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Technion puts the "I" in IP
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Technion, often referred to as Israel’s MIT, is
turning "golden eggs" into "golden nuggets." According to successful
entrepreneur Dan Vilenski, Israel’s "raw material"--the brain power of its
scientists and engineers—combined with business leaders around the world, has
resulted in Israel hosting the greatest concentration of high-tech startups
anywhere outside of Silicon Valley.
Distracted CEO? Ditch the stock
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A recent study correlates personal issues of CEOs and the companies’ stock
prices. For example, when a CEO’s child died, stock prices slid 20% on average
in the following two years, but in the case of a mother-in-law dying, the stock
went up. And what about CEOs who write books and build big houses? Neil has
surprising results.
A Technion, alumnus, Dan Vilenski has had a
successful business career spanning more than 35 years. He currently owns a
business that actively supports several Israeli start-up companies, and is in
the beginning stages of starting a subsidiary of some American companies in
Israel.
His impressive record includes the chairmanship of Applied Materials (Israel),
a NASDAQ-listed company with upwards of 1,300 employees; serving as executive
director of the BIRD Foundation, which spearheads innovative industrial
cooperation between Israeli and U.S high tech companies; the position of vice
president of KLA Instruments (Israel) Corp.; and as the senior vice president
and managing director at Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. He also was a
research fellow in the field of high-speed machine tools at Carnegie-Mellon
University in Pittsburgh, PA.
In addition to his business and entrepreneurial leadership, Vilenski is active
in several industrial and educational programs in both the United States and
Israel. He has served on the boards of the Haifa/Technion Science museum, the
Israeli Young Entrepreneurs program, and the Technion International Board of
Governors. Vilenski also has been on the cutting-edge of high technology as a
board member of the Israeli National Nanotechnology Initiative.
Vilenski received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1964 and
his master’s degree in the field of automation in 1967, both from the Technion.
He also received a master’s degree in business administration from Haifa
University in 1976, and attended a summer program for executives at Stanford
University in 1982.
Vilenski lives in Haifa with his wife, with whom he has five children. He was
born in Binyamina, Israel and graduated from a vocational school associated
with the Technion. Following high school, Vilenski served in the technical
support group of an armor unit.
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