PodCats 6:6:9 Minutes of the American Friends of Unit 669 – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Our guest today serves around 70 days in reserve duty every year!

He is a helicopter and water senior instructor for more than 20 years.  

He is a Scientific and Business Consulting in Medical Device development.

He co-founded and managed a few companies, and today he has 2 working companies in the industry.

He is a teacher at Ben Gurion University in the Negev, and above all that he is a husband and a father!

Micha Oestereich's LinkedIn profile

Our guest served in team 42, he made Aliya from Toronto Canada, and served as a lone soldier.

After the military service, he proceeded to medical school as a scholarship recipient from our alumni organization.

He was called on Oct. 7th while was in the US for his studies, and served since then in Gaza for 270 days in a row in our special vehicles division and participated in hundreds of rescue missions during the war.

Our guest served as a combat soldier in the 21st team.

He grew up in Tel Aviv, started unprofessionally his career when he was 12 years old, and then again when he was 28 years old.

He is a film director and screenwriter with movies that won many awards and festivals.

In 2001 he started working with the big players in Hollywood such as Gerard Butler who played in his movie.

He has been the creative force behind a number of projects including feature films and documentaries, and has directed, written, and produced projects from major production entities such as Netflix and Warner Bros.

In his spare time, he is a DJ, and a great one.

Ariel's Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Vromen Ariel's IMDB profile: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1033517/

Ariel's Soundcloud profile: https://soundcloud.com/user-948019924

Our guest served as a combat rescue soldier in the 32nd team.

He served as an officer and a team leader.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and economics from Tel Aviv University and MBA from MIT.

He is a Senior Manager of Product Management - Supply Chain by Amazon and lives in Santa Barbara with his family. Johnathan Soreff 's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnathan-johnny-soreff-194142b2/

Our guest served as a combat soldier in the unit, team 34.

He grew up in an orthodox family, worked at the Israel Ministry of Finance, and since then moved his life to Gibraltar and London, to pursue a career in the gaming – gambling industry.     Shahar represents the unit and the alumni organization in London and the area, and along with his team, he participated in our PTSD workshop.

Shahar's LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahar-yanai/

Our guest is a big Zionist, he served as our annual gala chairman in 2022, he is one of our major donors and one of the first board members of AFU669.

He started his 33-year career in the Financial Services industry in 1982 at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc and climb up and served in many management roles in the company and in the industry.

In 2015 he decided to pursue an entrepreneurial path and founded a few companies and a venture capital.

Peter Feinberg's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-feinberg-5737b7131/

Boxcar Partners:

https://www.boxcarpartners.com/ 

Immuneering:

https://immuneering.com/

Bridge Bio:

https://bridgebio.com/

Our guest served as a combat soldier in the unit’s first team.

He is originally from South Africa, he and his wife Linda have two kids and four grandkids.

He likes to travel and he likes Polo and Car racing.

Brian had a successful real estate business, and in the last few years he invests in startups. Most importantly for us, Brian has been one of the first donors to our organizations, since early 2015.

Our guest served as a combat soldier in the unit, in team 33.

He managed the lectures project successfully of our organization a few years back and he participated in our mentoring program as a mentee.

He is married to Hadar and a father of two.

Tal is an entrepreneur; he is the co-founder and the CEO of NoTraffic.

NoTraffic is the world’s Leading Mobility Platform,
The platform is installed at signalized intersections, and it serves as a critical digital foundation for the majority of advanced mobility applications in urban environments.
The company serves some of the largest states, including California, Texas, and Pennsylvania.
In 2022 the company was awarded a prestigious place on the TIME 100 World Most Influential Companies list.

Tal's LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tal-kreisler/

NoTraffic website: 

https://notraffic.tech/

Our guest served as a combat soldier in the unit, team 22.

Dr. Ofer Daphna is an inventor, entrepreneur, and researcher, owner of several patents in the field of ophthalmology. He specializes in corneal and cataract surgery and is currently a senior Ophthalmologist at Assuta medical center, Tel-Aviv, Israel. Dr. Daphna is a high-volume cataract and corneal surgeon, conducting over 1000 operations per year. He is the inventor of the EndoArt implant and the Hyper-CL™ therapeutic contact lens, as well as a co-founder of EyeYon Medical. 

Besides serving as Medical Director, he is also a Board Member.

Dr. Daphan's LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ofer-daphnah-3bba6339/  

Company’s website:

https://eye-yon.com/

An article about the company:

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3899001,00.html

Our guest in this episode has a different angle and point of view about the combat rescue operation of unit 669 and the Israeli Air Force, from above.

Lieutenant colonel Meidan Bar served as a combat helicopter pilot and lead many rescue missions with unit 669, mostly behind enemy lines and in Lebanon territory.

Meidan is an El Al Airlines pilot for 17 years and serve as the chairman of the Israel Airline Aviators Association for the last 5 years.

A few months ago, Meidan published his first book, “Crossing permit”, where he shares his experience as a combat rescue pilot and all the impact on his life around it.