Prominent Israeli Business Executives celebrated with Students and Young Professionals from the US, Canada, Mexico and Israel the Annual Birthright Israel Excel Program

Birthright Israel Knows Business

Prominent Israeli Business Executives celebrated with Students and Young Professionals from the US, Canada, Mexico and Israel who took part in the Annual Birthright Israel Excel Program

The fellows enjoyed a unique internship at leading companies and professional training & mentorship from Israel’s top executives endowing them with a =deep understanding of the Startup Nation’s business scene

Birthright Israel’s business leadership program, Birthright Israel Excel, held its closing ceremony last week (July 8), at its Center for Israeli Innovation in partnership with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The ceremony was held in the presence of managing partner at EY Israel and chairman of Birthright Excel,Yoram Tietz, Co-founder of Magma Venture Partners, Modi Rosen, General Partner & Founder at Viola Credit in Israel, Ruthi Simha, CEO at The Time Ido Pollak, Founder & CEO at FairFly, Aviel Siman-Tov and Gidi Mark, International CEO of Birthright Israel, as well as Excel Fellows, benefactors, mentors, partners and entrepreneurs.

At the closing ceremony of Birthright Israel Excel’s 2018 cohort, top Israeli chief executives celebrated with 54 students from 30 top universities in the US, Canada, and Mexico the conclusion of their 10-week professional business internship or startup pre-accelerator experience. During the course of their internships, the students received professional and personal mentoring from the companies’ leaders. The students were accompanied by 54 Israeli students and IDF officers who also took part in the program this summer.

The students, who were carefully chosen from thousands of candidates by Birthright Israel Excel, stayed in Tel Aviv for two months, during which, they got to meet with Israeli leaders from various fields, take part in tours and professional workshops and go through personal business mentorships and professional-academic internships that allowed them to get to know the Israeli business sector firsthand. CEOs from Israel’s top companies who met with the program’s participants included: CEO at Facebook Israel, Adi Sofer Teeni, Microsoft CEO of R&D Assaf Rappaport, Yossi Matias, Vice President, Engineering, at Google and the Managing Director of Google’s R&D Center in Israel, CEO at LeumiTech, Yifat Oron, Founder, CEO at Healthy.io Digital Healthcare Yonatan Adiri, CEO at The Time Ido Pollak, Journalist and Creator of the TV show “Fauda” Avi Issacharoff among many others.

Upon their return to the United States, Canada and Mexico, the participants will join Birthright Israel Excel’s broad community of Fellows, of approximately 700 members, where they will deepen their involvement with the community and focus on social and business activities. They will enjoy professional and personal mentorship provided by the fellowship’s advisors, who consist of senior businesspeople and philanthropists involved with the Jewish community and Israel.

Photo Avishai Finkelstein