Kheir Abdel Razek has been serving as Deputy CEO at "Kav Mashve" since April 2011. Kav Mashve ("the Equator") is an Israeli non-profit organization dedicated to promoting equal employment opportunities for Arab university graduates in the Israeli labor market.  As Deputy CEO, Kheir is responsible for the organization's strategic marketing activities and cooperation with the business private sector.

Prior to her work with "Kav Mashve", Kheir worked in client management in advertising for 15 years, holding a number of management positions including VP Clients, Arab sector at the "Migzarim" advertising agency.  During her time in advertising Kheir specialized in the management of  international clients, including Procter & Gamble (at Saatchi & Saatchi Israel), Johnson&Johnson, and Chrysler, amongst others.

Kheir holds a BA in English and French Literature and an MA in Marketing Management.

Zika Abzuk is currently leading Cisco's Corporate Responsibility for in Israel, Palestine & Sub-Saharan Africa. Her most exciting recent projects include the management of a $10M investment commitment in 5 African countries, and a $10M investment commitment in the Palestinian Territories. On December
2010, Cisco received the Award for Corporate Excellence from the State Department on Zika's team work in Israel and Palestine. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdjWSfbOJDQ for award justification and speeches.

Zika initiated the Cisco Networking Academy Program in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Initiated and managed the MYTecC program and the Neta program and various other projects in Europe, Middle East and Africa.  Zika Abzuk has adapted and implemented the Networking Academy Program in diverse communities, while emphasizing collaboration, building leadership, and increasing economic opportunities.

Prior to managing the Networking Academy Program, Zika worked as an R&D manager in Cisco Israel. Before that Zika worked in various software engineering positions in Israel and the US.  Zika holds a Masters degree in pure Mathematics from Tel-Aviv University. Thesis title: "Incompleteness of Peano's Theory".

Dr. Gilad Almogy brings more than a decade of experience leading global technology organizations. Prior to founding Cogenra, Dr. Almogy was a senior vice president at Applied Materials (AMAT), in charge of the Display and Thin Film Solar Products business segment. Dr. Almogy joined Applied Materials in 1997 through the acquisition of Orbot Instruments and went on to become the General Manager of its’ PDC (Process Diagnostics and Control) Business Group in 2000. Throughout his career Dr. Almogy has initiated, led the development of, and brought to market, advanced technology products generating billions of dollars in revenue.

Mr. Almogy is the inventor of over 30 registered US patents and holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology and a BSc in Physics and Mathematics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.

Isaac Applbaum is a Founding General Partner of Opus Capital, an early stage venture capital fund. Previously, Isaac was a Partner and Managing Director for Israel at Lightspeed Venture Partners an early stage venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California.

Prior to joining Lightspeed, Mr. Applbaum was the founder and CEO of Concorde Solutions Inc. (CSI).  In 1998 Mr. Applbaum sold CSI to Bank of America becoming a Senior Vice President at the bank with responsibility for running the bank’s E-ventures group and an advisor to the strategic investments group.

Before founding Concorde Solutions, Mr. Applbaum was responsible for running US operations for Advanced Technology International, a large Israeli software development company.

Mr. Applbaum currently serves as a Senior Advisor for Philanthropy to the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat..  Mr. Applbaum is President of the Board of the California Israel Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of The Western Wall Heritage Foundation,  is on the board of directors of:  The Koret Israel Economic Development Funds, the Shalem Institute,  the American Action Network  and is on the National Council of AIPAC.  Mr. Applbaum is a member of the Young Presidents Organization.

Adi Aron-Gilat is Global Head of Policy for Better Place. In this role, Adi and her team helps stakeholders calibrate policies consistent with the Better Place approach to ending the corrosive effect of oil dependence on the economy, environment and national security.  Stakeholders with whom she works include governments, industry and current and future Better Place partners.

Her prior experience includes research related to air, water and waste management law and policy at the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, and environmental litigation and advisory work at the law firm of S. Horowitz & Co. in Tel-Aviv. Aron-Gilat also worked as a Research Assistant on a number of projects at Stanford University relating to international human rights, international institutions and policy making.

Aron-Gilat holds a BA from Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Exact Sciences in Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, an LL.B. (four-year law degree) from Tel-Aviv University School of Law, and JSM from Stanford Law School. She is expected to receive her JSD from Stanford Law School later this year. Her legal research at Stanford focused on international environmental law and policy-making.

Adi also served in the Israeli Intelligence Community, of IDF.

Ambassador (Ret) Ram Aviram is an expert in the sphere of cross boundary water interactions. His experience is based on 25 years of multilateral and bilateral diplomacy, while serving in high ranking positions at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs including Chief of Staff of H.E. Shimon Peres, Ambassador to Greece and long term service periods in Europe and Asia.

His career at the Ministry was highly connected to the peace process as the Israeli Director for the multi-lateral peace talks in which he dealt with regional cooperation within 5 major areas including economic development and environmental issues. He served as Head of Israel’s negotiating team on water issues within the framework of the multi-lateral peace process - the group initiated and established significant regional water related projects such as the Middle East Desalination Research Center in Muscat, Oman. 
 
While joining the private sector he established BIT –Consultancy, a multidisciplinary consulting agency specializes in providing services for cross-boundary-water-interactions projects which demand hydro-political expertise. BIT gave services among others to multinationals like Tetra-Tech in the context of the Red Sea- Dead Sea Water Project ; NGOs like Friends of Earth Middle East and Israeli water technology providers like GES in business development operations.

Ambassador (Ret) Aviram is a lecturer at Haifa University and guest lecturer at Arava Institute for Environmental studies. He is a founding member of Israel Desalination Association.   

Noam Bardin is CEO of Waze. Prior to serving as CEO at Waze, Noam co-founded Deltathree inc. (NASDAQ: DDDC), a leading international VoIP service provider, where he served for 10 years in a variety of executive positions including as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and VP of Operations. In the past, Noam also served as CEO of Intercast Networks. Noam holds an M.P.A. from Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. in Economics from the Hebrew University.

Jacques Benkoski  joined USVP in 2005 and focuses on fostering USVP position as an active investor in the Israeli market. He is working with several USVP companies such as BPT, Factery, HelloFax, Kilopass, Mobbles, Qnovo, Trusteer, and Zerto. Previously, he has advised several portfolio companies including ClearShape (Cadence), Dune Networks (Broadcom), LightSpeed, and Yoomba, and served as executive chairman of Certess (Springsoft) and Synfora (Synopsys).
 
Before joining USVP, Jacques was President and CEO of Monterey Design Systems from 1999 until its acquisition by Synopsys (SNPS) in 2004. Prior to that, he founded and served as General Manager of the European subsidiary of Epic Design Technology (EPIC) and became Vice President of European Sales following its acquisition by Synopsys. Earlier in his career, Jacques held a number of research and management positions at IMEC in Leuven, Belgium, at IBM's Scientific Center in Haifa, Israel and STMicroelectronics in Grenoble, France.
 
Fluent in English, French and Hebrew, Jacques holds a B.Sc. in computer engineering from Technion Israel Institute of Technology, and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and has published over 30 technical papers.
 
He is currently Chairman of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Technion Society, on the board of the California Israel Chamber of and was vice-chairman of the EDA Consortium from 1999 through 2005.

Dror Berman is the founding Managing Director of Innovation Endeavors. He invests in the raw talent behind a dream. Dror loves guiding entrepreneurs to fail early in uncharted territory, to create a game-changing venture. 

Throughout his career, Dror has been passionate about using technology to personalize people’s experiences in the world.  Prior to joining Innovation Endeavors, Dror worked on global search products strategy with Yahoo, spearheaded an R&D team at NICE Systems, and led business development and marketing for an Israeli CE retailer.

Berman graduated cum laude in Computer Science and Bioinformatics from Ben Gurlon University in Israel, and spent three years in an elite unit at the Israeli Defense Forces. Dror has an MBA from the Stanford GSB and serves on the Board of Directors of Video Genie and Oohilove.

Dr. Anat Binur is the co-founder and Executive Board member of MEET (Middle East Education through Technology), an innovative social start-up which uses technology and business to bring together, empower and educate tomorrow’s most promising Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Anatreceived her PhD from MIT where she applied behavioral economics methods to measure intergroup collaboration and behavior change. Prior to MIT, Anat received a Masters in Public Policy from Columbia University and a law degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Michael Eisenberg joined Benchmark Capital as a general partner in July 2005 from Israel Seed Partners where he was a general partner since July 1997. Eisenberg began his career at Jerusalem Global where he started and led the firm’s successful investment banking group and partnership with Montgomery Securities. Michael has focused on Internet investments since 1995 and has invested in and sat on the board of Israel’s leading companies and start ups, such asShopping.com (Nasdaq SHOP, acquired by EBAY), Conduit, SeekingAlpha, Gigya, Tunewiki, Wix,  Answers.com (Nasdaq ANSW), Tradeum (acquired: VERT), and Picturevison (acquired: EK). Michael writes a blog on Internet trends, Israeli politics and children’s issues at www.sixkidsandafulltimejob.blogspot.com.  Michael also serves on the board Yeshivat Har Etzion, Israel’s largest yeshiva combining traditional Talmudic study with military service. He also serves on the Board of the Shomer Hachadash (New Guardians), an organization dedicated to engendering mutual responsibility among Israelis.
Michael lectures frequently on the topics of Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship. He holds a BA in Political Science from Yeshiva University in New York. Michael lives in Jerusalem, Israel with his wife and eight children.

Kamran Elahian is a global entrepreneur, philanthropist and venture capitalist. As an entrepreneur, Kamran co-founded ten companies, three of them failed (e.g. Momenta), six of them produced a total market cap of over $8B (e.g. Cirrus Logic) and one is slated for IPO next year. As a VC, he co-founded Global Catalyst Partners with investments in theU.S., Japan, China, India and Israel.  Underlying Kamran’s global vision is the conviction that modern IT can be instrumental in dissolving barriers between nations. This vision is reflected in Schools-Online, a nonprofit he founded in 1996 to connect the world, one school at a time (6400 schools in 36 countries); Global Catalyst Foundation, co-founded in 2000 to improve lives through the effective application of IT, and UN-GAID, a United Nations global forum that promotes ICT in developing countries where Kamran serves as Co-Chairman.

Jerome S. Engel is an internationally recognized expert in innovation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, lecturing and advising business and government leaders around the world. He joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1991 to found the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where he currently serves as Senior Fellow and Founding Executive Director Emeritus. At Berkeley he has fostered the creation of an internationally distinguished program that provides entrepreneurship education across the University and its constituent community. Mr. Engel is an Adjunct Professor at the Haas School of Business specializing in Entrepreneurship, Corporate Innovation, New Venture Finance, Venture Capital and Private Equity. He serves on the Advisory Boards of several universities and innovation centers around the world. 

Mr. Engel is a General Partner of Monitor Ventures, LLC, a venture capital firm organized in collaboration with the Monitor Group, a global strategic consulting and private equity management firm. Over his career Mr. Engel has served on the Boards of a number of emerging companies and non-profit organizations. Current Board positions include Adaptive Planning, Jupiter Systems, MedAmerica, and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. He advises major corporations, emerging companies and private equity investors on strategy, innovation, technology commercialization, and capital formation.

From 1979 - 1990, Mr. Engel was San Francisco Bay Area Director of Entrepreneurial Services, a practice group he founded at Ernst & Young. Promoted to Partner in 1982, Mr. Engel specialized in consulting on capital formation, corporate strategy and management organization of entrepreneurial ventures, with an emphasis in software and biotechnology. In 1990, Mr. Engel was appointed Ernst & Young's National Director of Capital Resources, where he directed the firm’s capital formation services for its emerging business clients nationwide.  From 1992-1995, In 1995, Mr. Engel was a founding General Partner of Kline Hawkes Capital and in 1998 he co-founded AllBusiness.com, which was sold to NBC in March 2000.

Professor Engel’s awards and recognitions include the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance Lifetime Educational Achievement Award, the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers Award for Outstanding Contributions to Advance the Discipline of Entrepreneurship among others. His most recent research and publications focus on the nature in innovation processes in firms, communities and global networks. He is a CPA and received his undergraduate degree at Penn State University and his master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School.

Gal Eschet is an attorney in the Silicon Valley office of Morrison & Foerster and a member of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group. He also serves as Co-Head of Morrison & Foerster’s Israel Desk. Mr. Eschet’s practice focuses primarily on cross-border and domestic transactions involving technology and intellectual property, and includes structuring, negotiating and drafting complex commercial agreements and intellectual property licenses; representing clients in strategic alliances, mergers & acquisitions, divestitures, asset sales, and investments; and advising start-up companies as well as large established institutional clients on a wide variety of matters relating to intellectual property, development, supply, distribution, collaborations, open source and other matters relevant to technology companies.

In his role as the Co-Head of the Israel Desk, Mr. Eschet uses his knowledge of both Israeli and American business cultures and legal systems to help represent Israeli businesses in the United States and elsewhere, as well as global investors in their activities in Israel. He is admitted to practice law in both California and Israel.

Mr. Eschet received an LL.M. degree (Master of Laws) with high honors from UC Berkeley School of Law; an LL.B. degree (J.D. equivalent), summa cum laude, from the University of Haifa School of Law; and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Haifa Department of Economics.

Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster in 2004, Mr. Eschet held a research position at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at UC Berkeley; teaching and research positions at the University of Haifa School of Law; and practiced law at the business department of a leading Israeli law firm.

Shuly Galili spent the last decade building Silicon Valley’s gateway to Israel.  Working with the Valley’s leading tech giants, investors and business leaders she helped found the California Israel Chamber of Commerce (CICC) and created the ultimate platform for ongoing business exchange serving a network of over 10,000 companies.  Under Shuly’s leadership as Executive Director, CICC had significant impact on its members’ success in securing millions in venture capital, establishing US/Israel offices and R&D Centers and branding Israel’s emerging tech industry in Silicon Valley.

Recently she co-founded UpWest Labs, a Silicon Valley based Accelerator serving Israel’s best entrepreneurs and founders.  UpWest Labs offers essential resources, mentorship, seed funding and access to key partners and investors

Prior the CICC, Shuly held marketing and program development roles at various international NGOs focusing on economic development programs and educational initiatives.  She studied for her B.A. of International Relations at San Francisco State University and French Studies at Grenoble University in France.

Arthur Haubenstock is Vice President, Regulatory Affairs for BrightSource Energy, a leading developer of large-scale solar power plants, where he is responsible for a wide variety of policy and regulatory issues related to renewable energy.   Prior to joining BrightSource, Arthur worked on environmental and energy legal and policy issues for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and in private practice.   Arthur also serves on the boards of CEERT (Center for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Technologies), the Clean Power Campaign, the Large-scale Solar Association,  and the Vote Solar Initiative; and on the stakeholder committee for the California Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP).

Steven Khadavi is a partner in Dorsey's Corporate group. He is co-Chair of the firm's Capital Markets practice group, as well as co-Chair of the firm's Israel practice group. He has extensive experience in corporate finance and securities law, as well as mergers and acquisitions. 

Mr. Khadavi has represented underwriters and issuers in public and private debt and equity offerings, debt tender offers, consent solicitations, exchange offers and public and private acquisitions.  He has represented clients in the United States and abroad in various sectors, including telecommunications, healthcare and consumer products.  He also advises clients with respect to corporate governance and Sarbanes-Oxley matters.

Dr. Amir H. Khoury, is a senior tenured lecturer at the Faculty of Law in Tel Aviv University. He has been lecturing there since 2003. He is also an adjunct professor at various other academic institutions in Israel. In 1998 he received his Masters degree (in International Business and Trade Law) from Fordham University, NYC. He also received his Ph.D. degree in Intellectual Property law from Haifa University in 2003. Doctor Khoury specializes in Intellectual Property Law, International Trade Regulation, Trade Secrets, Commercial Wrongs as well as Civil Procedure. He has thus far published 15 books and/or research papers in the U.S in his fields of expertise. He is a frequent speaker at Israeli Academic conferences. Dr. Khoury has also presented his research at various venues around the world including Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; the United States Patent & Trademark Office, Alexandria, VA; The Free University of Brussels; Pisa University Italy; Jordan IP Week, Amman; GCC & USPTO Conf. on Counterfeiting, Muscat, Oman; Salzburg Global Seminar and the World Jurist Association, Prague.

Jimmy Levy is the co-Founder and General Managing Partner of Al Bawader, the first investment fund focused on the Arab private sector in Israel.  Al Bawader has raised ILS 177 M (approximately US$50M) and will invest in a diversified portfolio, including manufacturing, service and technology companies. 

Mr. Levy is also the founder and a Board Member of Galil Software, the leading software outsourcing provider for the Israeli high tech industry.  The company is headquartered in Nazareth and is the largest high tech company operating in the Arab private sector in Israel, employing more than 140 engineers.

Mr. Levy was formerly an executive at Comverse, a leading provider of software and systems enabling value-added services for converged billing, mobile Internet, and value-added services. Over a 10 year period, Mr. Levy led several business divisions at Comverse, including in his capacity as VP Mobile Data (2000-5), VP Strategic Initiatives (2004-5), and VP Legal (1995-99). 

Mr. Levy earned his BA from McGill University, his LLB from Osgoode Hall in Toronto, his PhD from Clark University in Worcester, MA, and his MBA from the Tel Aviv International School of Management. 

Mr. Levy and Mr. Inas Said, CEO of Galil Software, were awarded the 2011 Prime Minister’s Prize for Initiatives and Innovations, as well as the 2010 Israel Management Center’s CEO of the Year Award in the category of “Business Breakthrough”.

Michal Miasnik is the West Coast Representative of the BIRD Foundation. BIRD Foundation was established in 1977 by the U.S. and Israeli governments to develop and fund industrial Research & Development partnerships between companies from both countries on a project specific basis. Located in the Silicon Valley, Ms. Miasnik is responsible for initiating business matchmaking activities between Israeli and American companies, business development and relationship management with West Coast hi-tech companies, and strategic growth initiatives. Ms. Miasnik has been promoted to this role in 2004 after being an associate at BIRD beginning at 2001.

Ms. Miasnik has been a squadron officer in the Israeli Air Force and holds BA degree from Tel-Aviv University.

Itamar Novick is a Senior Associate in Morgenthaler Ventures, focuses on early-stage investments in the mobile and consumer-facing Web space. He is also currently an MBA student at the Berkeley-Haas School of Business.

Prior to business school, Itamar was Sr. Director of Product Management at Gigya, a leading social optimization platform for online business. Previously, Itamar worked as the product development lead in Enelita, the first online virtual stock exchange competition platform, and spent several years in sales, project management and engineering roles in the Israeli tech sector.

Itamar also co-founded two startup companies – a real-estate billing software company and a lost & found online directory, which was the largest in Israel. In the mandatory Israeli Defense Forces service, Itamar co-founded the military police cyber-crime investigation unit.

David (Dadi) Perlmutter - 2/2 Keynote

David (Dadi) Perlmutter, a thirty year+ veteran at Intel Corporation, is executive vice president and general manager of Intel Corporation's Intel Architecture Group (IAG). He is responsible for Intel's platform solutions for all computing segments including data centers, desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablets, handhelds, embedded devices, and consumer electronics.  Dadi leads an organization of over 30,000 employees and one that generates more than $40 billion in annual revenues for the corporation. Perlmutter is focused on all aspects of the organization from revenue generation, business and product strategies, design and development, and architecture technology decisions across microprocessors, chipsets, system-on-a-chip (SOC), communications and graphics.  Perlmutter is also an IEEE Fellow, and won an award from the Israeli President for contributions to industry in 1987.

Yaad Rotem is an assistant professor (senior lecturer) at the Law School of the Center of Law & Business in Ramat Gan, Israel, and serves as the Academic Director of the Center’s Business Law Program. He holds an LL.B. (1998, magna cum laude) and a B.A. in economics (1998) from the University of Haifa and an LL.M. (2000) and LL.D. (2005) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He served as a law clerk for Justice Dalia Dorner of the Supreme Court of Israel in 1999 and as a senior law clerk for the Justice from 2000 to 2002. Dr. Rotem was also a special consultant to the Israeli State Commission of Inquiry into the Government's Treatment of Holocaust Survivors (2008). His areas of research include corporate bankruptcy and reorganization law and private international law. Dr. Rotem is currently a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Law & Society at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Yoav Samet is Senior Director of corporate development at Cisco, leading Cisco’s investment and M&A activities in Europe, Israel, and Emerging Markets. Yoav led multiple company acquisitions in Israel, and manages a $500m portfolio of Cisco's investments includes over 30 direct minority investments, as well as LP positions with 10 venture capital funds worldwide.

Before Cisco, Yoav was Principal at Pitango Venture Capital, where he helped establish Pitango’s Silicon Valley presence. Yoav held earlier operational roles as GM of Colordesk, a software company, and in engineering leadership positions with Electronics for Imaging (NASDAQ:EFII) and other technology companies.

Yoav holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as BS and MS in Computer Science from the Hebrew University.

Dan Senor - 2/1 Keynote
 
Dan Senor is a bestselling author, adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and an investor with a New York-based global investment fund.
 
He has been involved in public policy, politics, and business for 20 years.  His most recent position in government was with the U.S. Department of Defense in 2003 and 2004, when he was one of the longest-serving civilian officials in Baghdad. For his service as senior adviser to the Coalition in Iraq, he was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Award by the Defense Department.  He also served as a Pentagon adviser to U.S. Central Command in Qatar.  Earlier in his career, Dan was a foreign policy and communications adviser in the U.S. Senate, serving then-U.S. Senator (and former U.S. Energy Secretary) Spencer Abraham (R-MI).
 
In 2007 and 2008, Dan was a senior foreign policy adviser to Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) during his first run for president; Dan serves in the same role in Governor Romney's current presidential campaign, and has accompanied Governor Romney to the Middle East on two regional trips.
 
In his business career, Dan has served as an investment professional with the Carlyle Group, and later co-founded Rosemont Capital – a New York-based private equity firm.  He has been an early stage investor in a number of American and Israeli start-ups.  Today, Dan is a senior adviser to a New York-based hedge fund founded in 1977.
 
Mr. Senor’s analytical pieces are frequently published by the Wall Street Journal; he has also written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Weekly Standard, Time and Newsweek. He is a regular guest on MSNBC's "Morning Joe", and is a frequent guest on CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and on the Sunday public affairs shows “This Week” on ABC and “Meet the Press” on NBC.   He co-authored Start-Up Nation: The  Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle (Twelve Books, 2009), a New York Times bestseller, and has been ranked repeatedly on the bestseller lists of the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Start-Up Nation has since been published in 17 countries and translated into 11 languages.  The Chinese edition of Start-Up Nation and the recently-released English paperback edition include a foreword by Israeli President Shimon Peres.  Start-Up Nation has been frequently cited by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, as well as by government and business leaders from across the U.S., Canada, and Europe and Asia.
 
Dan completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Western Ontario and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is an MBA graduate from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Eitan Sharon, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for VideoSurf, has been leading the company's innovative computer vision technology and algorithmic development since its inception and has brought on board some of the brightest minds in these fields. Dr. Sharon had received a tenure-track Assistant Professorship at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in the Department of Electrical Engineering (2005-2007), but took a leave of absence in order to lead VideoSurf's technology team. Videosurf was acquired by Microsoft in November, 2011; where Dr. Sharon now serves as a Principle Dev. Manager and Scientist of the Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB) Division. 

Dr. Sharon received his B.Sc. in mathematics from Tel-Aviv University in 1995, where he graduated cum laude. He received his Ph.D. in computer science and applied mathematics from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2002. From 2003 to 2004 Dr. Sharon was a Visiting Research Associate and taught at Brown University in the Division of Applied Mathematics. He then went on to hold a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley in 2005 and consecutive postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los-Angeles during 2005-2006.

Dr. Ayal Shenhav is the Founder and Managing Partner of Shenhav & Co., Law Offices. He  is ranked by Legal 500, Chambers, PLC Which Lawyers and other publications as one of the leading lawyers in Israel in High Tech, Mergers & Acquisitions and Taxation.

Dr. Shenhav represents many of Israel’s leading venture capital and private equity funds, advising them on their formation, tax efficient structuring, and operations. Dr. Shenhav has developed unique tax structuring that accounts for complex Israeli and international tax regimes.

Dr. Shenhav has also been involved in dozens of complex financing transactions, representing the investors, companies and founders.  Dr. Shenhav has been involved in numerous M&A transactions representing target companies, acquiring companies, investors and more. 

Dr. Shenhav advises Israeli and international clients, from multinational companies and venture capital funds to private technology companies and high net worth individuals.  Dr. Shenhav has obtained dozens of advance tax rulings from the Israeli tax authorities.  He has established international tax strategies for companies and individuals, helping them to minimize their tax burden, restructure their companies, and consider the tax implications of a merger or acquisition.

Before joining the firm, Dr. Shenhav practiced law for several years at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and served as Vice Dean of the Radziner School of Law at the Inter-Disciplinary Center for the Studies of Business, Law and Technology.  He was a senior partner at Danziger Klagsbald & Co., Law Offices. 

Dr. Shenhav is Adjunct Professor at the Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University and the Inter-Disciplinary Center for the Studies of Business, Law and Technology.  He is also a frequent lecturer at tax seminars and conferences. 

Dr. Shenhav received his LL.B., magna cum laude, from the Tel Aviv University, and his LL.M. and Doctorate of Juridical Science (JSD) from the New York University School of Law.

Sharon Segev has 14 years of legal and transaction management experience acquired through law firm practice and as in house counsel for technology and biotech companies.  She currently serves as Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. – a Nasdaq traded electronic design innovation company.  In this role, Sharon has oversight and management responsibility for Cadence’s world-wide business practices and commercial transactions, corporate matters, securities compliance, and executive compensation.  She is a member of Cadence’s extended management team and had worked closely with Cadence’s senior management and the Board of Directors on numerous extremely challenging and highly sensitive projects and licensing strategy setting. Sharon manages a team of 10 attorneys and legal staff and enjoys mentoring them and enhancing their career development. At Cadence, Sharon has completed over 20 M&A and other strategic transactions, including the ~$350 million acquisition of Denali Software, Inc. and the ~$315 million acquisition of Verisity, Ltd. – an Israeli Nasdaq traded company. Sharon has initiated and implemented various corporate governance policies and processes and developed company-wide trainings, including structuring and implementation of anti-corruption, claw-back and banking authority policies.

Sharon has also worked with Chiron Corporation (now Novartis), implementing SOX compliance processes and handling various corporate matters.

From 1997 - 2005, Sharon cemented her legal career practicing law in leading private firms, specializing in providing general counsel to a wide range of private and public multinational companies. During the 5 years prior to joining Cadence, Sharon worked at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, handling a wide range of corporate, securities and cross-border M&A matters. Sharon was also an attorney at Herzog, Fox and Neeman – one of Israel’s leading law firms.

Sharon holds a law degree and an accounting degree from Tel-Aviv University.  She is admitted to the California Bar and the Israeli Bar.  Sharon is a member of the Corporate Legal Professional Network (CLPN), and speaks frequently on the topics of strategic transactions, intellectual property and anti-trust.  

Leor Stern is a member of Google’s new business development team, where he focuses on incubating and launching new products and strategic initiatives through partnerships and technology deals. In this role, Leor has helped create several Google products, including Google Voice, Google TV ads, and Google Places. Leor joined Google in 2003 and prior to his current role, he launched Google’s field operations in Israel. He also managed Google’s online sales and operations in Russia, the Middle East, South Africa, Croatia, and Israel.

Leor graduated cum laude with a psychology degree from the University of California, Davis. He lives in Belmont, California, and travels to Israel frequently.

Steven Tadelis  teaches at the Haas School of business, and this year he is on leave at eBay Research Labs as a Distinguished Economist and Senior Director. He holds a PhD from Harvard, a M.Sc. from the Technion and a BA from the University of Haifa, all in economics. His main fields of interest are the economics of incentives and organizations, industrial organization, and game theory. He has written research papers on a firm's reputation as a valuable, tradeable asset; public and private sector procurement and award mechanisms; outsourcing in organization design; information disclosure in auction design; and some behavioral determinants of trust.

Alon Tal is presently a visiting professor in the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University and is on the faculty at Ben Gurion University, Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology. He is the founder of several Israeli environmental organizations including the Israel Union for Environmental Defense and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.  He is presently on temporary leave as co-chairman of Israel’s green party - “the Green Movement”.  His first book “Pollution in a Promised Land” was published by the University of California Press at Berkeley.

Hagai Tal is the CEO of Plimus as well as a serial entrepreneur and active angel investor. He began his career with the Jerusalem Post, where he created their online presence and established their online business strategy during the late 1990s. He then was an early member of JDate.com before heading off to serve as an active angel investor and serial entrepreneur. Today he leads Plimus which offers companies a total service e-business platform. Plimus allows companies of all sizes to create online sales and affiliate partnerships through the Plimus e-commerce system and affiliate network

Omer Tene is an Associate Professor at the College of Management School of Law, Rishon Le Zion, Israel and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy and Society and the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. He is also Affiliate Scholar at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society; Senior Fellow at the Future of Privacy Forum; and Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology. He has published numerous articles about privacy and data protection.

He is Managing Director of Tene & Associates, where he consults the Israeli government, data protection authority and private sector businesses ranging from technology start-ups to Fortune 100 companies  in the financial, health, telecom, mobile and online industries on privacy, data protection and law and technology issues. He was appointed by the Israeli Minister of Justice as Member of the National Privacy Protection Council and is a member of the European advisory board of IAPP; and Editorial Board of International Data Privacy Law (Oxford University Press). He headed the Steering Committee for the 32nd annual conference of privacy and data protection commissioners.

He is a graduate of the JSD and LL.M. programs at NYU School of Law and received an MBA degree from INSEAD as well as LL.M. and LL.B. degrees from Tel Aviv University. He was an associate at the New York office of Debevoise & Plimpton and at the Paris office of Fried Frank and a Senior Research Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London, where he directed the Data Protection Group.

Ronni Zehavi, along with his two cofounders, Udi Trugman and David Drai, formed Cotendo in 2008. From that moment forward, Zehavi has led the organization through an impressive period of growth. Within 10 months of launching its CDN and Site Acceleration suite, Cotendo had secured 100 new clients. Today, in no small part due to Zehavi's personal engagement with business development, the company has over 450 customers.

During this growth period, Zehavi signed strategic partnerships with AT&T, Citrix Systems, Juniper Networks, and Sumitomo/Wam!Net, while aggressively pursuing funding for the company's long-term growth strategy and continued technology innovation. Zehavi's efforts, backed by a capable management team, resulted in investment from Sequoia, Benchmark, and Tenaya Capital, and lately Citrix, Juniper and Sumitomo. Zehavi's insistence on innovation has paid off, with an industry-leading entrée into mobile acceleration in mid-2011.

Zehavi has almost 20 years of executive leadership experience in multinational high-technology companies, including Commtouch Software and Shemer - Auto Arbitrage Ltd., which Zehavi cofounded.