Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., a man who reportedly worked with former U.S. House speaker John Boehner to arrange the Israeli prime minister's address to Congress on Iran last year, will speak in Wilmington next week.

American-born Ron Dermer, who has worked in the Israeli government since 2005, is the keynoter for the United Jewish Appeal of Wilmington’s annual banquet April 20.

“He has never been here and has never spoken [publicly] in the South before. This is a real coup for the city,” event organizer Bucky Stein said recently.

A native of Miami Beach, Florida, Dermer earned a degree in finance and management from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and a subsequent graduate degree from the University of Oxford. In 2005, when Netanyahu served as Israel’s finance minister under prime minister Ariel Sharon, Dermer was appointed Israel's minister of economic affairs in the U.S.

He later became senior adviser to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and earned the nickname “Bibi’s brain” because he was reportedly very close to the prime minister. While serving as adviser, Dermer was “at the heart” of Netanyahu’s biggest decisions, according to a story in The Jerusalem Post.  

Dermer was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. in 2013.

Stein said that the Israeli Embassy would not release information on specific topics Dermer would address during his talk in Wilmington, but he expected the remarks would touch on business-related matters as well as politics and policy.

The event, which is open to the public, takes place at Country Club of Landfall beginning at 6:30 p.m. For information, call 383-3437.