Advisory Board​

​

Chairperson

 

 Liat Aaronson is the acting executive director and the chairperson of the program. Today, she is also a co-founder and CSO at Horizen Labs, a blockchain technology company. Before that she was the COO of Selina, a high growth start-up in the hospitality space. Before that, she was a Partner at Marker LLC, a leading Israel-New York based venture capital firm, where she continues to oversee their follow-on annex fund. She holds a B.A. in economics (cum laude) from the University of California at Berkeley, an LL.B. and an MBA from Tel Aviv University, and an LL.M. from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands (cum laude). She attained practical experience in M&A at Naschitz, Brandes, Amir & Co. Liat is a board member at Wristcam and at the Infinity Investment Group. She is a member of the Friends of IDC’s advisory board and on the advisory boards of: WiSe, Weizman Institute’s entrepreneurship program and Scola, the 81 Unit entrepreneurship program.

Advisory Board Members

  

Ellen Havdala has worked in a variety of capacities for Sam Zell’s affiliated companies since 1990. She represents EGI in sourcing potential transactions and meeting new capital sources. Ellen also serves on the board of EGI’s portfolio company SIRVA, Inc., a provider of moving and relocation services. In addition, she is responsible for establishing and overseeing the Zell Global Entrepreneurship Network (ZGEN), an organization designed to provide continuing education and mentorship for students and alumni of Sam’s three entrepreneurship education programs. During her tenure within Sam’s network, she served on the boards of Rewards Network, Inc., a dining rewards company; WRS Holding Company, an environmental construction and remediation company; East Mediterranean Gas Company SAE, an Egyptian natural gas transmission company; National Patent Development Corporation, a holding company focused on pharmaceutical and home improvement products; and Home Products International, a global consumer products company. She also held the roles of Executive Vice President at Equity International and Vice President of Scott Sports Group, Inc. Prior to joining Sam’s organization, Ellen was a financial analyst with The First Boston Corporation in New York City. She graduated magna cum laude with a BA from Harvard College, and earned her Master of Divinity from the University of Chicago in 2016.

Daniel Cohen joined Viola Ventures in 2013 as a General Partner. His investment interests include digital media and consumer internet. He’s very passionate about anything related to consumer investments and the conversion of technology and entertainment. He currentbly sits on the board of companies such as Lightricks, Puls, Playbuzz, Splacer, Origami Logic, and Tapingo. Prior to joining Viola Ventures, Daniel served as a General Partner in Gemini Israel Ventures from 2006-2012 and as a principal from 2001-2006. At Gemini Daniel led investments and served as a board member in Adap.tv (acquired by AOL for $450M), Outbrain, Watchdox (acquired by Blackberry for $100M), Eyeview and Minute Media. Daniel also managed Gemini’s Silicon Valley office in the years 2006-2009. Daniel is a graduate of the Kauffman Fellows Program and holds a B.A. in Computer Science and Psychology from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Yaron

 Yaron Galai is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Outbrain. Prior to founding Outbrain, Mr. Galai was Co-Founder, SVP of Quigo, Inc., a provider of performance-based marketing solutions for advertisers and premium publishers. He previously served as the CEO of the company for three years. Quigo was acquired by AOL in December 2007. Previously, 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). 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 Lieutenant Commander (reserve) officer in the Israel Navy.

 

 David Chissick is an authority on media, sports and consumer-related technologies and marketing. His business, network and activities, combine creation and leadership of companies, investments, branding and M&As. A global businessman since his 20s with a unique affinity to entrepreneurship and innovation, he has been actively involved in the Israeli hi-tech industry for many years as an angel investor, co-founder, mentor and board member of companies which focus primarily on media, sports and consumer. Chissick has served over the years as advisor and board member within leading global sport and media entities and is an active mentor to numerous entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship programs, including the Zell Entrepreneurship Program at the IDC.
Zohar Gilon was born in Poland, on June 9th 1947. He received a B.Sc. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. degree, cum laude, in Business Administration from Tel Aviv University. In his Military Service in the Israeli Air Force, He served as an Engineer and Officer in the Operational Requirements and Research Department. His main activity is as an angel investor. He has personally invested in 182 start-ups. Mr. Gilon has also invested in 20 companies as a manager of a VC- Tamar Technology Ventures. Between 1974-1991, Zohar served as a consultant to Major Aerospace Companies such as GE, Grumman, and Northrop and Co- led the installation and operation of the on-line system, by General Instrument for the Israeli Lottery. He has extensive investment experience including current portfolio of 75 companies and served on 50 BODs of publicly traded and private technology companies.

Eilon Tirosh

Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor. is a successful tech entrepreneur and investor, who established several companies and led them to impressive exits.

Yuval Tal is a Managing Partner of Team8 Fintech. Previously, he founded and is the former President and Board Member of Payoneer, one of Israel’s first fintech unicorn companies. Before founding and running Payoneer from 2005 until 2011, Yuval co-founded Borderfree (NASDAQ: BRDR), and was its CEO from 1999-2005. Borderfree provides services that expedite cross-border ecommerce and payments for many large online and offline retailers. Yuval served previously as the Vice President of business development for Radware (NASDAQ: RDWR). He is a member of YPO and is an angel investor in several startups in the payment space. Yuval is a member of Harvard Business School plan for managers. He holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering, with minor in business administration, from Tel Aviv University.

​Roy Erez was the Co-Founder and CEO of Loop Commerce, a company disrupting fintech, retail and commerce with its multi-patented and award-winning GiftNow® technology and service, implemented by leading brands, enterprise customers and partners. He started Loop in 2012, raised $30 million from tier-1 industry leaders, scaled it thru the acquisition by Synchrony in mid-2018, and continued to run the company as a wholly owned subsidiary as CEO and as a GM and SVP with Synchrony until departing in mid-2020. Roy was previously a venture capitalist for nearly a decade, in Israel and in the US. Then continued as an executive with a few start-up companies, all acquired, before founding Loop. Roy lives in Silicon Valley and is an active early stage angel investor and advisor. Roy is an IDC Alum and holds an MBA (Cum Laude) from Columbia Business School.