of research and teaching is entrepreneurship and innovation. He received his first degree at the University of Delft, Holland in aeronautical engineering and his M.Sc. and D.Sc. at the Technion in industrial engineering and management.

Uzi de Haan is professor (Em.) at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and visiting professor at Cornell Tech in NYC. His area of research and teaching is entrepreneurship and innovation. He received his first degree at the University of Delft, Holland in aeronautical engineering and his M.Sc. and D.Sc. at the Technion in industrial engineering and management.

Prof. Uzi de Haan rejoined the Technion in 2003 as professor at the faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management.

Jan Hak, eldest in the Hak family, founders of HAK B.V. (one of Europe's largest glass preserves enterprises) has education and experiences covering all aspects of agro-food value chains from field to market. Especially with focus on business development in the potato, fruit and vegetable sectors as well as in integrated regional land development.

Following graduation from Wageningen University his professional activities started in the Middle East in engineering and product development for the preserves and dairy industry. Responsible for manufacturing and logistics at HAK family company, which experienced turbulent growth and rationalization, added 'hands-on' experience and proved essential qualifications later on in the supervisory board of HAK and other agro-food companies.

Jan Hak, active worldwide, founded his private holding ‘Qua Ter Nes’ specialised in agro-food technology, supply chain optimization and land development. Later ‘Clootwijck Beheer’ holding was added, specialised in products and systems for the agro-primary sector. As serial entrepreneur he established several successful start-up companies.

Jan Hak also holds several public functions both on national as well international level, stimulating economic cooperation, good governance and preserving the (natural) environment. He has been president of the Dutch Association for Manufacturing Enterprises for the Food Industry (GMV/FME). At present he is President (Co-founder) of Associations Netherlands Agro, Food and Technology Centres for Africa and Middle East (NAFTC’s), Vice President (Co-founder) of Metropolitan Food Security and Chairman of Federation Africa-Netherlands for Economic Cooperation (FANEC). He serves also as member of several Supervisory Boards of Dutch family enterprises and international companies.

Daniela Kandel is the Director of Innovation Bridges, leading the Global Finder Network initiative and Country Relations at Start-Up Nation Central (SNC).

Daniela is building a global web of ecosystem development organizations that utilize the same infrastructure, share best practices and develop opportunities for multilateral collaboration. In addition, leading the team managing country initiatives such as India. Prior to this, Daniela established SNCs department focused on alleviating the shortage of human capital in the Israeli ecosystem, played a pivotal role in developing SNC’s strategy, and facilitating academic relations.

Before joining SNC, Daniela spent a few years in government, focusing on financial innovation, social entrepreneurship and impact investing. Developing the first social impact bond for the prevention of type 2 diabetes, designing the tender for a social impact fund, and promoting the inclusion of disadvantaged populations in the workforce.

Ms. Kandel holds a Masters’ degree in Financial Economics and a Bachelors’ in Economics and Statistics, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Eugene Kandel is a Professor of Economics and Finance at the Hebrew University, and the CEO of Start-Up Nation Central, a non-profit promoting Israeli technological innovation. Between 2009 and 2015 he served as the Head of the Israeli National Economic Council (NEC) and the Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Kandel holds BA and MA in Economics form the Hebrew University and an MBA and a Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Chicago. Prior to the Hebrew University, Kandel served as a Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester.

Dr. Levy is the Senior Deputy Director-General of Agricultural Innovation at the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture where she helps promote entrepreneurship and innovation in the Israeli Agtech industry. Dr. Levy helps developing the Israeli ecosystem by connecting all the stakeholders such as companies in all stages, investors, academic researchers, etc. She holds deep knowledge of the Israeli and global Agriculture markets from various aspects.

After years of academic research at UC Davis, CA and The Weismann Institute, Dr. Levy transitioned to the business world combining her in-depth understanding of technology with the markets’ business needs. Prior to her appointment as the Senior Deputy Director-General, Agricultural Innovation, Dr. Levy served as VP, Head of Business Development Agritech, Veterinary & Environment at Yissum, the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Dr. Levy was appointed in 2017 as a board member (by the Minister of Agriculture) to the “Israeli peanut council”.

Between 2010–2018, Dr. Levy served as the Deputy Mayer of Oranit (volunteer position) and as a board member in the “Oranit Municipal Financial Corporation”.

Iddo Moed is the Cyber Security Coordinator in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also a member of the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security. Iddo Moed joined the MFA in 1992 and was posted in several missions around the world including The Dominican Republic, The Hague and Beijing (DCM). Positions in Israel included Head of the Training Department, Assistant to the Director General and Assistant to Senior Deputy Director General. As Coordinator he is responsible for the formulation and coordination of policies regarding international cooperation in cyber security.

Guido Pardo-Roques is an Italian-Israeli businessman. He is the president and CEO of Philips Israel and CEO of Philips Medical System Technologies which constitutes the Israel Commercial and Industrial branches of the multinational corporation Royal Philips Electronics.

He was project manager of the CT Twin, the world first Multi-Slice CT scanner launched by Elscint in 1992, for which he was awarded the Rothschild prize for Innovation in 1996. In 1992–2006, he assumed the role of Head of CT R&D for Elscint, Picker and Philips. In 2007, he was appointed CEO of Philips Medical Systems Technologies. In 2012, Pardo-Roques became the president and CEO of Philips Israel.

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).

Uri Rosenthal is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet Rutte I from October 2010 until November 2012. He previously served as a Member of the Senate from 1999 until 2010 and the Parliamentary leader in the Senate from 2005 until 2010.

A professor of political science and public administration by occupation, he taught from 1980 until 2010 at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Leiden University. Moreover he served as vice-president at the Dutch Organization of Academic Research (NWO).

As of 1 March 2013, Rosenthal is chairman of the Policy Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI). He has been nominated by the Dutch Government to serve as the Special Envoy for the fourth International Cyberspace Conference to be held in 2015. Moreover, he is involved with many boards, such as Governor International Development Research Center in Canada till 2018, the Council for Civil-Military Care and Research (veterans care), member of the Advice Council of the Brazilian-Dutch Chamber of Commerce, commissioner of Global Commission on Stability of Cyberspace, and advisor Crisis Research Center at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Chen Sagiv is the co founder and co CEO of SagivTech, a computer vision and AI projects company as well as the co founder and co CEO of DeePathology, a company that aims to disrupt pathology with AI.

Prior to establishing SagivTech Chen worked as algorithms developer in Israel and the Netherlands.

Chen is also the co founder of the largest computer vision and AI event in Israel: IMVC – Israel Machine Vision Conference.

Besides her professional activities Chen volunteers as a Math teacher for at risk youth and she serves as a member in the committee to promote women in science and technology at the Israeli Science and Technology Ministry.

Chen holds a BSc. In Physics and Mathematics, MSc. in Physics and a PhD. In Applied Mathematics all from the Tel Aviv University and did her post doc at the University of Bremen in Germany.

Nili Shalev, Director General of ISERD - The Israel-EU R&D Directorate at the Israel Innovation Authority, has more than 20 years of experience representing the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry in a wide range of executive positions.

Appointed to her present position in the summer of 2016, Mrs. Shalev is responsible for the implementation of the Israel-EU agreement on Research and Development, Horizon2020, creating support- infrastructure and initiating activities for promoting industrial and academic R&D cooperation between Israel and Europe through a variety of multilateral and binational platforms.

Since first joining the Ministry in 1995, Mrs. Shalev was the Director of the Government SEED Fund at the Office of the Chief Scientist, a multimillion dollar support program aimed at providing incentives for prospective investors in Israeli high-tech start-up companies. She also served as the Advisor to the Director General of the Ministry. From 2004 – 2008, she served as the Israeli Trade Commissioner in Australia and New Zealand. In 2010-2011 Ms. Shalev served as the Director of the International Projects and Financing Department managing several multimillion dollar funds in order to promote and finance Israeli industries. And prior to her recent appointment, from 2011-2016, she served as the Economic Minister to North America of Ministry of Economy and Industry in NY, responsible for promoting trade and investment between North America and Israel.

From 2008-2010, Mrs. Shalev was employed in the private sector as Marketing Director for Miya, an Arison Group company that offers comprehensive water efficiency solutions for municipalities.

Ms. Shalev holds an MBA (1996), an MA in Communications (1996) and a BA in International Relations (Cum Laude, 1989-1992), from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is married with two children.

Dr. Efrat Shefer is the President of Philips Israel. Formerly, Efrat was the GM of Philips Imaging Clinical Applications business and prior to that founded the Oncology Informatics venture at Philips focusing on informatics and decision support solutions for oncologists. Efrat is a board member of IATI (Israel Advanced Technologies Industries) , a board member of Ashoka Israel- an NGO advancing social entrepreneurship and a member of 8400 a Healthcare networking NGO.

Efrat holds an M. Sc. and a Ph.D. in Physics from the Weizmann Institute of science and a B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics from the Hebrew university of Jerusalem.

Gideon Soesman is co-founder and managing partner of GreenSoil Investments, which has offices in Toronto, Canada and Ra’anana, Israel and funds companies with transformative technologies that change how we use the world's resources. GreenSoil's activities are concentrated in two investment funds: GreenSoil Agro & Food Technologies Fund (GAFT) and GreenSoil Building Innovation Fund (GBIF). Before co-founding GreenSoil, Gideon founded and managed GMS Capital, a boutique investment bank. Prior to GMS Capital, Gideon was responsible for all global merger and acquisition activities for a major division of Royal Philips Electronics and managed deals valued at over $1.5B. At Philips, Gideon also served as Director of Corporate Strategy & Venturing, with overall responsibility for all deal flow management, due diligence, deal negotiations, and portfolio management in Israel.

Gideon holds a B.A. in Economics from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and an M.A. in Business Administration from the Boston University / Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He immigrated to Israel from the Netherlands in 1990.