Event Details:
February 13-14, 2006
Cox Central Park
6205 Peachtree Dunwoody Road NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30328



Speaker Bio's




Pat Esser
President
Cox Communications, Inc.

Pat Esser assumed the position President of Cox Communications on January 1, 2006, succeeding the retiring Jim Robbins. Pat is responsible for all Cox operations, serving 6.6 million customers nationwide. Additionally, he is responsible for overseeing the company’s programming, marketing, research, customer service, advertising sales and customer support, as well as the company’s commercial services division, Cox Business Services.

With more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Esser’s career has spanned a multitude of responsibilities. He joined Cox in 1979 as Director of Programming for the company’s system in Hampton Roads, Va., and in 1981 was part of the original management team that pioneered Cox's local advertising sales division, CableRep Advertising. Esser launched and oversaw the advertising sales business for CableRep in the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa; Omaha, Neb.; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before joining the company’s corporate CableRep staff as Director of Advertising Sales in 1990. In 1991, he was promoted to Vice President of Advertising Sales, a position in which he was instrumental in developing and launching local news channels in seven of Cox's markets. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Operations for the Western Division.

Esser’s numerous accomplishments have been recognized throughout the industry. He is a recipient of the Cable Television Advertising Bureau President’s Award, recognizing his significant contributions to the growth of cable advertising sales. He serves on the board of directors for the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing Educational Foundation. In addition, he previously served for a number of years as a board member for the industry's leading national spot sales organization, National Cable Communications.

A graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, Esser holds a B.A. and M.A. in communications media and is a 2003 recipient of the university’s Heritage Honors Alumni Achievement Award.

Dallas S. Clement
Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development
Cox Communications, Inc.

Dallas Clement is Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development for Cox Communications Inc. Clement oversees development and growth strategies related to the company’s video, voice and high-speed Internet services. His efforts include participating and guiding industry policies related to technology and new services, developing relationships with new partners, and making investments to enhance the company’s competitive positioning.

Previously, Clement served four years as Treasurer for Cox Communications, a position in which he had responsibility for Cox’s investor relations, mergers & acquisitions, capital structure and financial planning & analysis. He joined Cox in 1990 as Policy Analyst and was later promoted to Manager of Investment Planning and Director of Finance. In 1995, he was named Assistant Treasurer for Cox Enterprises Inc., the majority owner of Cox Communications. Prior to joining Cox, Clement served as Financial Analyst for Merrill Lynch.

A graduate of Harvard College with an A.B. in applied mathematics and economics, Clement also holds an M.S. in engineering-economic systems from Stanford University. Clement currently serves on the board of directors of Simtrol Inc. In 2004, he received the National Cable Television Association Vanguard Award for Young Leadership.


Ami Erel
President and Chief Executive Officer
Discount Investment Corporation

Ami Erel currently serves Elron as Chairman of the Board. Mr. Erel was first appointed to Elron in November 1999 as Chairman, President and CEO, bringing to the Group over 25 years of high tech industry experience at senior executive-level positions.

Mr. Erel also serves as the Chairman of the Board or as a Director in several companies in the Elron group, including Elbit Systems Ltd, Rafael Development Corporation (RDC), and Netvision.

In June 2001, Mr. Erel was also appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Discount Investment Corporation Ltd (DIC) where he serves on the Board of DIC companies such as Tevel-Israel International Communications Ltd., Property and Building Corporation Ltd. and Super-Sol.

Immediately prior to joining Elron, Mr. Erel served as President and CEO of Bezeq, the Israeli Telecommunication Corp.Ltd.

Mr. Erel holds a degree in electronic engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa.

Dr. Richard R. Green
President and Chief Executive Officer
CableLabs®

Dr. Richard Green is President and CEO of CableLabs. He has over 20 years of experience in the communications industry. In 1999, Dr. Green received the Vanguard Award, the cable television industry's highest award, for his achievements in technological development.

Before joining CableLabs, Dr. Green worked for three major television networks, PBS, CBS, and ABC. Prior to becoming president of CableLabs, he was Senior Vice President of broadcast operations and engineering at PBS, where his contributions included construction of national network origination and transmission facilities. He has also managed ABC's Videotape Post-Production department and has done basic research in laser technology for the Hughes Aircraft Company. Dr. Green has been actively involved in forming and participating on standards-setting organizations for the cable and television industries. He helped organize and establish the Advanced Television Systems Committee. Dr. Green also chaired the committee that eventually developed CCIR (now ITU-R) Recommendation 601, a world- wide television standard for digital signals. Currently, he is vice chairman of SG9, an ITU-T committee charged with the responsibility of recommending worldwide standards for cable television.

Dr. Green holds a Ph.D. in Astro-Physics from the University of Washington, an M.S. in Physics from the State University of New York in Albany, as well as a B.S. from Colorado College.

.Joy Laskar
Director
Georgia Electronic Design Center

As the director of the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC), Professor Joy Laskar is widely respected as one of the world's leading academicians in the field of high-speed, mixed-signal technology.

The Joseph M. Pettit Professor of Electronics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Laskar's research, and that of the GEDC as a whole, is centered on creating the front-end elements for RF networks, and then making them "spectrally efficient" -- improving the efficiency of a given technology to achieve higher data rates, lower power consumption and support additional functions.

At Georgia Tech, Laskar is a member of both the Electronic Design and Applications (EDA) and Electromagnetics technical interest groups and research leader for Broadband Access Hardware in GEDC.

The founder of two spin-off technology companies, Laskar has written more than 150 articles and invited papers, and received numerous professional honors, including designation as an IEEE Fellow in 2005. Named the 2004-2006 IEEE Distinguished Lecturer by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, Laskar's writing appeared in two books and 11 journals last year. He also conducted 49 conference presentations and received six patents.

A graduate of Clemson University, where he received his undergraduate degree, Laskar also earned master's and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Laskar received the 2003 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the College of Engineering and Science at Clemson University.

Laurie Olivier
Partner
Veritas Venture Partners

Laurie Olivier is a partner of Veritas Venture Partners, a veteran VC firm in Israel, and manages its Atlanta office. In his capacity as a general partner of Veritas' latest fund, VVP II, he serves on the boards of an enterprise software company, ClickFox Inc., and a medical device company, CytoDome Inc.  He is a member of various technology related industry forums, and currently serves as Chairman-Elect of the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region, and chairman of its Telecommunications Committee.

 

Laurie has been involved in venture capital since 1990. As Senior Business Development Manager and SVP Private Equity at Anglo American (AA), a leading global mining concern, he represented AA's interests in a number of venture funds, including the AAV fund managed by Veritas. He served on the boards various AAV portfolio companies. He was also a board member of MCPEPA (an East Asian private equity fund) and MCA (a South African VC fund - Chairman of the Investment Committee).

At AA, he pioneered the establishment of new technology-driven businesses, and served on the boards of a variety of publicly traded and privately held businesses, including Anglo American Industrial Corporation Ltd and some of its joint venture companies with major East Asian corporations. He currently serves as a technology commercialization advisor to a major government controlled research organization in South Africa and to the University of Pretoria.

 

Laurie was born and raised in South Africa, and holds a B.Engineering (Electronics) from the University of Pretoria, and a B.Com (Hons) and Dip. Datametrics from the University of South Africa.

 





back to top



Copyright 2004-2005 American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region

Contact Us