Asher Gendelman, right, of the Israeli company Agent VI, which develops products in video intelligence, speaks with Kristy Jeffries and Dwayne Handwerk, executives from the Princeton-based Sarnoff Corporation, at the April 1 conference designed to foster partnerships between Israeli and U.S.-based companies in the homeland security arena.
Photos by Johanna Ginsberg
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April 9, 2009
It didn’t take long for the Israeli company Magna BSP Ltd. to penetrate the American market.
By the time a mid-morning break at an April 1 conference on homeland security technology in Newark took place, Israeli company representatives had shown off their high-tech technologies, and Magna had landed an American partner, AXCESS Technology Inc.
“We are going to partner with Magna,” AXCESS Technology president Peter Mulhard told NJ Jewish News. “They make basic perimeter defense systems. We’re going to try to market to the United States Customs Border Patrol.”
Partnerships like that were the goal of the half-day conference, which took place at NJIT: New Jersey’s Science & Technology University. Eleven Israeli companies had a chance to present their security products to an audience of about 40 mostly NJ-based companies as well as researchers and government representatives.
The conference was sponsored by NJIT, the New Jersey-Israel Commission, the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce & Industry, ZAG S&W, Millennium Communications Group Inc., and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The Israel Economic Mission, which organized the trip from the Israeli side, handpicked the Israeli participants with the help of the Israeli Export Institute, while NJIT officials selected the American participants.
All involved in the conference hoped partnerships would emerge. “The goal is collaboration among Israeli companies and American companies currently working in homeland security and homeland defense,” said William Marshall, vice president of military and government relations at NJIT.
Joe Cooney, a representative of the Israeli company AM Noy — which makes a product that detects, identifies, isolates, and abates chemical and radiological toxins — makes a 10-minute presentation at the conference held at NJIT in Newark.
Peter Mulhard and Dorothea Smith, representing the Connecticut-based AXCESS Technology, Inc., found a business partner in the Israeli company Magna BSP Ltd. at the April 1 conference.
Yair Shiran, who heads the NY office of the Israel Economic Mission, helped organize the conference. “Our goal is to help Israeli companies penetrate the United States market, and meet with potential strategic partners for collaboration,” he said.
The conference was part of a two-day program for the Israeli companies that included a meeting on March 31 with the Port Authority of NY and NJ, in which the Israeli businesses met with procurement officials and other representatives of each of the Port Authority divisions.
Both days were productive for Asher Gendelman, representing the Israeli company Agent VI, which develops products in video intelligence.
“Yesterday was about the end user, and today is about getting the product to market,” he said at the conference. He was thrilled that the March 31 meeting attracted key security personnel from the Port Authority. “Everyone was there. Normally, you can’t get them,” he said.
At the conference, he pointed out representatives of some of the large U.S. companies like Sarnoff and Raytheon. “We see some different businesses, some of the 800-pound elephants,” he said.
During the mid-morning break, plenty of cards were exchanged, and several lively conversations occurred between Israeli businesses and American companies.
Gendelman spent some time with two representatives of Sarnoff, business development manager Kristy Jeffries and product manager Dwayne Handwerk, who attended in part to scope out the competition.
The conference “really helped us in identifying the synergies from other companies — where we might play nicely, and where we are potentially competitive,” said Jeffries. She and Handwerk also came “to look at how far along the evolution of their technology is as well — is it actually field ready or still in the concept phase? — and compare that against our products and services.”
Gendelman was optimistic about the length of time it might take to seal a deal. “It depends how aggressive you are; sometimes it takes 10 minutes — we might be able to do it at lunch. On our side, because we are a small business, we can move very quickly; sometimes on the larger company’s side, it takes a couple of meetings.”
Shiran was a bit more conservative: “These type of industry and business procurement [deals] are not made after one meeting, but there were some good interactions and hopefully we’ll have tangible results.”
In a corporate version of speed-dating, each Israeli company had 10 minutes to present their products and innovations. Participants also heard from a panel of experts on homeland security. Joseph Picciano, deputy director of the NJ Office of Homeland Security Preparedness, served as the keynote speaker.
Shiran asked the panel to describe the positives and negatives, and perhaps some of the challenges, they have encountered working with Israeli companies. Thomas Robison of Raytheon described a major hurdle presented by intellectual property rights, saying that everyone wants credit, and no one wants to share information.
Later, a representative of Haifa-based Elbit Systems described a series of meetings between his company and Boeing that broke down over intellectual property rights. He said Boeing wouldn’t say exactly what they needed in a product, and his company declined to describe their solution fully for fear of giving away design secrets.
“The deal disintegrated,” he said.
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