As 2017 came to a close, two members from the Numbrs team visited Hong Kong and mainland China as guests of a global initiative in the tech industry. The event celebrated a new collaboration between two prestigious universities.
Numbrs’ Head of Technology and Dr. Boaz Barack, member of the Executive Board, began their visit to Hong Kong by meeting Numbrs’ new investors. A family of a worldwide known entrepreneur and philanthropist had recently invested in Numbrs together with their partners from a Swiss based bank. The productive meeting centred on a discussion about future disruptive trends in the global financial services industry.
An additional meeting conducted in Hong Kong was with the team that manages the private investments of Mr. Li Ka Shing, one of the wealthiest persons in China. Horizonis the name of the fund through which these investments are made.
The trip’s highlight was the opening event of a new tech campus in China, the Guangdong Technion — Israel Institute of Technology. The new campus was founded by the Shantou University and the Technion, supported by the Li Ka Shing Foundation. Shantou is located in the Guangdong province in China’s southeastern corner on the Pacific Ocean. The launch of the new campus will position the province at the forefront of education, research and innovation in engineering and life sciences.
The new university aims at creating globally-minded leaders in academic research. The goal is to become a world-class international technological university carrying out innovative research to facilitate entrepreneurship, technology transfers and foster a high-tech industrial ecosystem. Eventually, it will grant Technion engineering degrees at all levels.
The Numbrs delegation was invited to the event by the Technion’s president, Prof. Peretz Lavi. The Technion university founded in 1912, is home to prominent academic research faculties and has produced three recent Nobel laureates. In 2013, the Technion was ranked 6th worldwide for innovation and entrepreneurship.
In Shantou, the Numbrs delegation met the leaders of the Li Ka Shing Foundation and had dinner with the directors of the family’s global business group.
The Li Ka Shing family’s message to us was as follows:Israel and China both represent ancient civilizations with strong traditions in teaching and education. The joint-program in Shantou will improve research and innovation around the world.
We look forward being an essential part of this exciting movement and even contribute to it with Numbrs.
