Meeting of the Minds at Annual Milken Conference

Jon Medved, CEO of the Israeli crowd-funding venture OurCrowd, looked out upon a prestigious gathering at the 2015 Milken Institute Global Conference on April 29 and declared 2014 “the year of the Israel IPO.”

As part of a session called “Beyond Start-Up Nation: Israel’s Growth Platform for Global Innovation,” he discussed Israel’s prominence on the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, saying those two American stock indexes saw many IPOs (initial public offerings) from Israeli businesses last year.

Mobileye, an Israeli company whose car security systems help drivers avoid collisions, enjoyed Israel’s “biggest [American] IPO ever,” Medved said, raising $890 million over the summer.

The Los Angeles native also said these IPOs represent how the country once known as “start-up nation” is now becoming more like “exit nation.” His presentation featured a
PowerPoint slide that listed a “minyan of billion-dollar exits,” 10 companies that have left Israel for the United States. One of the most famous examples of this trend is Waze, a mobile navigation app that was sold off to Google in 2013, reportedly for more than $1 billion.

The annual conference drew some 3,500 people to approximately 200 events at the Beverly Hilton Hotel April 26-29. High-powered speakers included the likes of Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Entertainment, and Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corp., talking about trends in global entertainment. Tony Blair, former prime minister of Great Britain, closed the conference. Admission to this year’s gathering cost $10,000-$12,500.

And while some attendees listened to California Gov. Jerry Brown downplay the danger of the state’s current drought — “We’re not going to run out of water,” he said during a  Wednesday lunchtime conversation. “It’s not possible.” — a breakfast held earlier in the day included approximately 30 Israeli and American leaders from the worlds of academia, politics, business and science who expressed concern about California’s water health — and the importance of learning from the Jewish state.

“California is today what Israel was a decade ago,” Lee Wallach, board president of environmental nonprofit Faith2Green.com, told the Journal, echoing remarks he’d made during the meal. “Israel has been battling [water] issues since it was born. Israel has that expertise. We’re way behind. … We must be bold and can take some of the lessons learned from countries such as Israel.”

L.A. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield — who as an assemblyman introduced the legislation that formed the memorandum of understanding between California and Israel to boost economic cooperation (it was was approved in March 2014 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Brown) — also attended the breakfast. He heads a task force between Los Angeles and sister city Eilat to cooperate on things such as water technology.

“Our sister city relationship is with Eilat, to explore issues that are of mutual benefit where we can both learn from each other,” he said.

Milken Community Schools instructor Roger Kassebaum said students at his school who compete in robotics, publish in scientific journals and developed ideas that have been turned into patents, are an untapped resource and could be useful in Israel-California partnerships.

“So I think you have to look at human capital now as young. Young people inspired at young ages can do … [great] things,” he said.

Dana Erlich, Israeli consul for culture, media and public diplomacy in Los Angeles, said the passion of the people in the room is what will fuel success going forward.

“The will is here, and we are all here because we will it,” she said.

At lunchtime, outside of the hotel, the sun beat down on men and women dressed in suits and chic business attire, former Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy Delshad among them, as cars crawled by on jammed-up Wilshire Boulevard.

The panel with Brown coincided with lunch. Attendees dined on chicken and desserts at round tables as the governor and Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon participated in conversation with Michael Milken, chairman of the Milken Institute.

Brown did not specifically discuss his co-signing of the memorandum of understanding between Israel and California around water conservation issues, energy and more during the conference. He was more concerned with issues such as climate change, calling it a pressing issue even though the general public doesn’t perceive it as immediate a crisis as ISIS or the Iran nuclear threat.

“This isn’t news, but it’s important stuff,” Brown said, one day before he made headlines over comments related to cutting carbon emissions.

Among those attending this year’s conference was Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a former Republican candidate for Congress in New Jersey, who found time to attend both the Israel panel and to relax by the hotel pool, exchanging his suit for a T-shirt as well as a towel wrapped around his waist.

“A lot of people are here to meet others,” Boteach said. “You know that constant social interaction is a very important part of this conference.”

Blumenfield, who rushed off after Wednesday’s breakfast for a budget meeting downtown, told the Journal that the conference was well worth stopping by for.

“It is a very prestigious conference with a lot of critical information exchanged, and you go around and the people you run into are all very high-caliber, interesting people who have ideas,” he said.

“And it creates not only a prestigious [image] for the city, but hopefully it creates actions, things, ideas, pilot programs, demonstrations, connections that are made in Los Angeles and with Angelenos individually and with us as a city collectively.”