About Us
The Virginia Israel Advisory Board, established in 1996, is a government agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia that facilities economic, cultural, and educational ties between Israel and Virginia. In the realm of economic development, the VIAB facilitates Israeli companies’ building their U.S. operations in Virginia. For Virginia companies, we provide access to innovative Israeli technologies and partnerships with Israeli companies that grow the manufacturing and R&D base in the Commonwealth. Israeli companies contributed more than $10B of dollars to the GDP of Virginia.
What We Do
We drive the business process for building greenfield manufacturing operations; developing R&D and manufacturing partnerships between Virginia and Israeli concerns. We assist with every stage of the decision process from a checklist of what is required to the build operations in the U.S. through finding partners, locations and financial incentives.
30 board members and staff throughout the Commonwealth provide Israeli companies quick access to and understanding of state resources and private companies to successfully build and grow your U.S. operations.
Our Team
Chuck Lessin
Chuck Lessin is President and CEO of American Homecrafters Inc., based in Richmond, VA. American Homecrafters has developed and built over 300 exclusive single-family homes in the Richmond metropolitan area. Chuck continues to develop new and innovative business opportunities, including his latest venture Virginia On-Line Fantasy Sports, LLC.
Chuck Lessin
Vice Chairman
Chuck Lessin is President and CEO of American Homecrafters Inc.,...
Mel Chaskin
Mel Chaskin is Chairman and CEO of Vanguard Research, a government contractor located in Springfield Virginia. He also serves on the President of the United States’ Management Improvement Council as the Department of Defense representative, and is Chairman of the Board of the Center for Educational Excellence. His company, Vanguard, is focused on system engineering/integration, technology transfer, information management and technology, systems acquisition and issues dealing with communications, command and control.
Mel Chaskin
Chairman
Mel Chaskin is Chairman and CEO of Vanguard Research, a...
Dov Hoch
Dov managed the U.S. operations for leading Israeli High-Tech companies (e.g.$1B NASDAQ ECI Telecom) and has been bringing Israeli companies and their products into the U.S. market for 20 years. Dov was also the Israeli representative of the M&A unit of Daiwa – 100b Japanese investment bank and served their worldwide cliental including acquisitions of U.S. companies by Israeli companies
Arab World Activities: Dov founded Clarity Advisors, a boutique consulting firm, where he conceptualized and built ventures throughout the Arab world including: R&D units in the West Bank and Jordan for Siemens; supply chain research in 8 Arab countries for IBM and managed a consortium of 12 Arab business publications. He presented at the World Economic Forum Middle East and North Africa Conferences and his clients included the EU.
In the non-profit arena, Dov is a founding board member of: SIGNAL – China-Israel Think Tank and Policy Center; a founding board member of Yemin Orde Educational Initiatives, and for 10 years served on the executive board of the America Israel Chamber of Commerce
Dov holds degrees from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania and is the President of the Penn Club of Israel. He lectured in business schools at Tel Aviv University and the Interdisciplinary Center (Herzliya, Israel). Dov Served in the IDF and for five years brought 40,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
Dov Hoch
Executive Director
Dov managed the U.S. operations for leading Israeli High-Tech companies...
Our Partners
