The American-Israel Chamber of Commerce is to hold its 7th annual Eagle Star Awards Gala on Wednesday, May 14, at the headquarters of Delta Air Lines Inc. from 6-9 p.m.

The keynote speaker is to be Edward Bastian, Delta’s president and chief financial officer. Delta launched its first Atlanta-Tel Aviv, Israel, flight in 2005.

“This year’s gala takes on even more significance as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the modern state of Israel. There is much good news to celebrate,” AICC President Tom Glaser said in a news release.

The annual event honors individuals and companies contributing to the development of business relations between the Southeast U.S. and Israel.

The 2008 Chamber Founders Award is to be presented to André Schnabl, managing partner in the Atlanta office of Grant Thornton LLP, in recognition of his years of support and leadership at the chamber as well as his stature in the business community.

Among the “Israel Company of the Year” finalists of Metrolight, a Netanya, Israel-based company, that manufactures electronic ballast solutions for lighting systems; TTI Telecom, a Rosh Ha’ayn, Israel-based company that provides operations support systems, and Waves, a Tel Aviv-base company that develops and supplies software-based audio signal processing tools.

The “Deal of the Year” finalists include AAA Parking – HTS – T.I.B.A. representing an Atlanta-based parking management company partnered with two Israeli companies to automate the self-parking process;

Cellint – Georgia Department of Transportation representing an Israeli provider of cellular-based detection solutions that had its contract renewed with the transportation department to provide traffic information on Georgia 400 and

Verint – Witness System representing the acquisition by Atlanta-based Witness Systems in 2007 for $950 million resulting in Verint Witness Actionable Soltuions, its largest division.