December 12, 2022
Yudelevich retires after 17 years in the position. The Bird Foundation supports collaborations between Israeli and American technology companies. Chairman of the Innovation Authority: “Eitan expanded the vision of the fund to new fields of activity”
After 17 years, Dr. Eitan Yudelwitz is retiring from his position as CEO of the BIRD Foundation, which promotes cooperation in technological R&D projects between Israeli and American companies. The person chosen by the foundation’s board of directors to succeed Yudelevich in the position is Yaron Lotan, who currently serves as the vice chairman of the Aharon Institute for Economic Policy at Reichman University. Lotan will take up his position at the beginning of March.
Yaron Lotan brings with him to the BIRD fund extensive experience in senior key positions in a variety of technology companies. He served as CEO of AVT, which was sold to Danaher, and before that served as Senior Vice President for Business and Operations at Gilat Satellite Networks, and as CEO of Technomatics. In the past he served as Senior Vice President for Business and Strategy at Orbotek and was a co-founder of the software company “Rash Systems Kushbot”. Yaron has a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics and a master’s degree in economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Mujada Behar, director of innovation and industry at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and co-chair of the BIRD Foundation’s Board of Directors, said: “We thank Dr. Eitan Yudilevich for leading the fund and expanding its activities and influence, through the development of the BIRD Energy and BIRD HLS (national security) programs. Under his leadership, the fund’s grants were expanded for investments in diverse fields such as: medical technologies, pharma and environmental technologies. It also contributed to the growth in the number of collaborations between small and early-stage companies. We look forward to working with Mr. Yaron Lotan as we acclimatize to the many changes in the innovation industry in the US and Israel.”
Dr. Ami Applebaum, Chief Scientist, Chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority, and Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the BIRD Foundation, added: “In addition to implementing many mutual collaborations in the private sector, Eitan expanded the foundation’s vision to new areas of activity, in cooperation with the US Department of Homeland Security and the Israeli Ministry of Internal Security, as well as the US Department of Energy and the Israeli Ministry of Energy. These and other actions strengthened the foundation’s reputation as a significant body in the field of technology and innovation of the two countries”
$10 billion in sales
The Bird Foundation works to encourage collaborations between Israeli and American companies from the various fields of technology, and assists free of charge in locating strategic partners from both countries, for the purpose of developing a joint technology or a joint product. The foundation supports projects that have been approved by the board of directors of the foundation by providing conditional grants of up to one million dollars for the realization of the project.
Since its establishment in 1978, Bird has supported more than 1,000 projects with a total investment of more than $360 million, of which approximately $110 million has been returned to the foundation as royalties. According to the fund’s estimation, all the projects that have matured into a commercial product have so far generated direct and indirect sales of over 10 billion dollars.
The collaborations forged under the foundation have grown over the years to a long series of technological and commercial successes. Although Bird is not a venture capital fund but more of an incentive fund, it does select its projects carefully and in a competitive process according to technological standards and commercial potential. Even after the awarding of the grant, Bird continues to monitor the progress of the projects, and this is because in the event that the development matures into a commercial product, Bird is entitled to receive royalties from sales up to 150% of the amount of the grant.
Listen to a special program from our podcast dedicated to the work of the Bird Foundation [22/4/2020]:
Posted in categories: News
Posted in tags: Eitan Yudolevich, Yaron Lotan, Keren Bird
