Executive Committee
Tevel's angel club executive committee is our backbone, volunteering valuable time to help Tevel by screening the companies applying to present. Our committee includes a group of successful professionals involved in Israeli-technology, with a long track record of initiating, investing in and/or developing multiple successful technology companies.
-Dr. Oren Fuerst- Co-Founder Tevel and Head of the Executive Committee
Dr. Fuerst has more than 20 years of experience in the technology and capital markets worlds. He is the
Managing Director of Strategic Models LLC, an advisory and
investment company. He is also an avid angel investor in Israeli companies and a
serial entrepreneur himself, founding and funding numerous
medical devices and software companies, including companies and technologies acquired by Fortune 100 companies. Dr. Fuerst was on the
faculty and served as the co-director of the Technology Strategy and
Valuation Executive Program at Columbia Business School. He was a
faculty member and fellow at the International Center for Finance at the
Yale University’s School of Management. Prior to these, he was with the
capital markets advisory group of KPMG Israel. He served in the elite Technology unit of the Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF). He is the co-author of numerous publications about technology entrepreneurship, including "From
Concept to Wall Street" (Financial Times-Prentice Hall, 2003), “ start up Companies and Venture Capital” (Tel Aviv University Press, 2001) and
"Mastering Investments" (FT, 2002). He holds B.A. degrees in Economics
and Accounting from Tel-Aviv University (dual Magna Cum Laude), and both
Masters and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia Business School. He is also involved
in numerous Israeli related Not for Profits, focusing mainly on
Healthcare related causes.
Our Executive Committee members, by field of specialty (in alphabetical order):
Internet/Software/Telecom
- Yaron Galai was the
co-founder and CEO of Quigo, Inc. (www.quigo.com), a provider of
performance-based marketing solutions for advertisers and premium
publishers which was acquired by AOL. Mr. Galai is the co-founder and
CEO of Outbrain, Inc. (www.outbrain.com), a startup developing a blog
and RSS rating platform. Outbrain caters to RSS aggregators, online
publishers, and bloggers. Prior to founding Quigo, Mr. Galai was
co-founder & VP Business Development at Ad4ever, a developer of
rich-media advertising technologies for the web which was later acquired
by Atlas (a division of aQuantive – www.aquantive.com). Earlier, he was
the founder of NetWorks Web Design - an SEO and web design firm. At
NetWorks he oversaw the production and search engine optimization of
over 30 websites. Mr. Galai studied industrial design at the Holon
Technological Institute, and is a Major (reserve) officer in the Israel
Navy.
-Alon Geva is
currently the Vice President for Business Development and Technology at
XMPie, acquired by Xerox (NYSE: XRX). His record includes more than a
decade of experience in technology and information systems including
embedded-computing systems, distributed system, networking and security.
Prior to XMPie Mr. Geva was a co-founder and CTO of Nuvisio. He
initiated the acquisition of Nuvisio by XMPie, and was a key member of
the team responsible for its successful completion. Mr. Geva was an
officer with the elite Intelligence unit of the Israeli Defense Forces
where he managed and developed a number of state-of-the-art software
projects and system solutions. He received an MBA and a B.Sc in
Mathematics and Computer Sciences, both with honors, from Tel-Aviv
University.
-Dr. Avraham
Kadar, M.D. is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of BrainPOP. Having
started or invested in several Internet and technology companies, Dr.
Kadar is a serious and successful entrepreneur. One of his most notable
startups, BrainPOP, was born in 1999 when Dr. Kadar tried to find a way
to teach his young patients about asthma and allergies. He created a
short educational animated video and found that it not only captured
their attention, but also sparked their interest in learning more. Now
Dr. Kadar has gone from educating his patients to educating a nation,
creating a library of more than 650 animated BrainPOP movies, which are
being used by more than 25 percent of U.S. schools. BrainPOP Jr. is a
new venture by Dr. Kadar, focusing on younger students, K-3. The company
is quickly replicating the success of Dr. Kadar’s original BrainPOP.
Dr. Kadar is board certified in Pediatrics and in Diagnostic Laboratory
Immunology, and practices in New York City and Westchester, New York. He
holds the position of Assistant Clinical Professor, Division of Allergy
and Immunology, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. A graduate
of Sackler Medical School Tel Aviv Israel, Dr. Kadar trained in
Pediatrics in Israel and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and
Montefiore Hospital in New York. He was a Fellow in the Laboratory of
Clinical Investigation at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in
Bethesda, MD. Dr. Kadar serves as AditAll’s Founder, Chairman and CEO
and works closely with the company’s other executives in defining and
executing overall strategy.
-Nimrod
Lev
was the founder of kSolo.com, the first-ever
Web-based karaoke application, which won first prize at Popkomm's IMEA
2005 (Innovation in Music & Entertainment Awards), and was
acquired in 2006 by News Corp's Fox Interactive Media. Following kSolo’s acquisition, Mr. Lev served as the Senior Vice
President and General Manager of MySpace Karaoke. He oversaw the integration
and the successful launch of the channel within MySpace.com, and secured its
position as the world’s largest user-generated music service.Prior to founding kSolo, Mr. Lev co-founded a network of
online dating sites based both in Israel and the U.S., including Jcupid.com
and Cupid.co.il, which became the world's largest online Jewish
dating community. Mr. Lev oversaw Cupid's International expansion and
later guided it through an acquisition by Spark Networks, one of the
world's leading online dating companies. Earlier, Mr. Lev served as the Head of Content and Operations
at Walla.co.il, Israel's leading portal, and also as an officer of
an intelligence unit of the Israeli Defense Forces. Mr. Lev serves on the board of directors of several internet companies, and on the board of Beit Hatfuzot, the Museum of the Jewish people.
- Michael E. Ronen is a member
of the Mergers Leadership Group and is responsible for the execution of
many of the firm's Telecommunications, Media and Technology merger deals
in the United States. Michael has a particular focus on cross-border
transactions
and transactions involving financial sponsors. Michael joined Goldman
Sachs in 1998 as an associate in the Communications, Media and
Entertainment group. He later became the business unit manager for that
group and subsequently moved to work with many of the firm's important
Media, Telecom and Technology clients. He became a managing director in
2006. Prior to joining the firm, Michael served in the Israeli Air Force
Intelligence Corps and later practiced law as an attorney in Israel,
specializing in bankruptcies and financial restructurings. Michael
earned an LLB (JD) from Tel-Aviv University in 1994 and graduated from
the Stern School of Business at NYU with an MBA, with distinction, in
1998. He lives in New York with his wife, Shira, and their two children.
-Yaron Samid is the co-founder
and CMO of Pando Networks Inc., the Internet's fastest growing Hybrid
Peer-to-Peer content delivery network with over 14 million users in only
its first year. Yaron is a serial entrepreneur that has designed
products and built companies that have empowered millions of people to
create, consume, distribute and monetize digital media. Yaron started
Pando Networks after co-founding DeskSite TV, the Internet's first PCTV
network. Previously Yaron held senior Marketing and Product Management
positions at Zend, BackWeb and Register.com. Yaron is the founder and
organizer of NY-Israel Tech, a peer group of NY-based Israeli high-tech
founders and professionals that meet monthly to showcase and support
local Israeli high-tech startups. He is also the founder of NY Video
2.0, a 1,200+ member monthly meetup of NY-based online video startups
and media companies.
-Ido Stern Ido Stern is a
Managing Director of Technology Investment Banking at Oppenheimer &
Co., previously CIBC World Markets, in New York. Mr. Stern joined
Oppenheimer's Technology Investment Banking Group in 1997. Mr. Stern
heads Oppenheimer's electronics investment banking group. He is focused
on companies in the electronics industry including electronics capital
equipment & materials, display technologies, digital media, memory
and IP semiconductors and emerging electronics nanotechnology.
Oppenheimer
has been consistently one of the most active investment banks to the
electronics industry during his tenure. Mr. Stern has initiated the
banks' focus on the display industry and has been a leading banker
catering to Israeli technology companies listed on the NASDAQ. Mr. Stern
has completed numerous public offerings, mergers & acquisition
advisory and private placement assignments for both domestic and
international clients. Prior to Oppenheimer, Mr. Stern had been with
Bankers Trust and held R&D roles with several technology companies
including Intel and Kulicke & Soffa. Mr. Stern holds an MBA from
Columbia Business School and a B.Sc in Computer Engineering from
Technion, Israel both with honors.
-Rony Zarom is the Founder and Chairman of Decima Ventures
and has established himself as one of most successful entrepreneurs in
the technology sector. His most recent success was the founding of
Exalink, a provider of a complete suite of mobile Internet solutions
that combined infrastructure products and software applications. Only 14
months after the company was established, Exalink merged with Comverse
(NASDAQ: CMVT, http://www.comverse.com/) in a deal valued at
approximately $550 million. Mr. Zarom’s business track record includes a
number of other impressive achievements. Prior to founding Exalink, he
held several senior management positions at elroNet, which merged with
Netvision and became Israel's leading Internet service provider. Mr.
Zarom also served as the managing director at ELRON, heading up a new
venture in the IP Telephony field known as i-Fax. Following the merger
of i-Fax, he served as the executive vice president of business
development at ArelNet, a leader in the IP telephony field.
Life Sciences:
- Robert J. Evans, M.D
graduated from New York University Medical School in 1984 and completed
his fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Electrophysiology in 1990
at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. He was Chief of the Electrophysiology service
and head of a research group at Long Island Jewish Hospital from
1990-1999. The research group has published extensively in acclaimed
medical journals, and has national and international stature. While at
LIJ, he co-founded (and served as CEO and President) Prisma Medical
Technologies (a VC backed company) based on licensed from the hospital
and his research. He currently serves as CEO of Althera Medical and is a
board member in numerous other medical device companies in which he led
an angel investment. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine
and Chief of EP at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. He has
extensive experience working with and advising and investing in medical
device companies including Estech, Atricure, Impulse Dynamics, BioSense,
Guidant, Medtronic, St. Jude, and C.R. Bard.
- Shosh Friedman is the managing
partner
of Push-Med, a life sciences regulatory affairs boutique. She has more
than 15 years of experience in the fields of regulatory affairs,
clinical trials, and quality assurance of medical devices and
biotechnology. She is a highly respected expert and speaker in
international regulatory affairs, clinical trials and quality assurances
and is considered a pioneer in the regulatory affairs community. In
recognition of her achievements in the field, she was awarded in 2005
the Richard E. Greco Award by the Regulatory Affairs Professionals
Society (RAPS), the highest honor bestowed by RAPS upon outstanding
leaders who have made significant contributions in the field. In her
many years of activity she has succeeded in educating medical companies
in the implementation of regulatory requirements as an integral and
critical part of their activity for a successful entrance into the
international markets. During 2002-2006 Mrs. Friedman was Senior
Vice-President, Regulatory and Clinical Affairs and member of the senior
management of Given Imaging (NASDAQ: GIVN). She has been a member of
the company Advisory Board since June 1997 and, as the company
consultant, led the activities for getting marketing authorization
worldwide. Before joining Given Imaging, Shoshfounded Push-med Ltd.
Prior to this position, Shosh was Regulatory, Clinical and QA Director
at InStent Ltd., an Israeli medical device company that was acquired by
Medtronic Inc. on 1996. Mrs. Friedman holds a B.Sc. in mathematics and
physics from Haifa University, a Business Administration Certificate
(with Honors) from Hebrew University, a QA Lead Assessor certification
from Bywater, and a Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) from RAPS.
-David Furst, MBA - Mr. Furst
has over 30 years of management practice in various industries.
Furthermore, most of Mr. Furst's recent experience has been in the Life
Science Industry. He was formerly the head of the Life sciences division
at the Israeli Export Institute. Prior to that, he founded and managed
CellFeed Medical: Drug-Device for solid tumor therapy, and served as a
Partner at Atara Technology Ventures. Mr. Furst served as the COO of
Ron-Tech Medical: a medical device for OB/GYN, the VP R&D of MTRE
Advanced Technology: a medical device for the OR and ICU. As well as VP
R&D at Direx Medical Devices with solutions such as: Stereo Tactic
Radio Surgery system, Low Field MRI for extremities, Urology devices,
and others. Prior to that he served as a Business Development manager at
Orbotech (NASDAQ: ORBK). Mr. Furst studied mathematics at the Tel-Aviv
University and is an MBA graduate of Brunel University of West London.
He is a retired Lt. Colonel of the Israeli paratrooper’s corp.
-Achi Ludomirsky, M.D., an
Internationally renowned pediatric cardiologist, is the director of the
Division of Pediatric Cardiology and a professor of pediatrics in the
NYU School of Medicine. Ludomirsky is a pioneer in fetal and pediatric
heart imaging and is known for his instrumental role in the development
of novel imaging and therapeutic procedures for children with congenital
heart disease. He served on multiple committees and was the president
of the pediatric echocardiography society (SOPE) as well as the chair of
the pediatric council of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE)
for four consecutive years. After earning his medical degree from the
Sackler Medical School at Tel Aviv University in Israel, Ludomirsky was a
major and a physician in the research and development branch of the
Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. He then completed a
residency in General Pediatrics at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem,
followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology at Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston. Ludomirsky moved to the University of Michigan in
1992 where he was director of the echocardiography laboratory at the
Michigan Congenital Heart Center at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital until
2003. Ludomirsky came to NY Medical Center from Washington University in
St.Louis where he served as the director of the Division of Pediatric
Cardiology and the Louis Larrick Ward professor of Pediatrics and
Biomedical Engineering in the School of Medicine.
Ludomirsky served
as a partner at Gemini Funds of Israel and as a Venture partner at
Advent International (Boston ,USA) and Oakwood Medical (St.Louis ,USA).
- Dr. David Naveh recently retired from Bayer after 15 years as VP and Chief Technical Officer of Bayer Biological Products, Worldwide. Prior to Bayer Corporation, Dr. Naveh was Director of Biotech Operations at Centocor from 1988 to 1992, and previous to that (84-88) held production and process development positions at Schering Plough. David Naveh 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 (DSCO, BNVI) and private companies since 1995. David is passionate about Higher Education in Israel, windsurfing and gourmet dining. David is highly involved in the Israeli Biotech scene, where he recently championed a half billion dollar deal between Bayer and a privately held Biotech startup called Zilip. David consults for Teva.
General:
- Arik Arad is currently the President of Arocon, Inc., a global security company that develops and markets a wide range of security solutions. From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Arad served as Executive Vice President of Arotech Corp., President and CEO of Arocon Security Corporation, a subsidiary of Arotech Corp., and Chairman of IES Interactive and AoA–Armour of America. From 1992 to 2003, Mr. Arad acted as a liaison between the Shopping Centers Association of Israel and the Ministry of Defense in Israel. An expert on security and anti-terrorism, Mr. Arad has more than 25 years experience in working with government, military, law enforcement and Fortune 500 companies worldwide. His expertise includes assessing security requirements, security planning and implementation, security training programs and proactive security follow–up. Mr. Arad is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Haifa University.
- Dr. Nathan Baruch is the Managing Director at The Friends of the IDF, NY. Previously he has been an advisor at IDT Ventures where he was engaged in managing the NJ based office of IDT Ventures dealing with early stage start up companies. Prior to that he was the founder and owner of Natbar, an Israeli privately owned Business Development Company. Mr. Baruch was a co-founder and CEO of an International Trade Company representing various Israeli companies worldwide while generating new accounts for manufacturers of consumer goods in the US and Europe as well as co-founder and SVP of Marketing of a joint subsidiary of Tadiran, Israel’s largest electronics company and Perceptronics-USA, a California based company. He served 15 years in the Israeli Defense Forces (Lt. Colonel) leading a multidiscipline team of R&D for the Armored Corp. Mr. Baruch has over 20 years of experience in marketing, sales and management of companies of diverse disciplines. Mr. Baruch holds an MA in Industrial Psychology from Bar-Ilan University, Israel and a PhD in Business Administration from Washington University.
- Ronen A.Bojmel is a Partner and a Managing Director of Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC, a New York-based investment bank focusing on corporate restructuring. Prior to joining Miller Buckfire, Ronen was a member of the financial restructuring group of Wasserstein Perella & Co./ Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, which he joined in 1996. Ronen’s restructuring transaction experience includes among others representing Foamex International Inc, J.L French, Autocam Corporation, Progressive Moulded Products Limited, Vulcan Inc. (on its investment in Charter Communications), Grupo TMM, ad hoc unsecured creditors committee of Delta Air Lines, Brokat AG, Crown Cork & Seal, Telenet NV, Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd, CRIIMI MAE Inc, Avianca Airlines. Ronen is a frequent speaker in restructuring-related conferences. Ronen received the 2005 Transaction of the Year award from the Turnaround Management Association on his work for Grupo TMM. Prior to joining the restructuring group, Ronen advised in various leveraged finance and merger and acquisition transactions involving among others Philip Morris Companies, Inc., Rohm & Haas Co., Imax Corporation, Power Bar, Inc., Washington Homes, Inc., Anvil Knitwear, Nortek Inc., Casino Magic, Keystone Consolidated Industries and Shoppers Food Warehouse Corporation. Prior to joining Wasserstein Perella & Co., Ronen was an agent for aviation security operations under the Consul General of the Government of Israel in New York. Ronen resides in New York with wife Orit and son Daniel.
- Tzameret Fuerst currently serves as the CEO of Circ Medtech, a medical technology company focused on HIV prevention. Tzameret’s career spans 17 years in managing and developing national and multi-national brands in the for-profit and non-profit sectors, offering a unique perspective and multi-disciplinary approach to substantially growing a business while being socially responsible. In the USA, Tzameret serves as Chairwoman of an influential Israel-centric organization, Dor Chadash and Founder of Israeliness, a thriving Israeli family program. Prior, she lead strategy and business development for a $60M a internet infrastructure company, RichFX (acquired by Channel Advisor), focused on online merchandising for companies such as Neiman Marcus, Coach and HSN. In Israel, her roles included leading global marketing for publicly traded Lipski (Keter Plastic), serving as strategic planner advertising agency Geller Nessis (formerly D’Arcy), where she managed all multinational accounts such as Procter & Gamble, Nokia, Holiday Inn and Energizer, and launched her career offering sales and marketing support for family owned franchise of Nike International. Tzameret earned her B.A. in Business from the Tel Aviv Management University. Tzameret is the co-chair of the Philanthropy initiative at Tevel angel club and her additional community involvement includes the Council for Young Jewish Presidents, The Bezalel Art Academy, The Rabin Medical Center and various other Israel related projects. She was also the co-founder of the Israeli Women’s Alliance and served as past Chairwoman of artis Israeli Contemporary Art.