The Israel-Asia Leaders Fellowship “is the most cutting edge, the most important initiative,” Jon Medved, Founder and CEO of OurCrowd and one of Israel’s leading venture capitalists, has said.

Medved was speaking at the graduation dinner of the 201314 Israel-Asia Leaders Fellows in Jerusalem in May. The audience included representatives from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Economy, Asian embassies in Israel, and members of the Israel-Asia business community.

The graduation dinner marked the conclusion of the third Israel-Asia Leaders Fellowship, an initiative run by the Israel-Asia Center since 2011.

The annual programme provides an elite group of high calibre Asian and Israeli students who show potential to be leaders in their fields in the future with the high level contacts, skills and support network to build partnerships between Israel and Asia in their professional fields.

Graduates of the fellowship from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Mongolia, Japan, India, Indonesia and Israel have gone on to set up Israel-Asia business ventures, head up the Asia operations for Israeli companies, work for Israeli embassies in Asia, and set up Israel-Asia NGOs.