Shai Agassi
The Israeli Electric-Car Start Up

Shai Agassi served as the president of product/technology and Board Member at SAP AG until March 2007. He was responsible for the global development efforts for all SAP products and SAP’s portfolio of industry-specific solutions. Before his appointment to the SAP Executive Board, Agassi was CEO of SAP Portals and later of the combined company SAP Markets and SAP Portals, which previously operated as a fully owned subsidiary of SAP AG. The subsidiaries were integrated into SAP AG in April 2002, at which point Agassi was appointed to the SAP Executive Board. Agassi, a software entrepreneur, founded TopTier Software (originally called Quicksoft Development) in Israel in 1992 and later moved the company’s headquarters to California. Agassi served the company in various capacities, including chairman, chief technology officer, and then CEO and was directly involved all the way through two acquisitions, first by Vanenburg Ventures and finally by SAP. In addition to TopTier Software, Agassi co-founded several other companies, together with his father, Reuven Agassi, including Quicksoft Ltd., TopManage, and Quicksoft Media.

Tom Baruch
Founder and Managing Director, CMEA Ventures

Mr. Baruch founded CMEA Ventures in 1989 as an affiliated fund of New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and was one of the original investors in Aclara BioSciences (which merged with Virologic – NASDAQ: VLGC), Flextronics (FLEX), Netro (NTRO), Silicon Spice (acquired by BRCM), and Symyx Technologies (SMMX). He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alien Technology and Codexis, Inc., and also serves on the boards of ChemConnect, E-Markets, Entropic Communications, Foveon, Intermolecular, NewPath Ventures, Physiometrix, Raven, RF Magic, Symwave, Symyx, and Virologic. Tom's investment interests include the semiconductor, wireless and life sciences industries. Before starting CMEA, Tom was a founder and CEO of Microwave Technology, Inc. Just prior to that, he managed a dedicated venture fund at Exxon, and was President of the Exxon Materials Division. Earlier in his career, Tom worked as a patent attorney. Mr. Baruch holds an engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Juris Doctor degree from Capital University. Tom is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Gadi Behar
Founder and Managing Director
Silicom Ventures, LLC

As Founder and Managing Director, Gadi Behar brings 25 years of business and management experience to Silicom Ventures, LLC. During the last seven years as Managing Director of Silicom Ventures, Gadi has been engaged in business planning, development, financial, recruiting and fundraising work for a variety of Silicon Valley and Israel-based startups - particularly in semiconductor, life sciences, software and information technologies. Gadi's vast network includes business leaders and investors in Silicon Valley, Israel and Europe, as well as relationships with the governments of Israel, Spain, Mexico and The Netherlands. In addition to being on the advisory board of several startup companies, Gadi has been instrumental in obtaining funding for over 40 companies to the tune of $26M, accompanied by $50M investment by institutional Venture Capital firms. Under his leadership Silicom Ventures has had 5 successful exits over the past 5 years and has grown to be the largest global business forum in the U.S.

Eric Benhamou
Chairman and CEO
Benhamou Global Ventures

Eric Benhamou is chairman and CEO of Benhamou Global Ventures, LLC. Benhamou Global Ventures, started in 2003, invests and plays an active role in innovative high tech firms throughout the world. Mr. Benhamou is also the chairman of the board of directors of 3Com Corporation. He is an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD. He is also a visiting professor at Ben Gurion University. He served as chairman of the board of directors of Palm, Inc. from 1999 until 2007 and as chief executive officer of Palm from 2001 until 2003. Benhamou served as chief executive officer of 3Com Corporation from 1990 until 2000. Previously, he held a variety of senior management positions at 3Com. In 1981, Mr. Benhamou co-founded Bridge Communications, an early networking pioneer, and was vice president of engineering until its merger with 3Com in 1987. In 2003, Mr. Benhamou was appointed to the Joint High Level Advisory Panel of the U.S.- Israel Science and Technology Commission.

Kamran Elahian
Chairman & Co-Founder
Global Catalyst Partners

Mr. Kamran Elahian is a veteran entrepreneur with over twenty-eight years of experience in the high-tech industry. Kamran has co-founded ten high-tech companies , one venture capital firm (Global Catalyst Partners in 1999) and two non-profit organizations. Kamran is currently the Chairman of Centillium Communications, Planetweb, Actelis Networks, the Global Catalyst Foundation and Relief International - Schools Online, and is on the board of Beceem Communications, Ikoa, Melodis and Yoomba.

Uzia Galil
President and CEO
Uzia Initiatives and Management Ltd

Mr. Galil, a graduate of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Purdue University in the USA was the founder of Elron Electronic Industries Ltd., and served as Chief Executive Officer of the company from 1962-1999. In 1999, Uzia Galil founded Uzia Initiatives and Management Ltd. and is presently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company, with the mission of helping regional innovations to become a global success by leveraging the experience and the global network of its management team and its partners worldwide. Uzia Galil has been awarded Honorary Doctorate degrees from Technion, The Weizman Institute of Science, Polytechnic University New York, Ben Gurion University, Solomon Bublick Prize Laureate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award by the Purdue University, USA and the Israel Innovation Award). In 1997 he was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for his contribution to the development of the Israel hi-tech industry.

John A. Harris
Commercial Counselor
Israel

John A. Harris presently serves as Commercial Counselor for Israel. Formerly John served as Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Brazil. John also served as Commercial Counselor in Santiago Chile and Mexico City and as Consul for Commercial Affairs in the Consulate of the United States of America in Monterrey, Mexico. John has an equal wide range of experience in international business, marketing, finance and technology. Previous to the Foreign Commercial Service his activities have always been connected with high technology and international business. He started his business career in IBM where he served in the Americas/Far East Operating Division, mainly in international finance and treasury. After IBM he held positions of CFO, VP of Business Development, VP of International, Division President and Chief Operating Officer in several high technology companies.

Ted Hoff Ph.D.
The Inventor of the first Microprocessor
The Intel 4004

Dr. Hoff received a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1958, an MS degree in 1959 and a PhD degree in 1962, both from Stanford University. In 1968 he joined the startup Intel Corporation, Although Intel was founded to develop semiconductor memory, in early 1969 it contracted to develop chips for a family of calculators to be sold under the name "Busicom." Hoff proposed a simpler design that included a simple general-purpose processor, programmed to perform various calculator functions. This alternate approach was accepted by the calculator company, and led to the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004. In 1975, Hoff started a group to develop LSI for the telephone industry. That group produced the first commercially available monolithic CODEC, a device which converts voice signals between analog and digital representations. In 1983, Hoff left Intel to become Vice President, Corporate Technology at Atari. Atari, owned by Warner Communications was sold in 1984. Hoff is listed as inventor or co-inventor on 17 U.S. Patents. He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his role in the development of the microprocessor.

Ron Huldai
Mayor
Tel-Aviv, Israel

Ron Huldai is serving his second term as mayor of Tel-Aviv-Jaffa. His vision for the city in the 21st century is to create an urban showcase for the benefit of its residents and Israeli society. Huldai served as a combat pilot during the Six-Day and Yom Kippur wars, and later became commander of one of Israel’s largest Air Force bases. He has served as principal of the renowned Gymnasia Hertzlia, the first Hebrew-speaking high school in Israel.

The honorary Richard H. Jones
US Ambassador to the State of Israel

Ambassador Jones, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Jones had been serving as the Secretary of State’s Senior Advisor and Coordinator for Iraq Policy He also led U.S. diplomatic efforts on Iraq with the international community. Prior to assuming Jones served as US Ambassador to Kuwait from September 2001 until July 2004. From November 2003 until June 2004 he served concurrently as Chief Policy Officer and Deputy Administrator for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. Jones has also served as US Ambassador to Kazakhstan (from December 1998 until July 2001) and as US Ambassador to Lebanon (from February, 1996 until July, 1998. Previous postings include Director of the State Department’s Office of Egyptian Affairs (1993-95) and Director of its Division of Developed Country Trade (1987-89). He was twice posted to the US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and has served in Paris and Tunis. Jones has Masters and Doctoral degrees in Business/Statistics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a Bachelor of Science degree with distinction in Mathematics from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. He has been awarded two US patents and served two terms on the board of the Saudi Arabian International School in Riyadh.

Gal Luft Ph.D.
Executive Director
Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS)

Gal Luft is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) a Washington based think tank focused on energy security and co-founder of the Set America Free Coalition, an alliance of national security, environmental, labor and religious groups promoting ways to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. He specializes in strategy, geopolitics, terrorism, energy security and economic warfare. Newsweek Magazine called him a “tireless and independent advocate of energy security,” and Esquire Magazine included him in its 2007 list of America's Best and Brightest. Dr. Luft has published numerous studies and articles on security and energy issues in various newspapers and publications. He is a board member of the Center for Energy Defence and a member of the Society of Industry Leaders, the Committee on the Present Danger and other non-profit groups. He holds degrees in international relations, international economics, Middle East studies and strategic studies and a doctorate in strategic studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS,) Johns Hopkins University.

Rajeev Madhavan
CEO and Chairman
Magma Design Automation

Rajeev Madhavan has served as Magma's chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors since he co-founded the company in 1997, and also served as president until 2001. Madhavan presently serves on the board of directors for the Electronic Design Automation Consortium. Prior to founding Magma, he co-founded and served as president and chief executive officer of Ambit Design Systems, Inc. and co-founded and served as director of engineering of LogicVision, Inc. Madhavan received a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication from KREC, Surathkal, India, and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Queen's University, Ontario, Canada.

Chemi Peres
Managing General Partner & Co-Founder
Pitango Venture Capital

Pitango manages over $1 billion in committed capital, and invested in over 100 companies. Chemi founded and managed the Mofet Israel Technology Fund, a venture capital fund publicly traded on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange. Prior to Mofet, he was VP Marketing & Business Development at Decision Systems Israel (DSI), and a Senior Consultant to Israel Aircraft Industries. He also served as a pilot in the Israeli Air Force.He previously served on the boards of publicly traded companies and currently serves on the board of several Pitango portfolio companies. Until 2004 Chemi served as the Chairman of IVA (Israel Venture Association) and continues on its Executive Board. He serves on the boards of the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) Seed Fund; Weizmann Institute of Science as well as boards of non-for-profit organizations, such MATAN. Chemi holds an MBA and a BSC degrees in Industrial Engineering and Management from Tel-Aviv University. He serves as Board Member of Ramot- commercial arm of the University and is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Management.

Yair Shamir
Chairman and Managing Partner
Catalyst Fund

In addition to serving as Chairman and Managing Partner of Catalyst Fund, Mr. Shamir is also Chairman of IAI, Israeli Aerospace Industries. From 2005-2007, Mr. Shamir was Chairman of Shamir Optical Industry Ltd (NASDAQ: SHMR), From 2004-2005, Mr. Shamir served as Chairman of El Al, Israeli Airlines and lead the privatization process of the firm. From 1997- 2004, Mr. Shamir served as CEO of VCON Telecommunications Ltd. and from 2004 to date, serves as the chairman of the firm. From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Shamir served as executive vice president of the Challenge Fund-Etgar L.P. From 1994 to 1995, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Elite Food Industries, Ltd. From 1988 to 1993, Mr. Shamir served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Scitex Corporation, Ltd. Mr. Shamir served in the Israeli Air Force as a pilot and commander from 1963 to 1988. During his term in the Air Force, Mr. Shamir attained the rank of colonel and served as head of the electronics department, the highest professional electronics position within the Air Force. He currently serves as a director of DSP Group Corporation (NASDAQ: DSPG) and also serves as a director of few private hi-tech companies as well as a director on the Board of the Technion. Mr. Shamir holds a B.Sc. Electronics Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Barak Shein
Director of Business Development
Microsoft Israel R&D

Barak leads business development activities with Israeli startups and VCs. He leads Microsoft Israel R&D’s Industry Outreach and is the Israeli member of Microsoft’s Strategic & Emerging Business Team. Before joining Microsoft, Barak held various product management roles at startup companies such as Quigo, Textology, and VocalTec. Barak holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from Tel Aviv University, and an MBA from Tel Aviv University.

Yossi Vardi Ph.D.
Principal, International Technologies Ventures

Dr. Vardi is one of Israel’s high-tech veterans, with 35 years experience of founding and participating in building over 30 high-tech companies, in the fields of Internet, software, telecommunications, electro-optics, energy, and the environment. Several companies Yossi Vardi founded eventually went public, among them Advanced Technologies (Tekem - which became at the time the largest software company in Israel), International Technologies (Lasers), Granite Hacarmel and others. He is the principal of International Technologies, which engages in private high-tech investments for its own account. Yossi is the founding investor and the former Chairman of Mirabilis Ltd, the creator of the highly popular instant messaging program ICQ, which pioneered the internet-wide instant messaging phenomena, making it one of the most successful and popular Internet products of all times, with currently close to 400 million downloads. The company was acquired by AOL, to which he still serves as an advisor. He also serves as a strategic advisor to Amazon.

Stef Wertheimer
Founder
Iscar Metalworking

Stef Wertheimer has spent his life fostering the economic independence of Israel and promoting peaceful coexistence with its neighbors. Export manufacturing and education have been the vehicles to achieve these goals. The firm he founded in 1952, ISCAR, Ltd., is today one of the world's leading manufacturers of precision carbide cutting tools. Since 1982, Mr. Wertheimer has built six industrial parks: five in Israel and another in Gebze, Turkey. All of his parks are designed to promote export and to ensure a better quality of life. To encourage a new generation of entrepreneurs, they include incubator facilities, where start-up firms begin their operations. They also offer cultural facilities, schools, and aesthetic landscapes. In addition, Mr. Wertheimer has built designed residential communities near two of the parks. From 1977-1981, he served in the Ninth Israeli Knesset as a member of the DASH party, which he helped to found. He has received numerous international awards, but none is more meaningful to him than his nation's highest honor, the Israel Prize, awarded in 1991. He has held volunteer leadership positions at such distinguished institutions as Harvard University and the Technion. In addition, he has received honorary doctoral degrees from Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Daniel Zajfman Ph.D
President, Professor, and Scientist
Weizmann Institute

Prof. Zajfman was appointed associate professor at the Weizmann Institute in 1997 and full professor in 2003. Since March 2001, he has been an external member of the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, and in 2005, he was appointed Director in that institute. In November 2006, Prof. Zajfman was elected the tenth President of the Weizmann Institute by Institute’s Board of Governors. He assumed this position on December 1, becoming, at 47, the youngest president the Institute ever had. His research interests focus on atomic and molecular physics, with a strong emphasis on molecular breakup via electron or photon interactions. These issues are most relevant not only to the field of molecular dynamics, but also to the understanding of laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. In essence, Prof. Zajfman wishes to determine how, under harsh conditions, molecules are formed in galaxy's diffuse and dense interstellar clouds. Prof. Zajfman and his colleagues work to solve the riddle of star formation by recreating interstellar conditions in a laboratory environment.

Ram Banin Ph.D

Dr. Banin was a co-founder and executive of several companies in Silicon Valley. Since 2000, he is providing Israeli technology companies ‘hands on’ management coaching and international business development. In 1992 Ram joined TCSI, a public software company, as general manager of its Telecom division, becoming president and CEO in 1997. In 1980 he co-founded Daisy Systems, which pioneered the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry. In a bold move for a young company, Ram opened Daisy’s R&D center in Israel that employed 150 engineers at its peak and became the model for future Israeli startups. In the early 1970s he participated in the development and deployment of the Arpanet, the ‘Granddaddy’ of today’s Internet. Banin holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, M.Sc. in Nuclear Physics and B.Sc. in Physics and Math from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Ruti Alon
General Partner
Pitango

Ms. Ruti Alon joined Pitango in 1997. With over 25 years of international experience in the high-tech medical industry. Ruti is a General Partner investing in life sciences companies. Pitango, is Israel’s largest venture capital fund with approximately $1.3 billion under management. She previously worked on Wall Street where she held senior positions with Montgomery Securities and Kidder Peabody & Co. As a senior medical device analyst, Ms. Alon was rated as one of the top in her field for four consecutive years. She also managed her own independent consulting business in San Francisco, providing broad-based services to early-stage companies and venture capitalists in the medical devices industry. Ms. Alon is the force behind the establishment in 2005 of ILSI, Israel Life Science Industry, a non-for-profit organization representing the mutual goals of approximately 800 Israeli life science companies. Ms. Alon is the current Chairperson of ILSI. Ms. Alon has a B.A. in Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an M.B.A. from Boston University, and a M.Sc. from Columbia University School of Physicians and Surgeons.

Sam Arditi
Chairman
Tigo Energy

Sam Arditi is a successful entrepreneur who spent 6 years at Intel after the acquisition of DSPC, the company he managed (Symbol: DSPC). Arditi's most recent role at Intel was the Vice President and General Manager for the Cellular and Handheld Group (CHG). In late 2006 CHG was sold to Marvell for 600 million dollars. Prior to his position with CHG, Arditi was the head for Intel Capital Investment and Business Development of the wireless group (about 2 billion dollars in revenues). Before joining Intel, Arditi was CEO and co-founder of CTP Systems, a company specializing in satellite and wireless systems. The company merged with DSPC and Arditi was appointed as the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer of DSPC. Under Arditi's leadership, DSPC was acquired by Intel, setting the record as the largest ever cash acquisition by Intel. In 1995 Arditi founded ComBox, a cable communications company, and served as the Chairman of the board. In February 2000, he lead the acquisition of ComBox by Terayon, a publicly traded U.S. company. In 1995, he received the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation Award for the most successful deal between a U.S. and Israeli company for that year. Investment Interest in Solar, telecom, wireless, consumer electronics.

Yossi Bachar Ph.D.
Managing Director
Dr. Yossi Bachar, Economic Consulting & Business Development

Dr. Joseph (Yossi) Bachar is the managing director of Dr. Yossi Bachar, Economic Consulting and Business Development Ltd. Dr. Bachar was appointed Director General of the Finance Ministry in November 2003. As Director General at the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Bachar led most of the major economic affairs of the Israeli Government. Among other things, he was in charge of advancing structural reforms and privatization processes. Dr. Bachar also led the international affairs of the Finance Ministry, in particular - the economic dialogue with the American Administration. Prior to joining the Government, Dr. Bachar served as Managing Partner of Arthur Andersen in Israel. In 2002, following the dissolution of Arthur Andersen Worldwide, Dr. Bachar led the process of repositioning the Andersen practice in Israel and later – its merger with Ernst & Young. Dr. Bachar served as a faculty member at the Business School of Tel-Aviv University. He also was a faculty member of the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. Dr. Bachar holds a B.A. in Economics and Accounting from the Hebrew University and an Israeli CPA license. Dr. Bachar received his MBA and Ph.D. in Finance from the University of California (Berkeley).

Haleli Barath
Founding Partner
Eitan Mehulal Law Group

Haleli Barath is one of the founding partners at the law firm of Eitan Mehulal Law Group.  The firm is a leading corporate finance and commercial law firm with an emphasis on cross border transactions.
Haleli’s practice focuses on corporate law, financing, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, cross-border strategic partnerships, joint ventures, technology transfer and licensing transactions, governmental and other tenders, regulatory and telecommunications and intellectual property. Haleli’s practice is such that she is deeply involved in the strategic decision-making and implementation levels with her clients, both on the commercial and on the legal level. Ms. Barath serves as General Counsel to several high profile clients and provides strategic counseling at board level to such clients. Ms. Barath represents fortune 500 international corporations, investors (funds and wealthy individuals) and several mid size and fast growing enterprises in a wide range of industries including software, retail, medical and bio, communications, semiconductors, cleantech, homeland security, plastics and automobile sectors. Haleli periodically lectures at Universities and various business forums on corporate and business law, and technology and regulatory issues.

Ronit Bendori Ph.D.
General Partner
Evergreen

Ronit joined Evergreen in mid 2000 as a General Partner. Ronit focuses on Evergreen's investments in the healthcare sector. Ronit is a former Vice President and QA/QC Director of Pharmos Ltd. (NASDAQ: PARS). Prior to that Ronit held senior positions as an expert in technology transfer at InterPharm Ltd. (Israel) and Ares-Serono (Switzerland). As one of its most experienced figures, Ronit is an active promoter of Israeli health care industry. She was one of the founders of the Israeli Biotechnology Organization (IBO), and an adviser to the former Chief Scientists at the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade on biotechnology issues. Currently, she is a member of the National Committee for Biotechnology and a member of the advisory board of the Israeli Scientific American. Ronit has taught biotechnology in various institutions, including the Israeli Center for Management and Weizmann Institute of Science. She has a Ph.D in molecular and cellular biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science. Ronit initiated and was responsible for Evergreen's investment in Colbar, which was sold to Johnson & Johnson for $160M. Ronit represents Evergreen on the boards of Transpharma, Niti, Activiews, CorAssist and Neurosonix.

Isaac Berzin Ph.D.
Founder
GreenFuel Technologies

Isaac Berzin is a highly respected authority in clean energy. Dr. Berzin has been named one the 100 most influential people in politics, business, and science in 2008 by the Time magazine. He was nominated “as a representative of all the scientists and entrepreneurs working on solutions to global warming." Dr. Isaac Berzin is the founder of GreenFuel Technologies in Cambridge, MA (www.GreenFuelonline.com). GreenFuel's energy farms employ biotechnology to recycle carbon dioxide from flue gases to produce biofuels (biodiesel, ethanol). His innovative work in CleanTech and BioTech has won several awards – including the 2006 Platts Global Energy Award for Energy Emission Project of the Year and the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Bio-Based Fuels Technology Innovation of the Year Award – and been widely highlighted by, among others, the MIT Energy Research Council, American Scientific Frontiers, National Geographic Magazine and the Boston Museum of Science.

Doron Birger
President and CEO
Elron

Mr. Birger has served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Elron since August 2002, President since September 2001, Chief Financial Officer from 1994 to May 2002 and Corporate Secretary from 1994 to September 2001. Mr. Birger is Chairman of ChipX Corporation as well as a director on Given Imaging, Galil Medical, RDC, NetVision, Teledata, AMT, Starling, Wavion, Jordan Valley, AqWise, Neurosonix and Pocared. From 1991 to 1994, Mr. Birger was Vice President-Finance at North Hills Electronics Ltd., an advanced electronics company. From 1990 to 1991 Mr. Birger served as Chief Financial Officer of Middle-East Pipes Ltd. From 1988 to 1990, Mr. Birger served as Chief Financial Officer of Maquette Ltd., a manufacturer and exporter of fashion items. From 1981 to 1988, Mr. Birger was Chief Financial Officer and director at Bateman Engineering Ltd. and I.D.C. Industrial Development Company Ltd. From 1979 to 1981, Mr. Birger was the Chief Financial Officer of Fibronics Ltd.

Meir Brand
Country Director
Google Israel

In Sep 2005, Meir Brand was appointed to set up and lead Google's operations in Israel as Country Director for Google Israel. Brand has a 12 year successful track record as a business and marketing executive with leading global companies such as: Microsoft, Booz Allen & Hamilton, and P&G. He is an experienced internet veteran and joined his first Internet company in 1999 as Business Development Manager at Excite@Home and later as VP Sales and Marketing for ICQ (AOL Timewarner). Meir holds a Master's in Business Administration from Harvard University Graduate School of Business (Honors) and B.A in Economics from Tel Aviv University (Magna Cum Laude). Brand has lived and worked in Europe, Israel and the U.S and speaks English, Hebrew, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Tim Connors
General Partner
US Venture Partners

Tim Connors joined USVP in June 2001. He focuses on early stage investments in the IT sector. Prior to USVP, Tim was a Partner at Sequoia Capital. Tim's operating experience spans seven years in engineering, marketing, manufacturing and sales roles at successful high-growth start-ups like C-Cube Microsystems and large companies like Tandem Computers. Tim is currently a Director of 4info.net, Adify.com, Guidewire Software, M-Factor.com, Right90.com, and Yoomba.com. Tim conceived of and co-founded Spoke.com. Previously, Tim was a Director of Redline Communications (LSE: REDL), ClickShift.com (acquired by WebTrends), StorePerform (acquired by Red Prairie) and SupplierMarket.com (acquired by Ariba). Tim serves on the Board of Advisors of the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship at Notre Dame. Tim received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A from Harvard Business School.

Charles Cooper
Executive Editor
CNET News.com

Charlie Cooper is an executive editor and columnist with CNET News.com, an award-winning technology news site. Cooper produces News.com's daily podcast and also runs the Commentary and Newsmaker sections. He was the 2002 winner of the Excellence in Journalism award from the Society of Professional Journalists for Northern California. He previously worked at ZDNet, PC Week, Computer Shopper and Computer & Software News. Cooper also worked as a sports reporter for the Associated Press. He has a Masters Degree in Political Science from Columbia University.

Ora Dar Ph.D.
Head of Life Sciences, Office of the Chief Scientist
Ministry of Industry and Trade, Israel

Dr. Ora Dar currently serves as head of the Life Sciences sector at the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Israel. Her responsibilities include evaluating the technology and market potential of R&D projects performed by industrial and research companies and academic institutes. She also provides recommendations for granting support by the Office of the Chief Scientist, defines the technical objectives, and is responsible for budget concern and follow-up. Ora is also a consultant for Biotechnology to the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Israel. She promotes and defines R&D frameworks to advance the industry. Ora has completed 15 years of academic research at the following institutes: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv University Medical School, University of London, and The Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Boaz Dinte
Managing Partner
Evergreen

Mr. Dinte joined Evergreen in 1996. He is a Managing Partner and focuses on Evergreen's investments in the communications and semiconductor sectors. Prior to joining Evergreen, Mr. Dinte was a Corporate Business Development Manager for M-Systems Ltd., a global leader in flash-disk memory Boaz initiated and was responsible for Evergreen's investments in Exalink which was acquired by Comverse, Metalink, P-cube that was sold to Cisco and Envara that was acquired by Intel. Boaz is currently acting as a board member in BigBand Networks, Etagon, Pontis, Montilio, Exanet, and Xcitel.
He holds a B.Sc. in electrical engineering, specializing in computer design and communications, from the Technion, and has an MBA, Magna Cum Laude from Tel Aviv University.

Amir Elstein
Executive Vice President, Global Pharmaceutical Resources
Teva

Amir Elstein serves as Teva's Executive Vice President, Global Pharmaceutical Resources, at The Office of the CEO as of March 2007. Amir Elstein joined the Office of the CEO since January 2006, and assumed responsibility for overseeing the generics global supply chain.  Amir Elstein serves as Teva's Group Vice President – Global Specialty Pharmaceutical Products since January 2006. He served as Teva's Group Vice President - Biogenerics from January 2005 to January 2006. Mr. Elstein was a director of Teva from 1995 to 2004. Amir Elstein was the General Manager of Intel Electronics Ltd., Jerusalem from 1998 to 2004. He received his B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics from the Hebrew University in 1980 and his M.Sc. in the Solid State Physics Department of Applied Physics from the Hebrew University in 1982. In 1992, he received his diploma of Senior Business Management from the Hebrew University.

Gonen Fink
Co-Founder and CEO
Pythagoras Solar

Before founding Pythagoras Solar, Mr. Fink was at Check Point Software Technologies (CHKP) for twelve years as Vice President of Products (R&D) and Vice President of Solutions & Strategy. As one of Check Point's first employees, Mr. Fink was instrumental in building the company from an early stage start-up to a multi-billion dollar global market leader in Internet Security. Prior to Check Point, Mr. Fink served for seven years in the Israeli Defense Force's elite intelligence unit as a Captain and continued as a special consultant to the Ministry of Defense. Mr. Fink holds a B.Sc. summa cum laude in Physics and Computer Science and M.A. in Digital Philosophy from the Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Gerd Goette
Managing Partner
Siemens Venture Capital, Inc.

Gerd is a Managing Partner, based in Palo Alto, CA. He specializes in investments in energy, communications and industrial solutions.
His investments include Broadlight, Dune Networks, IP-Unity Glenayre, Kagoor Networks (acquired by Juniper Networks), Myrio (acquired by Siemens), Reactive NanoTechnologies and Verimatrix. In addition he manages SVC’s investments in G2 Microsystems, Prenova and SmartSynch. With more than 20 years of worldwide industry experience, he combines a strong technical background with wide-ranging operational skills. Prior to joining Siemens Venture Capital in September 2000, Gerd held the position of Vice President and Head of CableTV Solutions in Siemens Information and Communication Networks. Additionally, Gerd's managerial and operating expertise stems from earlier focus on R&D, system integration, product line management, technical sales support, project management and general management in the fields of telecommunication equipment and solutions.Gerd received a master’s degree in electrical engineering (Dipl. Ing.) from Technical University Darmstadt, Germany.

Ehud Hausman
Senior Partner, Head of the Hi-Tech Department
The Reinhold Cohn Group

Ehud Hausman heads the hi-tech department of The Reinhold Cohn Group, the largest, earliest established intellectual property firm in Israel. The Hi Tech a department handles a wide range of technologies including physics, software, hardware, electronics, medical devices etc.
Ehud has extensive experience in various aspects of intellectual property, including strategic consultation on the management of intellectual property assets for multinational companies, leading industrial companies and start-up companies.  He has gained professional experience as a software engineer in various capacities in the hi-tech industry. Ehud specializes in protecting inventions in the fields of computer science, physics and electronics, specializing, in particular in: communications and telecommunications, internet, cellular technology, databases, multi-media and other software, hardware, and integrated systems and processes; semiconductor devices and semiconductor related processes; medical devices and methods of doing business. In addition, Ehud lectures on intellectual property at Israeli academic institutes and additional forums. Ehud is personally recommended in the International Guide Chamber & Partners. They refer to him as ".. respected by peers and clients for his expertise in physics, electronics and medical device matters. He has experience as a software engineer and is considered “brilliant, meticulous and the lawyer to see for great advice.” He has a strong reputation for successfully handling patent matters".

Tal Lavian Ph.D.
Principle Scientist
Innovations- IP

Dr. Lavian brings 20+ years of innovation to the high tech industry. He teaches Patent Innovations at UC Berkeley Engineering. Dr. Lavian has been doing his research in the UC Berkeley RAD Lab, focusing on Datacenter communication. He has served as a DARPA Principal Investigator for three projects and as the Technical Chair of the Patent Committee for Nortel’s Enterprise Data Business Unit. Dr. Lavian has been facilitating the generation of hundreds of inventions. He conceived 63 invention disclosures, has issued 16 patents and has an additional 11 pending. Dr. Lavian co-authored more than 20 publications, journal articles, and peer-review papers. He serves as a Principal Scientist of Innovations-IP, focusing on innovations and patent consulting. Dr. Lavian leads scientific analysis of inventions and patents to defeat claims of patent infringements. He provides unique expertise in locating prior art in technical publications and Ph.D. dissertations to prove invalidity through Obviousness. He is specialized in the technology areas of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering related to Networking, Telecommunications, and the Internet. He holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in Computer Science & Networking with a minor in Patent Law.

Leonardo Leiderman Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
Tel Aviv University

Leonardo Leiderman is Professor of Economics at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics, Tel Aviv University, and the Chief Economic Advisor of Bank Hapoalim. Previously, for two-and-a-half years up to October 2002, he served as Managing Director and Head of Emerging Markets Economics at Deutsche Bank, based in New York and London. Prior to that, from 1996 to 2000 he was Senior Director and Head of the Research Department at the Bank of Israel. Leiderman (who was born in Argentina, and is a citizen of Israel) joined Tel Aviv University in 1979, after completing his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Professor Robert E. Lucas, Jr. From 1988 to 1991 he was Chairman of the Economics Department, and from 1994 to 1996 he headed the Pinhas Sapir Center for Development at Tel Aviv University. Over the years, Leiderman visited various entities especially in the US, such as the University of Chicago, Boston University, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the IADB. Professor Leiderman has also consulted for various central banks and ministries of finance. Leonardo Leiderman's published work includes more than 70 articles in professional journals and books, and 7 written or edited books. His research has covered an ample list of topics within the areas of macroeconomic policy, monetary theory, and international finance.

Shmil Levy
Partner
Sequoia Capital Israel

Shmil Levy is a Partner with Sequoia Capital Israel and focuses on semiconductor, software and systems investments. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2000, he was the President of Lucent Technologies’ Internetworking Systems Division. Shmil joined Lucent following Lucent's acquisition of Lannet where he served as the President and CEO. Shmil joined Lannet as VP for R&D. Shmil also served as VP of Madge Networks. Before joining Lannet, Shmil held senior technical positions at IAI, Boeing and Astronautics in the area of Avionic Systems. Shmil has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Ben Gorion University.

Shlomo Maital
Academic Director
TIM-Technion

Shlomo Maital was a summer visiting professor for 20 years in MIT Sloan School of Management's Management of Technology M.Sc. program, teaching over 1,000 R&D engineers from 40 countries. He is the author co-author or editor of 8 books. He is co-editor of a new journal, International Journal of Technology & Innovation Management Education. He was co-founder of SABE-Society for Advancement of Behavioral Economics. He has published over 80 scholarly articles in refereed journals. He has written guest editorials for Barron's, and writes regular columns for The Marker (Haaretz business daily) and Jerusalem Report (fortnightly). He served as Director of the National & Economic Planning Authority, Economics Ministry, Government of Israel. He has taught managers from 200 Israeli companies. His research currently focuses on profit-driven innovation -- how to combine creativity and discipline to achieve marketplace success.

David Naveh, Ph.D., M.B.A

Dr. Naveh has worked for Bayer Corporation since 1992 and currently serves as Chief Technical Officer of Bayer Biological Products, Worldwide. Prior to Bayer Corporation, Dr. Naveh served in the capacity of Process Development and Plant Management at Schering Plough from 1984 to 1988 and Director of Operations at Centocor from 1988 to 1992. Dr. Naveh has participated in the development and commercialization of a number of FDA approved drugs including: Intron, Reopro, Remicaid, Myoscint, Centoxin, Kogenate, and Kogenate-FS. He currently holds seven patents including first authorship of key GM-CSF and IL-4 patents. He is a graduate of Technion in Haifa, Israel in Food Engineering(1980). He received a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering and an M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 1982. From 1982-1984, he was an Assistant Professor (tenure track) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he taught plant design and biophysical chemistry. He has authored over 30 peer reviewed papers and is on the editorial board of "Bioseparations." Dr. Naveh has been on BOD's of public and private companies since 1995 , and is passionate about Higher Education in Israel, windsurfing ,and gourment dining. David is highly involved in the Israeli Biotech scene, where he recently closed a half billio dollar deal between Bayer and a privately held Biotech startup called Zilip.

Ajit Nazre Ph.D.
Partner
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Ajit joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 2003. His areas of investment are enterprise software and services, new materials and greentech. Ajit came to KPCB from SAP. At SAP he worked for Dr. Hasso Plattner, CEO, Chairman and co-founder, SAP. He co-founded SAPMarkets in 2000, a fully owned company of SAP, and was Managing Director of SAPMarkets Americas. In 2002, he was SVP of SAP's New Venture Unit, SAP Inspire. Prior to SAP Ajit worked in the medical device industry, first at Zimmer, Inc., a division of Bristol Myers and Squibb, and then at Mathys AG (Synthes) in Switzerland. Ajit has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Engineering Poona (COEP), India. He holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Tech, a PhD in Biomechanics from the Technical University of Hanover, Germany and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Eli Opper Ph.D.
Chief Scientist
Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, Israel

Eli Opper has been the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor in Israel since July of 2002. Previously he was a partner at Giza Venture Capital (2000-2002) and held numerous top positions during his time with RAFAEL (the Armament Development Authority) from 1973 to 2000. His key official positions as Chief Scientist include Co-Chairman of the Board on U.S.–Israel Science & Technology Foundation, U.S.–Israel Science & Technology Commission and BIRDF (U.S.–Israel R&D Foundation), EU-Israel Joint Committee of the Scientific Technological Agreement. Dr. Opper also serves as Chairman of the board on CIRDF (Canada–Israel R&D Fund), BRITECH (Britain–Israel R&D Fund), KORIL (Korea–Israel R&D Fund), SIIRDF (Singapore–Israel R&D Fund) and Chairman of the Board of 10+ Bi-National Committees for Industrial R&D (France, Italy, etc.). He has written 14 papers in journals and at conferences and more than 50 internal papers at Rafael. Eli is a member of numerous professional committees at Rafael and with other major organizations in Israel. He has lectured in the areas of Computers, Communications, R&D, Technology and Management at Rafael and at other business and academic organizations throughout the world.

Zeev Pearl
Managing Partner
Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer LLP

Zeev Pearl is one of the founding partners and the managing partner of Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer ("PCZL"). PCZL is a leading full service intellectual property law firm with offices in Israel and New York providing intellectual property, litigation, corporate and commercial legal services (www.pczlaw.com).  Zeev has over 15 years of experience serving as in-house and outside counsel advising clients on diverse areas of intellectual property including patent prosecution and portfolio management, hostile licensing and litigation, and related licensing and commercial transactions. Zeev graduated from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Geology.  He earned his M.Sc. at the Weizmann Institute of Science where his thesis involved the application of analytical chemistry to archeology.  He then worked on a Ph.D. thesis in physical chemistry involving the application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging to visualization of fluid mixing processes for several years until he decided to focus on a career in law earning his Ll.B. from Tel Aviv University in 1992.  He is admitted to both the Israel bar and the Israel patent bar is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  He is the author of a number of scientific and legal articles and a member of LES, INTA, AIPPI and AIPLA.

Daniel Ruben
Physician, Entrepreneur and Investor

Dr. Daniel Ruben is a member of Silicom Ventures advisory board. Most recently he was at Aurec Capital in Israel where he was Managing Director of Fastercures-Israel, an organization that globally engaged in translating biological research into clinical therapies. He served as a Venture Partner at the Yozma Group, one of the first Israeli VC firms, where he was responsible for life sciences investments in Yozma III, and advised Ofer Bros. Ltd., one of Israel’s largest conglomerates, and NAIOT, a technology incubator regarding their investments in medical device and biotech companies. Prior to his years in Israel, Dr. Ruben was in California where he had an active medical practice, served as department chairman at Sherman Oaks Hospital & Burn Center, developed a multi-specialty medical group and a health services management company. He has accumulated a wealth of experience managing physicians, executive and clinical professionals and has active experience in advising private and public life science companies. Dr. Ruben received his Bachelors Degree in Bacteriology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), his MD from the University of Texas, his Master’s degree in healthcare policy and research (MPH) from UCLA, and his MBA from the University of California, Irvine (UCI). His residency training is in Internal Medicine and clinical research & epidemiology.

Mordechai "Mudi" Sheves Ph.D.
Vice President for Technology Transfer
Weizmann Institute of Science

Prof. Mordechai Sheves studies the “chemistry of vision” – how light energy is converted into chemical energy, or vision. Born in Tel Aviv, Prof. Sheves studied chemistry at the university level, earning a B.Sc. degree in 1969 at Bar-Ilan University (Ramat Gan, Israel) and M.Sc. (1973) and Ph.D. (1978) degrees from the Weizmann Institute of Science. While still a graduate student, he became interested in the relationship of chemistry to vision. His postdoctoral work with Prof. Nakanishi of Columbia University, a leader in this field, further fostered his interest in the subject. In 1981, Prof. Sheves returned to Israel and the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Organic Chemistry, where he was appointed Associate Professor in 1987, and Full Professor in 1994. In 1992, he served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois (Champaign/Urbana), where he worked in the Beckman Institute and in the Department of Biophysics. From 1994 to 2004, Prof. Sheves headed the Weizmann Institute’s Chemical Research Support, which comprises 11 separate service units; from 2004 to 2006, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry, and in December 2006, he was appointed Vice President for Technology Transfer. Prof. Sheves is the recipient of numerous awards.

Doron Simon
President and COO
Vasucorp

Doron Simon is a member of Silicom Ventures advisory board. Mr. Simon has held numerous operational and customers support positions as well as sales management in Tower Semiconductors Ltd. since it’s inception in 1993 till 2001. Since April 2001 He served as President of Tower Semiconductor USA, Inc. and Corporate VP Marketing, overseeing the foundries sales, marketing and business development activities world wide till 2006. Prior to this phase Mr. Simon was employed by National Semiconductor in various planning and production control management positions.  Recently Mr. Simon has joined a new start up in the embedded controls domain. Mr. Simon holds an MBA from Heriot-Watt Business School, Edinburgh, UK and B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the Technion, Israel.

Nava Swersky Sofer
President and CEO
Yissum

Ms. Swersky Sofer joined Yissum at the end of 2005, bringing to the position twenty years of venture capital, industry and legal experience gained in Europe, the United States and Israel. She was a partner at Sanderling Ventures (California) and Concord Ventures (Israel) and founded Columbine Ventures in Israel. Prior to moving into the venture industry 12 years ago, Ms Swersky Sofer was a vice president and member of the senior management group at Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis) at the company’s worldwide headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. She holds a law degree from the Tel Aviv University; an MBA from IMD International in Lausanne, Switzerland; diplomas from the Goethe Institute (Munich), the Instituto Trentino (Italy) and the Sorbonne (Paris); and is a member of the Israel Bar Association. Ms Swersky Sofer chairs the board of Atox Bio and currently sits on the boards of Novagali, Tiltan Pharma, BioCancell Theraputics, Optonol, and several other privately-held companies, as well as the non-profit regional development organization Bio-Jerusalem.

Benjamin Soffer
Head of the Technology Transfer Office
Technion

Mr. Soffer serves as head of the Technology Transfer Office at the Technion Research and Development Foundation (TRDF). Prior to the Technion, Ben served as Managing Director at TopNotch Capital – a leading life sciences investment banking boutique. During the years 1999-2003 Ben served as Israel's Economic Attache` in New England and as representative of the Bi-National Industrial R&D (BIRD) Foundation, and the Israeli Industrial Cooperation Authority (ICA).
Prior to his tenure in Boston, Ben served as special advisor to Israel's Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Prior to joining the private sector Ben has worked as a legal advisor to one of Israel's leading investment and real estate groups. Ben is a gratudate of the Tal Aviv University and is certified as a lawyer in Israel and the state of New York.

Ehud Spiegel
Founder
Mobilliance - Mobile Applications Consulting and Solutions

Ehud Spiegel has over 20 years experience in leading and managing technology development and solutions deployment, with deep experience in the mobile sector acquired by serving in key-positions at mobile ventures over the last 10 years. In early 2007 Ehud have established Mobilliance consulting, to help ventures in Israel for successfully developing and deploying their mobile applications to the global market. The last two positions Ehud held prior to establishing Mobilliance were Director for Customers Solutions at Mobixell Networks, responsible for deployment of multi-servers Transcoding systems at leading mobile operators, and CTO of Zlango Inc. that is delivering innovative messaging applications to the mobile and internet markets. Prior to these Ehud served at leading positions, of which some as a founder,  in various ventures that have developed innovative solutions for the Internet, Telecom, Electronic pre-press and Video post-production markets. Ehud has participated in the invention of numerous patents, and has actively contributed to world's standards, as part of his work in the MPEG, 3GPP and OMA comities on behalf of companies he served. Ehud holds a BSc in Electronic & Electrical Engineering and a BA in Economics, both from Tel Aviv University.

John Steuart
Managing Director and Co-Founder
Claremont Creek Ventures

John has spent the last 20 years managing, building and investing in technology and life science companies. John focuses on the intersection of the information technology and life sciences markets including bioinformatics, molecular diagnostics, genomics, proteomics software and instrumentation for med-tech industries. John serves on the board of directors of Arcxis, Tibion, Fluxion, Gene Security Network & Wired Benefits. Early in his career, he joined Alafi Capital, an Emeryville-based venture firm specializing in early-stage biomedical companies, where he served as an officer of the General Partner. At Alafi, John lead investments in more than a dozen successful start-ups, and served as the senior executive and board member of various firms such as Tanox, Software Ventures, Lipomatrix, and Megan Health. In the mid-90s, together with colleague Nat Goldhaber, John helped start Cybergold, an Internet marketing and payments company, serving as the early COO and CFO through its IPO, merger with Mypoints and sale to United Airlines. John continued with the Mypoints unit of United serving as the Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships.

Dan Vilenski
Former Chairman
Applied Materials Israel

Mr. Vilenski is responsible for the successful integration in Israel of three independent subsidiaries for leading American high tech companies: Kulicke and Soffa (K&S), KLA Instruments and Applied Materials. All three firms operate in the field of semiconductor capital equipment and employ a combined total of 1500 employees in Israel. Mr. Vilenski served for four years (1993-1996) as Executive Director of the Israel - US joint Bi-national Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation, spearheading innovative industrial cooperation between Israeli and US high tech companies. During the period of his management, the BIRD Foundation created about 160 unique cooperation programs. Mr. Vilenski received his B.Sc. in 1964 and his Mechanical Engineering M.Sc. in 1967 from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. From 1967 to 1969 he was a staff member at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and subsequently began as a design engineer at Kulicke and Soffa in Philadelphia. He eventually served as a Vice President at K&S. From 1985 to 1992, he served as the Vice President and General Manager of KLA Instruments in Israel.

Zohar Zisapel
Chariman
RAD Data Communications

Mr. Zisapel is Chairman of RAD Data Communications, which he founded in 1981 together with his brother. Since then, RAD has grown into a group of 15 companies with aggregate sales of $640 million in 2005. Six of those companies are traded on Nasdaq. Prior to founding RAD Mr. Zisapel served as head of the Electronic Research Department of Israel’s Ministry of Defense. He received bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering from the Technion and an MBA from Tel Aviv University. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Zisapel served as Chairman of the Israel Association of Electronic Industries.

"Entrepreneurship in super-competitive markets"

Lower funding requirements, global economy and the availability of VC money make it easier to start a company, that is good news for you... and for your competitors. Whether it is in advertising, e-commerce, social networking or any other market, you are likely to compete with dozens of companies. What can you do to improve your chances?  

Amir Ashkenazi
Co-Founder and CEO
adap.tv

Amir drives the overall strategy and manages operations for Adap.tv. Most recently, Amir was Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Shopping.com (formerly DealTime.com), a leading online shopping service that helps consumers make informed purchasing decisions by comparing products, prices, and stores Web-wide. Amir launched and successfully led Shopping.com's technology and research efforts. Shopping.com completed an initial public offering in October 2004; the company was later acquired by eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) in August 2005. Previously, Amir was Director of Research for CommTouch Software. He studied Computer Science and Economics at Tel Aviv University.

"Patent Pending"

Joseph Bach
Partner, Intellectual Property and Technology
Nixon Peabody LLC

Mr. Bach has more than a decade of legal experience in all aspects of intellectual property law, including patent prosecution and litigation. Joseph has developed methodologies for, and counsels clients on, efficiently building and managing effective patent portfolios. Joseph has successfully handled and managed cases in a broad range of technologies and has litigation experience before the International Trade Commission and federal courts. Joseph was formerly Senior Director of Intellectual Property at Applied Materials, where he was responsible for all aspects of the company's intellectual property internationally. He hold a law degree from the Duke University School of Law and a B.S. Engineering and Applied Science from California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

"Semiconductor Nanocrystals; Building Blocks for Devices in Nanotechnology"

Semiconductor nanocrystals manifest unique size, shape and composition dependent properties with both basic and applied significance. They serve as a model system for the evolution of properties from the molecular regime to the solid state, and are emerging as building blocks of devices in Nanotechnology. The potential of combined hybrid metal-semiconductor photocatalysts in solar energy harvesting will be discussed.

Uri Banin Ph.D.
Professor and Founding Director
Kreuger Center for Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, Hebrew Univ.

Uri Banin received his B.Sc. degree in Physics and Chemistry from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) in 1989, graduating with honors. He completed his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at HU in 1994 working on femtochemistry (with distinction). He then moved to the University of California at Berkeley to work for three years as a postdoctoral fellow, studying the chemistry and physics of semiconductor nanocrystals. Dr. Banin joined the faculty of the Institute of Chemistry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1997, became an Associate Professor in 2001 and full professor in 2005. Banin is the founding director of the Harvey M. Kreuger center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at HU and also serves on the University’s Executive Committee. He is a member of the board of Yissum , served on the scientific advisory board of Nanosys, and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) in the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. His distinctions include the Intel prize for a Ph.D. student (1992), the prize of the Israel Chemical Society for a graduate student (1993), and the Rothschild postdoctoral fellowship (1994-1995). Banin received many awards, including the Israel Chemical Society prize for a young scientist (2001), and the Kaye prize for applied research (2005). His research focuses on nanoscience and nanotechnology of nanocrystals.

"Raising Money from Silicon Valley VCs:
The Top Ten Mistakes Israeli Entrepreneurs Often Make"

Why great entrepreneurs either receive unfair valuation or fail to raise money from Silicon Valley VCs. The mistakes Israei entrepreuners often make when managing a VC fund rasing campaign. The seminar will include examples of great entrepreneurs raising VC funds for promissing companies who have failed due to making common mistakes.

Amos Barzilay Ph.D.
Walden International Investment

Amos Barzilay has been a Venture Capitalist with Walden International a top VC firm in the Silicon Valley since 2001. He has evaluated hundreds of start-ups and has been a board member in a dozen companies. He also has been an angel investor and an entrepreneur. Some of his exits include Kiva (sold to Netscape for $180m), Rightworks (sold to ICG for $1.3B), Mergent (sold to CommerceOne for $200M) and Business Signatures (sold to Entrust). Dr. Barzilay has an engineering degree from the Technion in Israel and a M.B.A. and Ph.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

"Trends in advanced post 45nm Semiconductor Industry"

As the semiconductor industry marches to full production ramp of 45nm technology node we will address several issues relating to the future of the industry.. Could we possibly continue with Moore's law? Inflection point in several  major building blocks of MOS device i.e. high k, metal gate, mobility enhancement etc. Snap shot of the industry in 5 years due to the high cost of R&D and the skyrocketing cost of new manufacturing facility. What are the next killer apps?

Israel Beinglass Ph.D.
Managing Director
ISB Ventures

Dr. Beinglass has over 25 years experience in the semiconductor manufacturing and semiconductor equipment industry in different management roles. Dr. Beinglass joined Applied Materials in 1989 and served in a variety roles at the company. He was most recently in charge of the strategic marketing and competitive analysis group for the Thin Films group. He also served as the general manager of the High temperature films and a managing director and a CTO for the Front End equipment group, the process diagnostics and control and Applied Materials global service. Dr. Beinglass was involved in numerous M&A activities and was a member of Applied Materials Strategy and Marketing councils. Before joining Applied Materials, Dr. Beinglass worked at Intel Corporation and IMP at a various positions, including process development manager and engineering manager of fab operations. While working at Intel he was the co-inventor of the Selective Tungsten Deposition. Dr. Beinglass has a Ph.D degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in materials science and holds 27 US patents.

"Technology Enabled Services"

The application of information technology – particularly communications, processing, analytics and storage has reshaped service businesses such as payroll processing, payment systems and freight logistics and will transform more sectors of the economy in coming decades.   Israeli entrepreneurs can tap into this burgeoning trend by utilizing their technical innovation and by leveraging the increasingly flexible infrastructure to sell into the global market place. 

David J. Blumberg
Managing Partner
Blumberg Capital

David Blumberg brings more than 22 years of investing experience in venture capital backed technology companies including Zoran [ZRAN], ABIC - acquired byTeva [TEVA], Vista Research – acquired by McGraw Hill [MHP], PureSight - acquired by Boston Communications Group, Inc. [BCGI], and GoNetworks - acquired by NextWave Wireless [WAVEX].
Prior to founding Blumberg Capital in 1991, David managed technology investments with Claridge Investments, Adler & Co., Apax, and T. Rowe Price Associates. David’s operational experience includes launching the highly successful business development, marketing, and public relations efforts for CHKP in the US and Japan, helping build a substantial revenue stream prior to its IPO. David earned his AB in Government, cum laude, from Harvard College and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and INSEAD. David speaks French and is proficient in Hebrew and Spanish. He serves as a member or observer on the Board of Directors of CaseStack, Siperian, Damballa, Insightix and Correlix. He also serves on the board of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco and is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

early-stage, innovative, information technology companies across a range of sectors including technology enabled services, software, internet, networking, security, mobility and communications.

 

early-stage, innovative, information technology companies across a range of sectors including technology enabled services, software, internet, networking, security, mobility and communications. early-stage, innovative, information technology companies across a range of sectors including technology enabled services, software, internet, networking, security, mobility and communic