The first panel of the evening entitled, "Creating Change: Equality, Environment, and the Next Generation" featured four strong female leaders; Carmit Ram, Director of Desalination at Mekorot; Miri Shetach, CEO of the Healthy Workers Club and VP of Training and Education for Learning and Advancing at the Histadrut; Nicole Hod Stru, CEO of Merage Foundation Israel and Liat Shaked, CEO at Supersonas. The panel was moderated by Tamar Uriel-Beeri, Editor in Chief of The Jerusalem Report.
The discussion began with Carmit Ram addressing what are the unique challenges of water supply in Israel with our unique climate, namely supplying the necessary quantity of water at the required quality. As of recent years, the answer to this challenge has become desalination, which has come a long way in recent years. Carmit explained that, "One innovation that has really changed the desalination process is the use and implementation of energy recovery devices." The desalination process requires a lot of energy, and by implementing energy recovery devices, this energy can be put back into the desalination process, leading to over a 95% efficiency.
Turning to the issue of health for busy professionals, Tamar addressed Miri Shetach, talking about how to encourage positive healthy changes. Miri said, "[She] had the privilege of launching the first health club in Israel dedicated to promoting a healthy lifestyle." They then developed an app which encourages users to stay active by rewarding them with health coins, which can be converted to get a variety of benefits at no additional cost.
Nicole Hod Stru, CEO of the Merage Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation, then spoke about the challenges of attracting the next generation of professionals to the Negev, which makes up 60% of Israel's land mass yet has only 10% of the population. One such growth engine is Desert Tech, "We knew from day one of the creation of this State that we need to thrive in desert environments. And we have all this know-how that we should commercialize […] and that's one of the things that we're working towards."
Liat Shaked, CEO at Supersonas then spoke about the need to ensure that women have an equal part in leadership positions. The only way to make this happen Liat explained is, "We all need to work together […] We also need to make sure that grassroots actions are taking place, and that there is a business model supporting real change."
Turing to the most effective method of increasing women's influence in decision making roles, Liat stated emphatically, that you need to have someone working continuously towards that specific goal. It is equally important she said, to face barriers. Women often, don't feel innovative enough, which becomes a barrier that we see in strong, influential women. They simply don't take the stage. "So, we need to face those barriers, and we need to make sure that we tackle them in a sensitive way. We don't want to be something that we are not, but we also we need them to influence."
This article was written in cooperation with Mekorot.