How Emerging Economies Grow Entrepreneurs: The Case of Israel

Through a series of keynotes and panels, participants focused on how Israel rose to be the entrepreneurial powerhouse that it is today. Israeli venture capitalists, representatives from leading Israeli high tech companies, and scholars from Israel and the US participated.  Panels on "Ambitions: The case of three companies" and "Mentors" considered entrepreneurship "from the ground up" during the morning. The afternoon sessions focused on entrepreneurship "from the top down." A panel on "Global Networks" was followed by a closing keynote conversation with one of Israel's most successful entrepreneurs, Eitan Wertheimer.

The conference was recorded and is available for viewing on the Dickey Center's YouTube channel. Photos of the day's events also were posted to the Dickey Center's Flickr account. The agenda for the day follows.

Agenda

Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Georgiopoulos Classroom, Raether Hall, Tuck School of Business
Dartmouth College

8:15am
Continental Breakfast for All Attendees
Outside Georgiopoulos Classroom

8:45am
Welcome

• Daniel Benjamin, Director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding, Dartmouth
• Liat Aaronson, Executive Director, Zell Entrepreneurship Program, IDC Herzliya
• Paul Danos, Dean, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth

9:00am
Keynote: "Israel - A tale of two countries; the relationship between start-up nation and the rest of the Israeli economy." Guy Rolnik, Founding Editor of TheMarker website and financial daily

Entrepreneurship from the Ground Up

10:00am
Panel 1: “Ambitions: The case of three companies”
Moderated by: Liat Aaronson, Executive Director, Zell Entrepreneurship Program, IDC Herzliya

Panelists

• Eyal Gura: “Picscout”
• Jonathan Aharon: “Formlabs”
• Yaron Carni: “Lab Pixies”
• Dartmouth Respondent: Steve Kahl, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Tuck School of Business

11:30am
Break for All Attendees
Coffee/Snacks, Outside Georgiopoulos Classroom

11:45am
Panel 2: “Mentors, Private and Public”
Moderated by: Curtis Welling, Senior Fellow, Center for Business & Society, Tuck School of Business

Panelists

• Yadin Kaufmann: “The Venture Capital Front”
• Liat Aaronson: “Can Entrepreneurship be Taught?” and “Government Incubators”
• Eyal Toledano via Skype: “Israeli Military: Innovation Driver and Network Builder”
• Dartmouth Respondent: Adam Kleinbaum, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Tuck School of Business

1:15pm
Lunch

Entrepreneurship from the Top Down

2:00pm
Panel: Global Networks
Moderated by: Sydney Finkelstein, Associate Dean for Executive Education, Tuck School of Business

Panelists:

• Glenn Yago: “Capital Markets as Infrastructure”
• Bernard Avishai: “Direct Foreign Investment by Globals”
• Nava Swersky Sofer: “Universities, Patents, and Network Effects”
• Dartmouth Respondent: Jamie Coughlin, Director of New Venture Incubator Programs and the DEN Innovation Center and New Venture Incubator 

3:30pm
Break for All Attendees
Coffee/Snacks, Outside Georgiopoulos Classroom

4:00pm
Keynote: "Eitan Wertheimer in Conversation"

5:30p
Closing Remarks