NoCamels by David Shamah March 1, 2015
With 700-plus direct employees in Israel, the Herzliya R&D center is Apple’s second-largest in the world, Apple CEO Tim Cook told local staff on Thursday.
And at a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin a day earlier, the two leaders discussed not just the fact of Israel’s emergence as an important factor in the Apple ecosystem, but what the two entities had in common.
![Apple’s Herzliya R&D center](https://i0.wp.com/fusion4freedom.com/news/Apple-Herzliya-office.jpg?w=825&ssl=1)
Cook, who was in Israel to inaugurate Apple’s new R&D center in Herzliya, touched on a number of major issues that concern both Israel and Apple — including environmental matters, education, diversity, and even Israeli Arabs.
That last issue was highlighted not by Cook himself, but by Johny Srouji, who accompanied his boss on the trip. Srouji — vice president for hardware technology — is an Israeli Arab who hails from Haifa. Before joining Apple in 2008 to head its chip-development team, Srouji worked at Intel and IBM, after graduating from the Technion.
![Cook speaking to Israeli employees](https://i0.wp.com/fusion4freedom.com/news/cookherzliyaemployees.jpg?w=825&ssl=1)
For Rivlin, Srouji’s ascent to one of the top tech positions in the world was a harbinger of what the government hopes will be a wave of similar accomplishments by people just like Srouji — Israeli Arabs educated in technology disciplines, working at the 300-some multinationals that have R&D and other facilities in Israel.
Original longer article published by Times of Israel