Jacob Burak (born 1948) founded Evergreen Ventures in 1987and became one of the founding fathers of the Israeli Venture Capital community. He is Chairman of Midot and Board Member of Round-up Israel, two non-profit organizations aiming to develop and increase efficiency of philanthropy in Israel and the former Chairman of Maala – Business for Social Responsibility, a leading non-profit organization to spearhead social change in Israeli society. Some 6 years ago, he took a step back from the business world and decided to pursue social activism and writing. He has written two bestsellers; "Do Chimpanzees Dream of Retirement" which deals with the encounter between business, psychology and evolution and “Noise”, which maps the “noises” in our lives – external but mainly internal. His third book “Why Kamikaze Pilots Wear Helmets” has just been published in Israel. Jacob also gives lectures on these topics.


Jacob Burak in a recent interview for "Haaretz" - "What makes Jacob run"

Former Chairman of Maala and member of its Executive Committee. Maala is a non-profit membership organization founded to promote the concepts of corporate citizenship and social responsibility in Israel's business arena.

Member of Round-up Israel’s Executive Committee. Round-up Israel is a non-profit organization whose aim is to allow people to round up the sum of the transactions they make in their everyday lives, and forward the rounded up sum as a donation to non-profit organizations of their choice.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Midot - a non-profit organization for assessing and rating non profit organizations in Israel.

This presentation deals with the questionable correlation between wealth and happiness on both national & personal levels. How can we explain that even though the standard of living in developed countries has tripled over the past 50 years, the national level of happiness has not changed at all? Altogether, how can happiness be measured? What role do genetics play? Which factors assist in eroding our happiness? Finally, the ten rules for maintaining happiness on a personal level (money, by the way, is not one of them).

This presentation touches on the latest scientific research dealing with trust – supposedly a pillar of our society. How can we explain the fact that despite Trust playing a crucial part in the business world, popular folklore reflects suspicion and lack of trust? Do we place trust out of altruism or do we expect to be rewarded by those we place trust in? The role of evolution and socio-demographics in our “trust” behavior. And altogether, does trust pay on national and personal levels? The answer to these questions and others will be interactively demonstrated through “trust games” during the presentation.

This presentation deals with the key role of family in the emergence of the potential entrepreneur. The impact of birth order on the entrepreneurial traits of siblings and their willingness to assume risks. Why are firstborns not gamblers? What would an entrepreneur like to be said in his obituary? The convoluted relations between entrepreneurs and their fathers. And finally, 8 key traits common to most successful entrepreneurs and how to identify them in job interviews.

Noise is the most common element in our world. It is everywhere, starting with external noises led by the media overwhelming us with information, but also the internal noise which originates from our need to belong and wish to succeed.

The lecture will equip you with useful tools to identify the noises in your daily lives and deal with them. The part dealing with medical noise will give you some hope in sorting through the mass of medical information which threatens to drown us.