American-Israel Chamber of Commerce

Participating Israeli companies were AGM, Amiad, CheckLight, Lesico, Mapal, Mekorot, ODIS, Puritec-GES, and Vortex.  The event featured presentations by them and one-on-one meetings with municipal operators, industries, integrators, engineering firms, and technology companies from throughout the region.

“We’re pleased to have brought these companies together, and trust that the event will produce business for the Israeli companies and solutions for the Southeast operators and companies,” said Gene Rubel (Center for Water Technologies), chairman of AICC’s Cleantech Committee.

SeerGate is an innovative developer of the Secured Lock^TM system that creates a trusted cloud for financial institutions to facilitate direct banking payments over any online environment, between individuals or businesses, where all participants are authenticated, payment authorization is in real-time, and financial information is never exposed to any third party.  In August, SeerGate raised $300,000 from the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor and Oracle Corporation as part of the Chief Scientist’s corporate collaboration program.  Oracle will provide SeerGate with products and services, matching the Chief Scientist’s commitment.

Permanent General had sought a solution to eliminate the desktop complexity and drive productivity in its customer service operations.  According to their Vice President of Operations Allison Garretson, the Jacada unified desktop solution provides Permanent General’s customer service representatives with intelligent views of customer data by consolidating information from multiple screens and applications so they can quickly locate what they need to help the customer on each call.

“Currently our customer service representatives must navigate through dozens of screens and applications to find what they need in order to help customers on the phone.  We realized that if we could simplify and streamline the access to that information, we could not only service our customers more effectively, but reduce our call handle times as well as the amount of training required for new representatives.  We chose to work with the team at Jacada because they are experts in solving complex customer service issues and because they’ve proven that they understand the specific business challenges we face as an insurer,” she said.

Vumii leverages electro-optics and image processing disciplines to develop and market long-range LED and Laser night vision surveillance, perimeter protection, and graphical user control systems which enable users to prevent and rapidly respond to terrorism, theft, vandalism, asset damage and other physical security threats.  Vumii’s versatile visualization hardware and software technologies are deployed within the defense and physical security markets in more than 20 countries.  The company’s co-founder and CEO Randall Foster serves on AICC’s Executive Committee and chairs the Chamber’s Security Committee.

The Cohen Group is an international business advisory firm based in Washington, DC chaired by former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen.  As part of the partnership, Secretary Cohen will serve as Chairman of Vumii’s Advisory Board to bring his knowledge of international markets and global threats to help ensure Vumii’s continued success in protecting vital economic, military, and national security interests.

EGRE will invest $3.54 million in equity in the project, and will receive 70% of the estimated $11.8 million in shareholders’ equity needed from Freddie Mac in a ten-year loan.  EGRE will pay only interest for the first two years.  The loan will bear variable interest set by Freddie Mac on the basis of US government bonds plus 3.53% up to a maximum interest rate of 7.5%.

The complex has 660 apartments and a number of retail stores on a 75-acre site and an occupancy rate of 86%.  The companies will rename the complex Overlook at Berkeley Lake Apartments.  After closing the acquisition, EGRE and Harbor Group will invest several million dollars in renovations and upgrades in the complex which was built in the mid-1990s.

EGRE’s core business is in Romania with interests in Germany and the United States.  Harbor Group is owned by American and Israeli investors including 25% by Tel Aviv-based Electra Real Estate.  Harbor Group and Electra had purchased the historic Hurt Building in downtown Atlanta in 2007.

After nine years, the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region will move from its current Lake Hearn Drive location in Atlanta to The Pointe office complex that is just two exits north on Georgia 400 in the north Perimeter area of Atlanta.  The telephone and fax numbers stay the same.  The new address, effective November 1, 2009: