 Comverse was one of the most prominent and profitable success stories in Israel 's hi @-@ tech industry , with both Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post referring to it as a flagship of that industry . As CEO , Alexander was sought out for meetings in Tel Aviv by world leaders such as Chinese President Jiang Zemin . He became known , as Bloomberg News later stated , as " the wizard of Israel 's technology boom " ; his oft @-@ stated goal was for Comverse to do for Israel what Nokia had done for Finland . Comverse was one of the largest employers of software engineers in Israel and its stock was widely held among the Israeli investing public ; as a consequence , the successes and failures of Comverse were always followed closely in the country 's financial press . ( <unk> and Mercury Interactive were two other prominent Israeli companies in the enterprise software sector that were also closely followed . ) 
