ABOUT
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Sachi Gerlitz
CEO, Ness Technologies Chairman , IMA Board of Trustees

Sachi Gerlitz joined Ness from Mobixell Networks, where he served as acting chairman. He also serves as the Israel Mobile Association's chairman of the board of trustees. From 2001 through 2006, Mr. Gerlitz was a partner at Apax Partners, one of the world’s leading private equity investment groups, where he focused on leveraged transactions and technology investments. During that period, he also served as a director on the boards of several companies including Bezeq (TASE: BEZQ), Starhome BV, Crescendo Networks, and Bitband Technologies. From 1990 to 2000, Mr. Gerlitz held a number of positions at Comverse Technologies (NASDAQ: CMVT), including VP R&D and President of the Asia Pacific Business Division. In his last position at Comverse, Mr. Gerlitz served as Corporate Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer. In that capacity, he was responsible for creating the company's growth engines via technology leadership, as well as leading the company’s major merger and acquisition activities. Before joining Comverse, Mr. Gerlitz was co-founder of the artificial intelligence technology-based start-up PC-Etc, and spent six years at Telrad Electronic Industries, Israel’s major telecommunications vendor at the time, in various research and development positions. Mr. Gerlitz holds a BSc in Electrical & Electronic Engineering and Computer Science from Tel Aviv University, and is a graduate of the Business Administration Program for Industry Management at Bar-Ilan University.

Rina Shainski
General Partner, Carmel Ventures

Following a successful career leading business development and R&D organizations in high-growth software companies, both in Silicon Valley and Israel, Rina has been an investor in high tech companies for over 10 years. Before joining Carmel, Rina was VP, Business Development and was responsible for software investments at Clal Industries and Investments, one of Israel’s largest investment and holding companies. From 1989 to 1996, Rina held several executive positions at Tecnomatix, including VP, Business Development and Director, R&D. Before joining Tecnomatix, Rina was the Chief Architect of EDA Inc., a Silicon Valley based start-up in the field of engineering information systems. Prior to that, Rina lived in Silicon Valley and held various R&D management positions at Daisy Systems Inc., one of the leading EDA companies at the time. Rina holds M.Sc. in Computer Science from Weizmann Institute, Israel, and B.Sc. in Physics from Tel Aviv University, Israel. Rina joined Carmel in 2000 right after its inception. Rina's areas of interest include mobile applications and services, digital media, ad-networks and SaaS. Rina has served on the Board of Directors of Followap Inc. from 2001 and until it was acquired by NeuStar in November 2006. Rina serves on the Board of Directors of: mFormation Technologies Inc., Skybox Security Inc., C-nario Ltd., Nexperience Ltd., Kontera Technologies Inc. and Mobicious, Inc.

Isaac Hillel
Managing General Partner & Member of the Operating Committee

Mr. Isaac Hillel has extensive experience in international general management in the IT industry, with strong knowledge of the European marketplace. Prior to joining Pitango in early 2000, Mr. Hillel served as an Executive Vice President at NEC Computers International (previously Packard Bell NEC) (“NEC”), in charge of the Computer Divisions in Europe, Middle East and Africa. During his tenure at NEC, he established its European operations, set up subsidiaries and manufacturing facilities across Europe, managed mergers and joint ventures, and led the company to become a leading brand in the computer market with over $1.5 billion in sales. Mr. Hillel previously held several marketing positions with consumer electronics maker Casio PhoneMate. He holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University and an M.B.A. from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. Mr. Hillel served on the board of Scopus (NASDAQ: SCOP) and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of: Discretix, E4X, AeroScout, Celeno, Neocrafts and SercoNet.

Yair Shoham
Partner, Genesis Partners
Yair Shoham is a Partner at Genesis Partners and sits on the board of a number of Genesis Partners portfolio companies, including Advasense, Arootz, Discretix, InFone, Oree, RADWIN, and Resolute Networks. Yair has an in-depth understanding of US and Israeli corporate law and hands-on entrepreneurial experience. Prior to joining Genesis Partners, Yair helped establish Butterfly VLSI and led its sale to Texas Instruments. Yair joined Butterfly from VDOnet, which he co-founded in 1996 and where he successfully co-led the sale of VDOnet's technology to Citrix Systems. Yair began his career practicing securities and corporate law, first in the US, where he developed an expertise in M&A’s and IPO’s, and then in Israel, where he was a partner at one of Israel’s leading law firms, Goldfarb, Levy, Eran & Co. Yair holds a JD from Loyola University School of Law and a BA from Haifa University.
Ayal Bar-David
Manager of QUALCOMM Israel
Ayal Bar-David is the Manager of QUALCOMM Israel Ltd. which is a wholly owned subsidiary of QUALCOMM Inc. QUALCOMM Israel specializes in R&D of Cellular and Telecom products and services. Ayal manages the office in the past 5 years, previously was an engineer and manager in QUALCOMM and other Hi-Tech companies. Ayal holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. of Electrical Engineering from the Technion (1983 and 1986 respectively), and Masters in Business Administration for Executives from the Tel-Aviv Univesity, 1999
Gerson S. Panitch
Partner and Israel Practice Leader at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP
Gerson specializes in U.S. patent litigation, strategic patent planning, and IP due diligence investigations. For more than 20 years, Mr. Panitch has represented clients in patent infringement suits in U.S. courts. As companies develop or acquire new product lines, Mr. Panitch also helps them devise strategies for securing exclusivity and avoiding liability. He has prosecuted hundreds of patent applications and developed protection strategies across the medical device field and for technologies involving mechanics, electronics, electromagnetics, imaging, and industrial processes; he teaches patent strategy in the Law School at the University of Haifa; and frequently lectures on topics relating to U.S. patent litigation and patent strategy.
Carmel Sofer
Partner at Gemini
Mr Sofer joined Gemini after a distinguished career in the wireless and communications industry. Most recently, Carmel was the President of Comverse Europe, where he refocused strategy, increasing sales, enhancing Comverse's position in Europe and turning the operation to profitability and growth. Before that he was responsible for Comverse's operations outside of the US, including Asia Pacific. In 1999, Mr Sofer founded Starhome as a subsidiary of Comverse and built the company to profitability, with 40 first and second tier operating customers in three years. Before that Mr Sofer held several senior business development and marketing positions.
Boaz Dinte
Managing Partner
Boaz Dinte is a Managing Partner at Evergreen Venture Partners. Boaz joined Evergreen in 1996. He focuses on Evergreen's investments in the communications and semiconductor sectors. Prior to joining Evergreen, Boaz was Corporate Business Development Manager for M-Systems Ltd., a NASDAQ (NASDAQ:FLSH) -listed global leader in flash-disk memory and a successfully exited Evergreen portfolio company that was recently sold to Sandisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) for $1.5B. Prior to that, Boaz was a senior consultant at POC, one of Israel's leading management consulting firms. In POC he worked with hi-tech companies in all stages of development. Boaz holds a B.Sc. in electrical engineering, specializing in computer design and communications, from the Technion, and has an MBA, Magna Cum Laude from Tel Aviv University. Boaz is a Member of the Board of the Israeli Venture Capital Association (IVA) and the Chairman of the IVA International Relations Committee, a Member of the Board of Yuvalim - non-profit organization with the mission of helping underprivileged children to excel in education and open the door to future opportunities, and a Member of the Advisory Board of Tmura a non-profit public service venture fund. Boaz initiated and was responsible for Evergreen's investments in Exalink which was acquired by Comverse (NASDAQ: CMVT), Metalink (NASDAQ: MTLK), P-cube that was sold to Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Envara that was acquired by Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and BigBand which recently went public on NASDAQ (NASDAQ: BBND) and was the most successful technology IPO since 2000. Boaz is currently acting as a board member in Pontis, Exanet, Ethos Networks, Olista, Crescendo Networks, Precede Technologies and eASIC.
Dr. Orna Berry
Chair, Israel Venture Association & Venture Partner at Gemini Israel Funds
Dr. Orna Berry has spent over 25 years in science and technology industries, as an academic researcher, entrepreneur, executive, policy maker and most recently, venture capitalist. The Israel Venture Association, which she chairs, is the organization representing the Israeli venture capital community. Israeli Venture activity, started in the early 1990's with the "Yozma Program", has grown to become the major source of financing for start-up and early stage technology companies. With $10 billion in capital, Israeli VCs have played a major role in making Israel an important global source of innovation. As a Venture Partner at Gemini, Dr. Berry applies her expertise in the high-tech arena to assist and advise Gemini portfolio companies. She is currently Chairperson of Prime Sense. Orna is the outgoing Chief Scientist and Director of the Industrial R&D Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Government of Israel.Prior to that post, in 1993, Orna co-founded ORNET Data Communication Technologies Ltd. and was there until its sale to Siemens in 1995. Orna has also served as the Chief Scientist of Fibronics, a senior research engineer at IBM and UNISYS, and a consultant to Intel.She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and M.A. and B.A. degrees in Statistics and Mathematics from Tel Aviv and Haifa Universities.
IMA RoadShows
BECOME A MEMBER
IMA Members
Welcome to the IMA community! IMA exists to help Israeli mobile and media companies succeed and grow – faster, smarter, better – and by providing them with on-going business leads and development. In parallel, IMA is perceived by operators, app-stores, media companies, network and handset vendors as the most knowledgeable and central source of the most original, creative products that are validated and ready to use. A wealth of business development benefits for our members 1. Business Development IMA provides members access to our worldwide network in the telecom world (including operators, vendors, system integrators, investors and agents), based on your wish list of requirements.
EVENTS
IMA 2012 Events
IMA is recognized as one of the top channels of knowledge and information in the Israeli mobile and media industry. Over the past ten years, IMA had proudly hosted dozens of events: from small knowledge cafés to worldwide developers events to national scale conferences. IMA had the privilege to host over 500 international senior speakers and presenters and spread invaluable information to more than 10,000 attendees! 2012 will be an exciting year! IMA is well into the planning of 4 major conferences in Israel
AppsMania April 4, 2012
SOCIALIZE IT