Overview Microsoft - Israel R&D Center is one of Microsoft's four strategic regional development centers, and home to some of the company's most exciting and innovative technologies. Led by Corporate Vice President Moshe Lichtman, the center is comprised of incubations and core product efforts in the areas of Telecom, Security, Online Services and Entertainment. The Israel R&D Center vision is to harness the talent and innovation of the Israeli high-tech industry (the largest startup community outside the U.S.) and to build global products and technologies in key growth areas. The Israel R&D Center also serves as an anchor to the Venture Capital industry and the start up community, facilitating technology and business cooperation between the industry and Microsoft's product groups. Building on its original R&D operation which was founded in 1991 and tapping into Israel's deep technological talent pool and its thriving high-tech community, Microsoft inaugurated in April 2006 the Israel Research & Development Center as a significant expansion of the scope and nature of its technology activities in Israel. The Israel R&D Center is strategically situated in two main locations - in Herzeliya, heartland of Israel's high tech industry, and in Haifa, home to many graduates of the Technion, Israel's leading technology university. Both of these locations are now home to many prominent venture capital firms and multinational companies with their own research centers. The Israel R&D Center will engage in mature (including next generation) product development activities along with incubations, small internal startups that target new business segments. The first incubations are already underway, targeting new products and solutions for telecom operators and for global enterprises. The plan is to later expand and scale the incubation activities to include products and solutions in domains that are synergetic with the Israeli industry and talent pool and with Microsoft's strategic pillars. Along with the core R&D and incubation activities, the Israel R&D Center will engage in outreach activities to the local VC community and startups. These activities strengthen the cooperation between Microsoft and the high-tech industry in Israel and help direct future technology and platform investments to the highest growth markets.