Biotech companies in Israel are announcing layoffs. Global financial woes will no doubt filter through to the clean tech industry as well.
Atlantium, when I covered the company for ISRAEL21c last year they seemed so hopeful about the future… has also announced layoffs recently. Fifteen people were let go.
CEO Ilan Wilf said in Globes, “The company continues to march forward and has made significant achievements, but it must adapt to the challenges of the times so that we can deal with the business environment.”
Where’s the cleantech market headed and how with this affect development in Israel and the Middle East?
Maybe it’s just time to scale-down, separate the wheat from the chaff, and invest in and push forward companies with a clear and advanced business model.
Cleantech startup hopefuls, academics, and investors may find Ernst&Young’s GreenEconomy Conference this November 20-21 at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv to be useful for understanding where business focus should be headed in this turbulent time.
According to event organizer CleanIsrael, which offers a 15% discount to members of the group (free to join), the conference will feature multi-national cleantech companies, including GE’s EcoMagination, Plug Power, BP Alternative Energy, Virgin Green Fund and the Cleantech Group as well as local cleantech investment leaders Israel Cleantech Ventures, Terra Venture Partners, AquAgro and others.
Among the organizers is the NGO umbrella group Life and Environment.
A bonus is that cleantech companies will present themselves during the sessions. For more information and to register, please visit http://www.reg.co.il/cleantech/. Bloggers interested in covering the event may be able to squeeze through the registration line with a press pass and avoid the registration fee. But it would be wise to ask in advance. The day’s agenda can be downloaded here (PDF), with the following sample seminar titles and speakers provided here on Green Prophet for your convenience:
Cleantech – enabling the business response to climate change
Introduction: Jeff Renaud (Director, Ecomagination, GE)
Panelists: Neil Auerbach (Managing Partner, Hudson Clean Energy Partners)
Nir Gilad (President & CEO, Israel Corp.)
Michael Goguen (General Partner, Sequoia Capital)
Nick Parker (Co-Founder and Chairman, Cleantech Group)
Climate change as a corporate opportunity
What’s the response of corporations? What do they need? Best practices in partnerships and joint ventures.
Panelists: Zane Gresham (Partner, Morrison Foerster)
Dr. Noam Gressel (Co-founder & Managing partner, Elysium-Carbon Trade & Investment)
Dr. Markus Thill (Managing Director, Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH) investment to a successful company
Emerging Cleantech companies from initial investment to a successful company
Panelists: Stephane Dupont (UBS Global Asset Management)
Prof. Emanuel Manzurola (Partner, Luzzatto & Luzzatto)
Astorre Modena (General Partner, Israel Cleantech Ventures”>Terra Venture)
::GreenEconomy Conference Website
Author: Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist and publisher that founded Green Prophet to unite a prosperous Middle East. She shows through her work that positive, inspiring dialogue creates action that impacts people, business and planet. She has published in thought-leading newspapers and magazines globally, owns an IoT tech chip patent, and is part of teams that build world-changing products to make agriculture and our planet more sustainable. Reach out directly to [email protected]
The biotech companies I am speaking of are not producing GM crops. They are developing new medicines, medical devices and solutions that can alleviate the world’s health problems.
“Biotech companies in Israel are announcing layoffs.”
If that means less money wasted on researching genetic modification of crops, then the economic crisis will pay unexpected dividends for the environment.