About the speakers:
Amir Rapaport is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Cybertech and Israel Defense. He is an author and veteran military correspondent for Israeli publications such as Maariv and Yedioth Achronot, researcher at the Begin-Sadat Strategic Studies Center, and the host of the "Security Strip" Radio program.
Israel Defense is a media company specializing in print and digital content, conference and exhibition management, and the publication of books and magazines in the field of defense, cyber, innovation, technology, and security. Publications include the ground breaking "Israel Defense" magazine, a bi-monthly publication providing expert analysis and review of current events from the Israeli and global defense and cyber world.
Israel Defense’s flagship event is the Cybertech Conference & Exhibition, the leading cyber innovations conference and the largest cyber commercial conference outside of the U.S. The Cybertech Conference & Exhibition serves as an international dialogue for the leaders of the field and industry, in addition to the foremost display of innovation & technologies.
Amir is one of Israel’s premier experts on Israel’s cyber, hi-tech, and defense industry and you can find his analysis on israeldefense.co.il.
He holds a B.A. in Economics and Business Administration from Ben Gurion University and an M.A. in Political Science from Bar Ilan University. He has two kids and lives outside of Tel Aviv.
Dr. Yossi Vardi is one of Israel’s early entrepreneurs. He co-founded, led, funded and helped build more than 80 high-tech, energy, natural resources, and clean-tech companies. Many of them went public, including Tekem, Alon Energy, Granite Hacarmel and many more. As the founding investor of Mirabilis Ltd, - the creator of iCQ - Vardi co-pioneered instant messaging.
Vardi was chairman of the board of trustees of Jerusalem Foundation, Weitzman Institute, Hebrew University, the Open University and the Technion. He was an advisor to the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, CEO’s of Amazon, AOL, Siemens Albis, and Allied–signal, member of the World Economic Forum, and Co-chairman of the EU-Israel business dialogue.
He was the director general of Ministry of Development and Ministry of Energy, chairman of Israel National Oil Company, and Israel Chemicals. He participated in the peace talks with Egypt, Palestinians, Jordan and Syria.
