Happy 4th of July to TAU’s American alumni and Friends!

Itay Goren, Alumnus of TAU’s Buchmann Faculty of Law, the School of Economics at the Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences and Coller School of Management, and member of the TAU Alumni Organization’s Advisory Committee, writes about his Israeli-American connection and the importance of being a TAU Alum in his professional and personal life in honor of the American Independence Day.

04 July 2022
Happy 4th of July to TAU’s American alumni and Friends! Photography: Tal Shahar

I’m Itay Goren, Alumnus of TAU’s Buchmann Faculty of Law and the School of Economics at the Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences (BA) and the Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA Program at TAU’s Coller School of Management, and as of last year I’m a member of the TAU Alumni Organization’s Advisory Committee.

 

I’m married, father of 3 and live in Alpharetta, Georgia in the South-East of the United States.

 

On this 4th of July, I’d like to tell you about my Israeli-American connection and the importance of being a TAU Alum in my professional and personal life.

 

Throughout my career, I have been involved in real estate investments around the world and especially in the US. About ten years ago I founded Buligo Capital Partners - a real estate investment firm, and since then I have been the group’s CEO. We focus on real estate investments in various sectors in the United States. Our clients are wealthy private investors in Israel and the United States.

 

The job required me to travel frequently to the US over the years, and about three years ago my wife Lior and I decided to take the opportunity and relocate to the US for a few years, both for the family adventure and to develop investment and fundraising activities in the US.

 

Thus, we found ourselves in late 2019 settling in the US, a few months before the onset of the COVID19 Pandemic.

 

For me, it was a great fortune to “get stuck” in the US during the COVID19 Pandemic and not in Israel, as it allowed me to stay close to our assets and manage our investments and business operations in the US at such a challenging and important time.

 

From a family point of view, the transition was not easy, especially in light of the pandemic that befell the world immediately after our move, but today, two and a half years later, I can say that we have settled completely and feel at home, and the experience is really positive for us. In fact, I’m writing these lines while on a family trip to stunning Colorado!

 

From a business point of view, although it is too early to conclude, I believe that the move was excellent and strengthened our offices both in Israel and in the United States.

 

And how is Tel Aviv University related to all this?

Let's start with the fact that I got into real estate investing through the Tel Aviv University Career Development Center during the third year of my undergraduate studies (in 2001!). It was a “placement for life”, which obviously had a crucial impact on my career path. Besides that, the networking opportunities my Master’s Degree at TAU provided made all the difference: my company’s Co-Founder, my partner and right-hand woman to this day, Rivka Kompel, was introduced to me by the alumni association of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University when she made Aliyah from the US, because of my studies at the Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA Program.

 

Equally important, I was also introduced to my two founding partners who supported me and helped me establish the company, Ilan Tamir and Eyal Shlimak, through another Kellogg-Recanati program alum. Rivka, Ilan and Eyal are pillars in my professional and private life, and in fact, meeting with them is thanks to my studies at Tel Aviv University.

 

Our business activity in Buligo is another bridge that connects Israel and the United States on many levels. We are an Israeli public company, investing in the US, and we have many customers in the US and strong business partnerships. Tel Aviv University also has many friends in the United States – American and relocated-Israeli alumni who live and work in the United States, and American donors who support the university for years.

 

This connection, especially of the TAU alumni, to the university through the alumni organization, is important. It allows us alumni to attend events and lectures in various fields (both events here in the US organized by AFTAU, the American Friends of TAU Association, and also events in Israel produced by the TAU Alumni Organization) so we can stay up to date, develop our network of connections and support the University.

 

So, A personal thank you to Tel Aviv University and Happy Independence Day to all our friends and alumni in the United States!

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