5-27: American-Israel Chamber of Commerce to Honor Israeli Company of the Year and Deal of the Year

May 26, 2009 - PRLog -- Contact: Mitch Leff, Leff & Associates, (404) 861-4769, mitch@leffassociates.com

May 27: American-Israel Chamber of Commerce to Honor Israeli Company of the Year and Deal of the Year Winners at 8th Annual Eagle Star Awards Gala

Asaf Vitman, Minister for Economic Affairs, to be Israeli Keynote Speaker
   
ATLANTA, May 26, 2009 – The American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region (AICC), will honor its Israeli Company of the Year and Deal of the Year at the 8th annual Eagle Star Awards Gala on May 27.  Georgia Power will host the event at its headquarters from 6 – 9 p.m. (241 Ralph McGill Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30308).  Three companies, Baran Telecom, Precision Components International, and Verint Systems, are competing for the Israeli Company of the Year award.  Three transactions, EMS/Starling, Jacada/Nationwide Insurance, and Southern Company/NICE are competing for Deal of the Year.

The Eagle Star Gala is AICC’s community flagship event, honoring the people and companies who have contributed most to the Southeast-Israel business relationship.  In addition to awarding the Israeli Company of the Year and Deal of the Year, the Chamber will also recognize Georgia Safety Fire and Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine with the Chamber Founders Award and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) with the Community Partner Award.

Georgia Power president and CEO Michael D. Garrett will be the host keynote speaker for the event.  WXIA Atlanta & Company Host Holly Firfer will be the Emcee.

Asaf Vitman, Minister for Economic Affairs for the U.S., will be the event’s Israeli keynote speaker.  Vitman was recently appointed to his position, where he will work to promote the economic relationship between the United States and Israel based upon mutual trust and cooperation.
•   Vitman was the CEO of the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA), a governmental agency created to assist with developing the city of Jerusalem. He also served as the CEO of EDEN - The Company for the Development of Jerusalem's City Center.
•   He initiated multidisciplinary projects in Jerusalem including infrastructure, transportation and industrial development projects that promote higher education, culture and employment.
•   Prior to serving at the JDA and Eden, Vitman was a fellow at The Mandel School for Educational Leadership. In the 1990s, he worked as a senior economist, first at Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and later at David Boas Economic Consultant Ltd., gaining wide experience in all major sectors of the Israeli economy and business community.

Israeli Company of the Year Finalists
•   Baran Telecom (www.barangroup.com) – Beit Dagan-based global provider of engineering, technology and construction services established the U.S. headquarters of its telecommunications division in Cumming, GA in 2002, and in the last four years, has tripled its revenue to more than $64 million a year.  In 2008, was contracted by Nokia Siemens Network to assist in deployment of NSN’s 3G network with their customer T-Mobile that achieved a significant majority of the Southeast markets from Atlanta to Miami with over 1,800 completed sites.  As many as 60 crews were managed from the Cumming office, and the project created more than 400 direct/indirect jobs in the Southeast.
•   Precision Components International (www.pciga.com) – Nahariya-based Blades Technology Ltd. established its U.S. subsidiary in Columbus, GA in 1995. Operating from a 270,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility, PCI manufactures high-quality jet engine compressor blades and vanes made from stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, and nickel-based super alloys, counts as customers the top three jet engine manufacturers in the world, and has expanded into other fields such as medical equipment and golf.  The company employs 350 people in Georgia, and over the past three years, has invested $12 million in new equipment and creation of 70 new jobs.
•   Verint Systems (www.verint.com) - Tel Aviv-based company acquired Atlanta-based Witness Systems in 2007 for $950 million, resulting in Verint Witness Actionable Solutions, its largest division.  The company has 2,500 worldwide employees, with approximately a quarter of that number based in the company’s Tel Aviv location and 250 in the Georgia office---one of its engineering, product management and IT hubs---including an expansion from support operations relocated from offshore.   Offering innovative solutions in enterprise workforce optimization and security, the company has 400 patent registrations and applications, with major customers in the Southeast and worldwide.

Deal of the Year Finalists
•   EMS (www.ems-t.com) / Starling (www.starling-com.com) – Norcross, GA-based company and Yokneam-based company formed a partnership in 2008 to combine the best of their respective technologies for airborne satellite antenna systems into a joint product for in-fight entertainment service providers. A key global service provider selected them to design, develop, certify, manufacture, and support a satellite communications antenna system for its new in-flight connectivity service.  The system will give airline passengers the same mobile wireless connectivity options they enjoy at the home and office. The EMS-Starling broadband Ku-band antenna system provides reliable connectivity and worldwide coverage at unprecedented speeds and quality. The deal further strengthens EMS’s and Starling’s leadership as comprehensive solutions providers in the fast-emerging aero-connectivity market.
•   Jacada (www.jacada.com) / Nationwide Insurance (www.nationwide.com) – Herzliya-based company with corporate headquarters in Atlanta developed a unified desktop solution for major national insurance carrier that integrates the 26 different business systems that Nationwide already had.  Jacada’s  WorkSpace solution delivered a re-engineered, “intelligent” view of customer data and process, which essentially eliminated the chaos on the customer service reps’ desktops and allowed them to spend more time helping customers and less time navigating systems.   It is now deployed to 900 customer service representatives across 5 call centers.   Value of the deal is more than $5 million.
•   Southern Company (www.southerncompany.com) / NICE (www.nice.com) - Atlanta-based energy utility expanded its strategic implementation of NICE Systems’ SmartCenter solution to create a more integrated, comprehensive contact center technology environment, replace competing recording and quality management solutions, and add screen content analytics.  The system helps improve agent performance and deliver the highest quality of customer service possible to the company’s more than four million customers. The deal represented an opportunity for NICE to align itself with a utility-industry leader and showcase their ability to help companies do more with the resources they have.

The event website, www.eaglestargala.com, features all the event details and offers the ease of online ticket purchasing.

For further information on the event, contact Tom Glaser at aiccse@aiccse.org or call 404-843-9426.

About the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce
The American-Israel Chamber of Commerce is a bi-national business association with the mission of increasing economic development by fostering understanding, cooperation, and business relationships between Israel and the Southeast. Since its founding in 1992, AICC has been involved in completed transactions valued at more than $950 million, creating jobs and benefiting the economies of both Israel and the Southeast.  AICC targets a range of projects involving import, export, research & development, direct investment and joint ventures.  Key areas of focus include software, telecommunications, cleantech, life sciences, real estate, and security.  For details, visit www.aiccse.org.