The Initiative hosted the first ever San Diego-Israel Water Roundtable in partnership with Sustainability Matters, the City of San Diego, and Mayor Kevin Faulconer at the Rady School of Management’s Ernest & Evelyn Rady Sky Pavilion on March 2.

The purpose of this roundtable was to bring San Diego and Israel, two leaders in water innovation and policy, together to share their experiences, exchange ideas and identify opportunities to collaborate further. This high level roundtable included leaders from the Consulate General of Israel, Qualcomm, World Trade Center San Diego, Hagihon Company Ltd., Building Industry Association, IDE Technologies, Atlantium Technologies Ltd., Netafim, BIRD Foundation, Leichtag Foundation, among many others.

The Initiative hosted a follow up conference to the San Diego – Israel Water Round table in partnership with Sustainability Matters, the City of San Diego, and the Leichtag Foundation on June 30 at the Leichtag Commons.

The program presented a panel discussion followed by structured meetings between Israeli and California companies involved in various aspects of the water industry. Panelists included Jason Anderson (President and CEO, Cleantech San Diego), Barbara Bradley (President, Advanced Onsite Systems, Inc.), Michael Schneider (VP, SDG&E), and Robert MacLean (President, California American Water), Gili Ovadia (Consul, Head of the Israeli Economic and Trade Mission to the West Coast), among others. View more photographs here.