Mourning Ed Mlavsky – Israeli hi-tech’s catalyst for growth - opinion

Dr. A.I. “Ed” Mlavsky, most recently the founding partner of Gemini Israel Ventures, died earlier this month. Sadly, there has been little recognition of the outsized role that he played in parlaying the cutting-edge technologies of Israeli companies into successful joint ventures with American companies for mutual growth.

British by birth, Mlavsky graduated from Queen Mary College, University of London in 1950 with a first-class honors BSc degree in chemistry followed in 1953 by a PhD in physical chemistry. He immigrated to the United States in 1956, and joined a start-up, Tyco, as a cofounder where he contributed to over 50 refereed scientific articles and counted 24 patents to his name.

Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Tyco grew and Mlavsky became CTO, a director, and later president before transferring as Executive VP to an entity in the creation of which he was the prime mover, namely Mobil Tyco Solar Energy Corporation, later sold to Schott Solar. 

Heading the BIRD Foundation for US-Israel collaboration

In 1979, Mlavsky accepted an invitation to move to Israel to serve as executive director of the Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD-F). Its mission was, and remains, to promote and support mutually beneficial activities in industrial research between US and Israeli companies. He remained in that position for 13 years until he left BIRD-F to found Gemini Israel Ventures.

The BIRD Foundation was established by the US and Israeli governments in 1977 to generate mutually beneficial cooperation between US and Israeli companies, including start-ups and established organizations. BIRD-F provides both matchmaking support between US and Israeli companies, as well as funding covering up to 50% of project development costs, up to $1M per project (and in rare cases up to $1.5M for exceptional projects). BIRD takes no equity in the companies but is repaid from royalties if the projects are successful. If not, the funds provided simply become a gift.

Since its inception in 1977, BIRD-F has approved over 1000 projects with leading companies in the US. The cumulative sales of products developed through BIRD-F projects have exceeded $10 billion.

By the time Mlavsky founded Gemini Israel Ventures in 1993 (essentially the first company in the full-fledged venture capital industry of today’s Israel) through his work at BIRD-F, he was already widely recognized as one of the founding fathers of Israeli hi-tech and venture capital activities. A longtime innovator and advocate for venture capital, he was chosen to manage the first venture capital fund to emerge from the Israeli government’s Yozma program, which successfully jump-started the Israeli venture capital industry.

In addition to these two major professional activities, he served on many boards of directors of Gemini’s portfolio companies and as Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum as well. In 1989, although neither a Pulitzer Prize winner nor a Nobel Lauriat, he was elected to membership in the prestigious Cosmos Club in Washington.

OVER THE years, Mlavsky received many awards including some for-lifetime achievements. In April 2003, he received the Israel Hi-Tech Award from the Israel Venture Association in recognition of his unique contribution to the development of the Israeli hi-tech industry. In 2010, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israel Management Center (IMC).

However, he was proudest of the receipt, in 1994, of an honorary doctorate from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, “in recognition of his exceptional contribution to Israel’s economy through the fostering of investments and projects in research and development.”

His book Milk and Honey and High-Tech was published in 2009 and tells the remarkable story of the early days of Israeli hi-tech and venture capital.

I, along with many others who have been actively involved for some years in encouraging increased levels of business activity between Israel and the United States, was privileged to know him and work with him on a number of projects. He set high standards for himself and the people with whom he worked acting as a catalyst for the growth of Israeli tech companies. As such, he rightly earned the respect of the entire Israeli hi-tech community and his departure from the scene creates a void that will be difficult to fill.

John D. Rockefeller said, “Good leadership consists of showing good people how to do the work of superior people.” Ed Mlavsky was someone who knew how to encourage everyone to become a superior person which then brought great success to Israel’s hi-tech sector. He will be sorely missed.

May his soul rest in eternal peace and may his memory be for a blessing.

The writer has lived in Israel for 40 years and is CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., an international business development consultancy. He is also the founder and chair of the American State Offices Association, former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, and a past chairperson of the Board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.