At the end of a three-year tender, the Olympic Committee and the agencies managing the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympiad have selected Israeli security company ISDS, owned by president and founder Leo Gleser, to provide security for the world's biggest sporting event. ISDS will be able to draw on a $2.2 billion budget for constructing and managing the complex security system for the event, which is expected to draw billions of spectators around the world. The news of the Israeli company's triumph in the huge tender was first published in the Israel Defense magazine.
ISDS will be an integrator for the entire security system at the various sites at which the games will be held, and will provide consultation and supply services for the various systems designed to ensure that the Olympic Games pass without incident. "We have a great challenge facing us," ISDS VP Ron Shafran said today. "We already have teams operating in Brazil, and unofficially operated there during the World Cup last summer. Since it was announced that Brazil would host the Olympic Games, we have greatly expanded our activity in the country, and competed in this long and difficult tender. Our teams are already preparing for the Olympics, designing our security concept and building technological systems to be installed at the various facilities where the competitions will take place in Rio and four other regions around the country. The games will begin on August 5, 2016, and will continue until December 2016, including the special Olympics."
Over the past year, disappointment was expressed in Israel concerning the degree of involvement by Israeli companies in the World Cup last summer in Brazil. From what Shafran says, it is clear that the picture will be different this time. "As the company that will integrate the entire security system at the games, we will determine the specifications for the necessary security system, and bring the right technologies from Israel and the rest of the world. We'll also include small and medium-sized Israeli companies - ones with big solutions. We'll let these companies take part in this rare opportunity and benefit from a fitting stage for displaying their technologies in intelligence, mass traffic management, etc. This whole business will be an incubator for Israeli technologies and solutions in these areas," Shafran said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 22, 2014
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