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Paul Merage

Paul Merage

Paul Merage is the Founder and Chairman of the Merage Institute. Paul has over 35 years of experience in consumer products. Following 10 years of management experience with major packaged food companies, Paul founded ChefAmerica, a startup frozen food company in 1975 along with his brother David. In time ChefAmerica became one of the largest and most profitable privately held food companies in the US. It is best known for Hot Pockets and Lean Pockets. ChefAmerica operated nationally with a workforce of over 2000. ChefAmerica was sold to Nestle in 2002 for $2.6 billion.

He is now actively engaged in providing vision and strategic direction for the MIG CAPITAL and its affiliate companies. MIG CAPITAL and its affiliates were a natural progression of the need for a platform to carefully and professionally manage, preserve and enhance the family capital.

Paul is also highly focused on a mission to “give back to America.” Paul and his family created The Merage Institute. The Institute’s programs are all aimed at improving quality of life through education. Each has gained positive national and indeed, International attention. He is active with the University of California Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Dean’s advisory board. In addition Paul and the Merage family support a number of other philanthropic efforts. Paul received a B.S. in Economics and a MBA from the University of California.


Hanna Azulai, Adv.

Director Partner at Gilony – Azulai Law Firm. Hanna Azulai

Hanna is a practicing attorney for the past 18 years.

Hanna specializes in biotechnology, hi-tech, health care, pharmaceuticals and life science as well as in related aspects of intellectual property and copyright and has acquired extensive and profound knowledge in these practice areas.

Hanna posses vast experience in working with and consulting to high-technology firms, governmental hospitals, regulatory authorities, research institutions and non-profit organizations in all their areas of activity. Hanna also provides lectures and seminars on commercialization of intellectual property rights (such as licensing, sale and assignment of IP rights and joint venture agreements), escorting privately held companies (including start-up companies) from their initial stages and strategic planning.


Yossi Dashti

Yossi Dashti

Doctorate at Ben Gurion University and a lecturer at Peking University, with research and teaching focus on high tech entrepreneurship, success factors of technology, M&A, and business strategy. Involvement and board membership with technology ventures and socially responsible organizations, both in Israel and in the US including: Merage Foundation for US-Israel Trade, AIPAC, NATAL, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, and Israel Venture Networks.

Prior to joining the academic world, Yossi served as a member of the California based Broadcom Corporation management team that led a NASDAQ:BRCM record-setting IPO and the M&A integration of over 20 acquired companies in multiple global locations. He served as a strategic and business development executive with Safeskin (NASDAQ:SFSK) where he prepared and positioned the company for acquisition. He held global Information Technology and Electronic Commerce technical and managerial positions with Western Digital, AST Computers, and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Yossi earned a B.Sc. in computer information science and an MBA with focus on international marketing and Information Technology from the University of California.


Adv. Noam Shpalter

Adv.Noam Shpalter

Noam Shpalter is a serial entrepreneur and established and initiated several projects in Israel and abroad.

Noam has an extensive experience in senior management and leading strategic business development processes domestic and international organizations. He has many knowledge and expertise in creating business relationships, business development and marketing.

Professional highlights include the following: Noam was the CEO of a private medical plastic surgery and aesthetic center, where he was in charge of the strategic and marketing plans and the reorganization of the center.

Noam was a board member and the CBDO in ACONSt tRADING tECHNOLOGIES, a technology company specializing in the development of automated trading systems and advanced tools for risk management.

For 10 years, Noam was the co-founder and CEO of Orin-Shpalter Finance Education group. He was in charge of the Business development and marketing. The group owns and operates a leading private college in Israel with more than 10 branches and 2,500 students a year. Under his management, the group bought and merged several local schools and colleges and developed a leading on-line study website with thousands of video hours, in the fields of economics, finance, accounting, securities analysis, insurance and law.

Noam holds an MBA and a BA in Business administration, LLb in commercial and company’s law and is a qualified mediator. Noam is a reserve Captain in the IDF.


Ilan Haber

Director R&D and Marketing, Ophir Division,
Newport Corporation (NASDAQ: NEWP)
Ilan Haber

Over 20 years of experience in high-technology firms, focusing on Photonics, Physics, Electro Optics and telecommunication arena. Specializes in identifying business problems and building teams that deliver solutions, while operating in multi-disciplinary environment spanning geographies and cultures.


Gal Nachum

Gal Nachum

Gal started his professional career in the IDF’s prestigious Talpiot program for technological leadership. He later served for 5 years in the Israeli Air Force’s Software Unit and in 1991 has received the IAF’s award for technological innovation.

Gal is a serial entrepreneur that has co-founded Mobix (sold to Backweb in 1997), Synopsis (sold to Datasafe in 2000), Cash-U (merged with Niragongo in 2004), Unipier (sold to Flash Networks in 2008) and Ringya – a communication solution for groups such as parents, work teams, clubs and organizations and the like. Gal servers as a mentor and advisor to multiple startups and is also the mentor-on-board of the 8200 EISP accelerator.

Gal holds a B.Sc. cum laude from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem in Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science and an M.Sc. cum laude from the Tel Aviv University in Computer Science.


Haim Gil-Ad

Haim Gil-Ad

Mr. Gil-Ad brings more than 25 years of experience in management of large R&D projects. Prior to founding NovellusDx, Haim Gil-Ad was the CEO of Optigo Systems Ltd.,a vertically integrated high-tech company developing technology-oriented products and a leader in electro-optical R&D that was acquired by the Elta Co. of Israel Aerospace Industries. Prior to joining Optigo, Mr. Gil-Ad pursued an extensive career with the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD) as head of major international R&D and full-scale development programs. Mr. Gil-Ad earned a B.Sc. in Engineering from Tel-Aviv University and an MBA from Ben-Gurion University. He has twice been awarded the Israel National Quality Award.


Michal Neeman

Michal Neeman

10 years of proven experience in business development for the Israeli Food & Beverages Industry.

In depth knowledge and experience of the Israeli food market, covering over 150 Israeli companies as well as global contacts with retailers, suppliers, governmental offices and academic-related institutes around the world.

In my most recent position at the Israel Export Institute, I Initiated contacts between global players and the Israeli food industry. I also worked closely with Israeli companies and advised on how to enter global markets and transform local business into international businesses.

Vast network of personal connections within the industry and high ambition have led me to this next step, which is to leave my governmental job and to establish Lumeega. Lumeega will be all about creating business opportunities in global markets, with emphasis on Israeli innovation.

M.A in Communications from Tel Aviv University, (1987) and an MSc. in Marketing & Management, University of Surrey, UK (1997).


Yael Furman

20 years of experience in the medical device arena in general, in the diagnostics field of specifically.Multidiscipline, hands-on experience throughout the medical device "life cycle". From, proof of concept, product development, through clinical trials, to commercialization, marketing and sales.

Yael spent 12 years in NY establishing molecular genetic testing laboratory and clinical servies for Genzyme operation.

For the last 5 years she is the CEO of Aferrix Ltd, which has developed manufactures and markets technology for the diagnosis and monitoring of iron toxicity in body fluids.

Education: Ms.C. from Sharah Lawrence College in NY, MBA from Hewitt-Watt University, Edinburgh


Eli Herscovitz

Eli Herscovitz

Eli is entrepreneur with vast experience in founding and managing technological start-up companies.

In recent years, Eli is involved in several start-up companies as an investor and as a co-founder.

Since 2002, Eli was engaged with Network Economy, a European investment and management group focused on IT, telecommunications and utilities sectors.

Before that, Eli was the founder and CEO of Radguard Ltd., the pioneer of Secure Virtual Private Network (Secure VPN) for IP Networks. Eli led the company from its inception in 1994 to become a major player in the market with run rate sales of about $10 million in 2000.

Prior to that, Eli was V.P. of Research and Development at RND, a router vendor. Eli joined RND at its establishment and rose to build and manage the 70-staff R&D group.

After graduation, Eli worked in the Systems Division of Tadiran Israel Electronics Corp. Among several positions, he served as a project manager of an innovative tactical Computer Communication Control and Intelligence (CCCI), system.

Eli served also as the chairman of the Networking Security Standard Committee at the Standards Institute of Israel, and was member of several IEEE committees for local area networks.

Eli holds a B.S.E.E. degree from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.


Eitan Ron

Eitan is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the Israeli high tech industry.

In recent years Eitan is involved in several start-up companies, either as a co-founder, advisor or board member.

Eitan was CEO and co-founder of HumanClick Ltd, which was acquired by LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN) back in 2000, he served as the GM of LivePerson israel till 2007. Today, LivePerson is the global leader in intelligent online customer engagement with over 400 employees in its Israeli offices in Raanana.

Prior to LivePerson Eitan co-founded NetCognition Ltd, his first start-up, and prior to that held high-level marketing positions at Qronus Interactive, (a spin-off start-up from Mercury Interactive) and ServoLogic Ltd. Eitan began his career as a Hardware Engineer at Scitex Corporation Ltd.

Eitan holds a BSc in computer Engineering from the Technion and an MBA from the Paul Merage School of Business at University of California, Irvine.


Dr. Ayal Itzkovitz

Ayal Itzkovitz

Dr. Ayal Itzkovitz is a technologically savvy entrepreneur, an investor, and an advisor to startups that have proven a high degree of technology innovation. Ayal is involved in early stage ventures as well as turnaround and special situations.

Ayal is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Israel Aerospace Industries - Israel's largest defense company, with annual revenues of $3.8 Billion and about 15,000 employees. IAI is globally recognized technology and innovation leader, specializing in developing and manufacturing advanced, state-of-the-art systems for air, space, sea, land, cyber, and homeland security.

Until 2012, Ayal was a Vice President of Oracle Corporation, heading the Israeli operations of Oracle Communications Global Business Unit. Prior to Oracle, he co-founded and served as the President and CEO of Convergin, which was acquired by Oracle in 2010 for enabling the disruptive move of IT to the core of telecom networks. Earlier in his career, Ayal was one of Microsoft’s first employees in Israel.

Prior to his entrepreneurial section, Ayal was a faculty professor of Computer Science in New York University (NYU).

Ayal holds a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and is considered an expert in the areas of distributed systems and the foundation of cloud computing. He is the inventor of numerous patents and articles in prominent scientific journals. Ayal’s work on cluster computing was mentioned among the Technion’s exceptional research achievements.


Rami Guzman

Rami Guzman

Currently, Mr. Rami Guzman is an active Board of Directors member in numerous companies. Among them: Tower semiconductors, Ampa capital, IIF (Investment comm.) ICIC Credit comm.)

Previously he served as an active Director on the Board of Banl Leumi (3 terms), Adamind (Transcoding), Afcon Technologies, Afrca Israel Investments, Discount Bank's Provident and Pension Group. In addition he is an active consultant and advisor to technology based public and private companies, focusing on business development, mergers, processes enhancement and government relations. He is also an active member on Government-Wide Committees and working groups.

Mr. Guzman worked for Motorola-at the time-one of the world’s largest communications and electronics companies – from 1985 until December 2004. He was Vice President of Motorola Inc., Director of Motorola Israel and the CFO of the company, focusing on the financial management as well as business development and industry – wide government relations.

Mr. Guzman has a BA in Economics (1963) and an MA in Business and Public Administration (1969) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a Research Fellow at Stanford University and Stanford Research Institute, California, USA, and has completed Ph.D. studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Prior to joining Motorola in 1985, Mr. Guzman worked for the Ministry of Finance. First as senior assistant and deputy to the Director of the Budget and later as Government wide MIS and IT Commissioner. He was VP, Finance and Economics of the ElectroChemical Industries Frutarom, and then of Elscint. Before joining Motorola Mr. Guzman served as the Managing Director of Dikla Holdings Ltd. Mr. Guzman was also a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Haifa University, and the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Mr. Guzman has been very active in the entrepreneurial activities, focusing on the legislation and Government support Laws and Programs, which gave, at the time, the entire HiTec industry meaningful financial and operational advantages. He was effective as well in supplying non-conventional financial solutions.

In addition to numerous other responsibilities, he served as Chairman of the Directors' Center of the CFO Forum, is Honorary President of the Commercial and Industrial Club, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Beit Zvi Academy for Performing Arts, Board Member of the College of Management, member of the Executive Committee of the Israeli American Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Guzman is active in the community, undertaking various sponsorships and contributions to both individuals and social organizations, placing a special focus on encouragement of industry in peripheral zones, absorption of new immigrants and the underprivileged.

In recognition of his contributions, Mr. Guzman had been awarded the Rotary Outstanding Contribution to Immigrant Absorption (1993), the CFO Special Recognition Award (2001), and the Bnei Brit Honorary Award (2002).


Uri Adoni

Partner, JVP Media Labs (Jerusalem) Uri Adoni

Uri joined JVP with extensive experience in internet and new media, gained from his prior position as the CEO of MSN Israel. In the past twelve years Uri has been one of the new media pioneers, who saw the many stages that the internet, mobile and TV went through. Prior to his work at Microsoft, Uri was a partner and a co-CEO at Geller-Nessis Leo Burnett Advertising Agency, working with leading brands such as Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, Nokia, Philips and Energizer. Prior to that, he was a senior strategic planner at Fogel-Levin / Ogilvy Israel, working with brands such as IBM, Unilever, Adidas, Philip Morris and others. His vast experience in advertising and strategic planning gave him the position of an "evangelist" in the fast growing online advertising market.

Uri serves as a board member of JVP's portfolio companies Celltick, Tok, CrossReader, UIU and Wishi.

Uri holds a BA in political science from Tel Aviv University, a professional music degree from the Rimon School of Music, and an MBA from Manchester University UK.


Alan B. Sellers

Senior Partner at SAIL Capital Partners Alan B. Sellers

Alan Sellers is Chairman & CEO of an emerging high tech, medical device company. He has devoted his career to helping promising companies grow, and working with entrepreneurs, founders and CEOs. For decades he has observed and studied recurring patterns in business. Sellers has a history with financier/industrialist/entrepreneurs who are members of the Forbes 400, and with multiple founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, scientists, engineers, visionaries and inventors. He has been involved for decades at the highest levels with companies that are high tech and low tech, domestic and international, private and public, large and small.

Sellers specializes in technology start-up companies, and is accustomed to rolling up his sleeves in emerging businesses. He has 30 years of senior leadership roles in operations, private equity and Boards of Directors, including multiple emerging growth companies. Sellers has served in numerous C-level operating roles, including Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Administrative Officer at NYSE ($5 Billion), NASDAQ ($25 Million), and/or numerous private companies of varying revenue levels from start-up to mid-size.

He has 20 years of Partner-level private equity and venture capital experience in growing companies and capital structure. He practiced law and public accounting at internationally ranked law and accounting firms. Alan has deep expertise in Mergers & Acquisitions, in deals ranging from $1 Million to $5 Billion, and in Special Ops, including dispute resolution and governance.

Alan holds a BS in Economics from Yale University, an MBA from The Wharton School, a law degree from Columbia University, and a CPA from the State of New York. He is a member of the California Bar. In his spare time he serves on the Executive Committees at both the Business School and Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at University of California Irvine (Advisory Boards), and as Professor at The Merage Institute’s Executive Leadership Program for CEOs in Orange County, California.


Rami Kalish

Managing General Partner, Co-Founder Rami Kalish

Rami Kalish has extensive experience in venture capital and international management in the high-tech environment. Rami has been active in the field of venture capital since 1992, and has served as Managing General Partner since that time.

Prior to founding Pitango (originally under the name Polaris), Rami garnered rich managerial experience at high-technology firms in the U.S., Europe and Israel.

He previously held sales and marketing positions at IBM and senior executive roles at Orbotech (NASDAQ:ORBK), a leading manufacturer of capital equipment for the PCB and semiconductor industries.

He earned a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Information Science from the Technion Institute of Technology.

Throughout the years Rami has served on the Board of Directors of numerous compaies that were acquired or went public, among them are:

ITXC (previously NASDAQ: ITXC ), CardGuard (previously SWF:LIFE ), VocalTec (NASDAQ: CALL), Retalix (NASDAQ:RTLX), Optibase (NASDAQ: OBAS), RADWARE (NASDAQ: RDWR), Optonol (acquired by Alcon).

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of number of Pitagno portfolio companies, please see complete list on the right.

Rami was, for many years, also a member of the Board of the HighTech Industries Association (formerly known as IVA).


Dror Daliot

Co-Founder & COO | LLB (ADV), MBA Dror Daliot

Dror is a seasoned executive with business and legal training. In 2012 Dror co-founded the award winning start-up Kitchenbug – an NLP based smart recipe box.

Prior to that, he served as Crew972's CEO, overseeing international multimillion dollar projects and creating its state of the art technological infrastructure.

In the past, Dror served as an envoy to the former U.S.S.R for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ('Nativ' division). He interned for former Director General of the Ministry of Justice and worked on Supreme Court macroeconomic cases.

Dror holds a law degree from COMAS and an MBA from Bar-Ilan University.
He is fluent in Hebrew and English and speaks basic Spanish and French.


Nir Lempert

President and CEO of Zap Group Nir Lempert

Mr. Lempert acts as President and CEO of Zap Group (Golden Pages in the past) since 2005.

As part of his vision, the company went through two major changes in the past years.

The first one was changing the focus from a printed directories based company to a company that is a market leader in the internet arena.

The business strategy has changed in a way that allowed Golden Pages to become the largest Israeli web media publisher - both through massive internal changes (in product, brand, pricing etc) and through early adoption of sharpen M&A strategy, aimed at the world of niches.

The second major change is reorganizing the business structure, in a way that will allow maximizing the relationships with both users and customers.

Prior to his role at Golden Pages, Mr. Lempert was CEO of channel 10, a national commercial TV channel, and also executive VP of YES, Israeli satellite Television Company.

Mr. Lempert is carries out the role of the chairman of 8200 alumni association.


Arik Ganor

Arik Ganor

Arik Ganor is a Merage fellow since 2008. He has 10 years of experience in Sales and Marketing management positions at top international companies (3M & British American Tobacco). His positions involved team management, project management and business development in various fields (consumer goods, industry and Hi-tech) and required direct contact and understanding with both end customers and distributors.





Ron Mayron B.Sc. M.B.A

Ron has extensive, long-term experience in the pharmaceutical & medical equipment arena and has held various, significant senior management positions, both local and globalץ During his career at Teva , Ron serve in various VP positions , his last role was CEO of Teva Israel and VP Israel and Africa. Ron's core expertise local and global are Merge & Acquisitions, Business Development, Global Operation & supply Chain and Strategic development.

Ron serves on several Board of Directors public and private.

Ron has a B.Sc. – Industrial Engineering & Management, Ben Gurion University and M.B.A from Tel-Aviv University.


Daniel Shinar

As VP of Strategy and Business Development, Daniel is leading the corporate activities in Strategy, M&A and New investments.

Daniel serves as a Director in the following companies: Tigo Energy, Jordan Valley Semiconductors, Clal Energy, Clal Motors, 700 Mhz Holdings Corporation and others. Daniel is actively involved with several other Clal group companies including: Clal Biotechnology (TASE: CBI) and Golf & Co. (TASE: GOLF).

Daniel has been actively involved with Fundtech (Nasdaq: FNDT) until it has been recently sold to GTCR (December 2011) and served on the Board of Netvison, Israel's largest ISP and long distance calls provider (TASE: NTVSN), until it was sold and merged with Cellcom in August 2011.

Past Positions:
Prior to Joining CII, Daniel held positions at Elron Electronic Industries (TASE: ELRN) and other leading technology oriented organizations.

Education:
Program for Leadership Development (PLD), Harvard Business School.

Master of Business Administration (MBA), The Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Bachelor of Laws (Cum Laude), The Hebrew University, Jerusalem.


Nechemia (Chemi) J. Peres

Managing General Partner, Co-Founder Nechemia (Chemi) J. Peres

Chemi Peres is a Managing General Partner and Co-Founder of Pitango. In 1992, he founded the Mofet Israel Technology Fund, an Israeli venture capital fund publicly traded on the TASE (Tel Aviv Stock Exchange), which he managed until 1996, when he co-founded Pitango. Prior to Mofet, Chemi was VP Marketing & Business Development at Decision Systems Israel (DSI), and a senior consultant to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Chemi served as a pilot in the Israeli Air Force for 10 years.

Chemi holds an MBA degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering & Management from Tel Aviv University (TAU). He continues to be involved in TAU, by serving on the Board of Directors of Ramot, the commercial arm of the TAU that focuses on Technology Transfer, and he is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Management. In addition to his involvement in the TAU, Chemi also serves on the Board Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Bezalel, Academy of Arts & Design, Jerusalem. He is also a member of the board of the Friends Association the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya.

Chemi gained extensive board experience having previously served on the boards of several publicly traded companies, such as AudioCodes (NASDAQ: AUDC), BackWeb (NASDAQ: BWEB), Magic Software Enterprises (NASDAQ: MGIC), Aladdin (NASDAQ: ALDN), VocalTec (NASDAQ: VOCL), Orckit Communications (NASDAQ: ORCT), Precise (NASDAQ: PRSE), BreezeCom - now part of Alvarion (NASDAQ: ALVR), Netro Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRO), and Koor Industries, one of Israel's leading conglomerates (NYSE: KOR) among others.

He currently serves on the boards of numerous Pitango portfolio companies (see complete list at right) and served on the Board of Provigent, acquired by Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM)

Chemi is one of the founders of the Israel Venture Association, IVA (Now known as the High Tech Industry Association, HTIA) and during 2003/4 served as Chairman of the Board 2003-2004.

Chemi acted as Chairman of the Board of Israel America Chamber of Commerce from 2008 until 2011.


Eyal Chomsky

CEO of the Adler Chomsky Group

Age: 49

Marital Status: Married + 3 children

Education: BA in Economics, MBA from the Hebrew University

Seniority: 25 years

Occupational experience:
Eyal Chomsky is a businessman, marketing consultant and advertising executive.

Mr. Chomsky is the founder and CEO of Alder, Chomsky & Warshavsky – the largest marketing media group in Israel, operating and managing the biggest advertising agency in Israel, as well as 10 other companies engaged in classic advertising, interactive advertising, media consulting, political consulting and B2B advertising.

Mr. Chomsky is one of the owners of an investment company with investments in the web, mobile, real estate and consumer goods fields in Israel and worldwide. He has led and managed hundreds of business and marketing campaigns for the biggest companies in the Israeli market.

Mr. Chomsky invests and is active in groundbreaking ventures in the world of digital marketing. He serves as a strategic consultant for leading Israeli organizations.

Eyal Chomsky is also one of the owners of the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team.


Gabby Czertok

Gabby Czertok

Gabby Czertok is a social and technological entrepreneur. He is the founder of several NGOs focused on encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship throughout various communities and industries. Mr. Czertok serves on the advisory boards of several startup companies in Israel and abroad and advises on innovation strategy on a regular basis.

He was the CEO of HydroSpin, selected as one of the five most promising cleantech companies in Israel. Mr. Czertok holds an LL.B. from Tel Aviv University.


Brigadier General (Ret.) Pinchas Buchris

Pinchas Buchris

Brigadier General (Ret.) Pinchas Buchris a Senior Business Executive and Military Officer with extensive experience in management of large organizations and personnel, strategic planning and technology development. Directly responsible for significant changes within the organizations under his command. Capable of handling and solving complex situations in uncertain conditions. Successfully managed national size budgets. Unique negotiation and arbitration skills. Brings vast technological experience along with an in depth knowledge of the High-tech community. Founder of the Cyber security capabilities within the Israeli intelligence. Was awarded the Israel Security award, the most prestigious national awards given in Israel.


Assaf Harel

Assaf Harel

Assaf Harel is a Managing Director at Columbus Nova Technology Partners - Israel representative. at Columbus Nova Technology Partners (CNTP).

Mr. Harel founded Galim Business Development & Strategy in 2008 with the aim of capitalizing on the on-going energy and innovations emerging from the Israeli market. Galim provides business development services for global companies among them Canadian and Korean companies. Prior to establishing Galim, Mr. Harel served as President and CEO of the Israel Venture Association (IVA) www.iva.co.il[iva.co.il], the trade organization representing the Israeli venture capital community, promoting the Israeli venture capital and high tech industry to international and Israeli institutions, investors and strategic partners worldwide. Assaf held numerous business development positions with technology companies including US Wireless, Schema, Sabratec and Geotek. Mr. Harel achieved the rank of Captain in the Israeli Air Force, where he was a pilot and flight instructor. He earned his BA from Tel Aviv University and his MBA from St. John’s University, New York, USA.