43
Youngstown leaders visit 5 universities, 6 businesses in Israel
YOUNGSTOWN
A group of Youngstown leaders visited five universities and six businesses during a seven-day expedition to Israel in January.
The group included Youngstown State University President Jim Tressel; Youngstown Business Incubator chief operating officer Barb Ewing; Brett Conner, YSU director of Advanced Manufacturing and Workforce Initiatives and associate professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; and executive vice president Andy Lipkin and director of Community Relations and Government Affairs Bonnie Deutsch Burdman, both of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation.
They set out to explore opportunities in student internships, faculty exchanges, joint research, industry partnerships and business connections.
Ewing said at a Wednesday news conference the trip that sought out partnerships and future collaboration provided “a unique opportunity to forge long-term relationships overseas.”
A concern that had resonated with group members was that Youngstown had little to offer in return for the partnerships it was seeking in Israel.
But after talking with Israeli officials, that concern was removed.
“What we saw time and time again as we walked out of those meetings is that we are able to go toe-to-toe with the very best Israel has to offer in terms of programs and services we provide to technology-based startups, especially in additive manufacturing,” Ewing said.
Additive manufacturing – or industrial 3-D printing – is a process by which digital 3-D design data are used to build up a component in layers by depositing material.
Tressel credited his fellow community leaders for the success of the trip.
“I know the Steelers have their killer bees – Ben [Roethlisberger], [Le’Veon] Bell and [Antonio] Brown. Well, we had our killer bees: Barb, Brett and Bonnie on our trip,” he said.
Burdman said her most important role in the trip was acting as a convener.
“We do this all the time – going to Israel is easy for us,” she said. “It’s a labor of love, and we see ourselves as conveners – that’s the most important part. We are able to make things like this happen, and we do so because we are part of this community and we want it to succeed.”
She added that without the leadership of Tressel and Ewing, the success would not have been as great.
“At the end of the day, it takes the professionals with a vision and a talent to really show off what Youngstown has to offer,” Burdman said.
Tressel said the positive attitudes of all of his fellow travelers and those he was meeting was “inspiring.”
“It was extraordinary how welcoming it was and the team atmosphere,” he said. “Everyone in the world talks about thinking outside the box. Well, I met a young woman in Israel who said, ‘The way we look at thinking outside the box is that we think outside of one’s self, then our thinking is what can we do for the good of the whole.’ To me, spending my entire life getting people to think that as part of a team, it was a profound moment that made me less surprised as to why they’ve been so successful with that mindset.”
Tressel said the next step is to keep following up to maintain the connections made during the trip.
“We hope we can be a soft landing point and accessible for foreign companies to invest in our community,” Ewing said. “The Israeli market is not large, so they are always looking for ways to penetrate the European, Middle Eastern or North American market, and I think we have that opportunity.”