Speaker

Liat AARONSON

Executive director - Zell Entrepreneurship Program

Liat Aaronson, Adv., is the executive director of the Zell Entrepreneurship Program at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, an avant-garde private university in Israel. The innovative venture creation program allows undergraduates in their final year of study to experience entrepreneurship hands on. She holds a B.A. in political economy of industrial societies (economics and political science, cum laude) from the University of California at Berkeley, an LL.B. and MBA from Tel Aviv University, and an LL.M. in European law from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands (cum laude). She became a member of the Israel Bar Association in 1999, after completing her internship at Kantor, Elhanani, Tal & Co. She attained practical experience in mergers and acquisitions and new ventures, as an associate attorney at Naschitz, Brandes & Co., a position she held until joining IDC Herzliya in 2005. Liat was a director of StartUp Seeds, a young technology entrepreneurship hub; teaches and is in charge of the venture creation curriculum at MEET Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow a program developed in conjunction with MIT and set to bridge between Palestinian and Israeli high school students through entrepreneurship and technology education; and volunteers for several years with Olim Beyahad to help academics of Ethiopian descent find gainful employment in their field of study. She is a mentor at the Elevator and on the advisory board of Nielsen Innovate. In addition, she teaches a week-long venture creation course entitled “Creating a Web Start Up” at the Technische Universitat Darmstadt since July 2012 and is part of their research team in the area of IT and Law. In November 2009, she attended TEDIndia and then was a co-organizer of TedxTelAviv in April 2010 and TEDxHolyland in October 2010 and TEDxIDC in 2013. She was mentioned as one of the 10 leading female technology leaders in the No Camels article on the 10 Israeli Women who put Quality in Equality in June 2014 and Women2.0 2015 10 Top Women Founders and Leaders to Watch.  She mentors at Nielsen Innovate incubator, 8200 Social Program, Elevator Fund and EcoMotion and helps numerous startups independently.