TAU VENTURES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Venture Partner / General Manager of PepsiCo Labs
Dr. Kinneret Livnat Savitzky is the Director / Chairperson at a variety of biotech entities, and Held director / chairperson position in a number of companies and organizations including BioLineRx, ILSI, Evogene Ltd. (Nasdaq: EVGN, TASE: EVGN), Compugen Ltd., KAHR medical, DreaMed Diabetes, Biomica, Hadasit, FutuRx and its portfolio companies.
She is also serving as the Chief Executive Officer and Board member of FutuRx, an Israeli biotechnology accelerator established by OrbiMed Israel Partners, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Takeda Ventures Inc., with the office of the Israeli Innovation Authority (IIA). Recently Bayer's venture arm LEAPS joined as a partner in FutuRx as well.
Before that she served as Chief Executive Officer of BioLineRx, General Manager of Bioline Innovations Jerusalem (BIJ) Between the years 2005 - 2009, VP of drug development, BiolineRx Between 2004 - 2005.
Between the years 1997 - 2004 Dr. Savitzky held several positions, the last of which being Vice President of Biology at Compugen Ltd. Besides the Biology R&D, was involved in collaborations with global pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Savitzky holds the titles: Ph.D. with distinction in Human Genetics from Tel Aviv University, Master's degree in human genetics from Tel Aviv University and B.Sc. in Biology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Dr. Sheinin is an expert in the Israeli economy with over 30 years of experience. She specializes in building macroeconomic models for forecasting, economic analyses and simulations, particularly for the business sector. Her parallel line of expertise is investment management.
She is a cofounder of Economic Models Ltd, one of Israel's foremost macroeconomic research, forecasting and economic consulting firms that served many of the largest and most significant business companies in the Israeli economy. Rachel focused on linking the macro forecasts to the specific products and services of clients.
Rachel is also a cofounder of Capital Market Models, an investment house for management of financial assets, and of Mutual Funds Models, a mutual fund management company, specializing in government and corporate bonds (in Israel and the USA).
Since 2016, Dr. Sheinin has served as Chairperson of the Investment Committee for Mutual Funds Models Ltd. and is currently the CEO of Capital Markets Models and Executive Vice President of Economic Models Ltd. She has lectured on various aspects of economics at various academic institutions.
From 2011-2019, Rachel served as a member of the Appointment Review Committee, an independent acting under the authority of the Government Companies Law.
Since 2005, Dr. Sheinin has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Pinhas Sapir Center for Development at Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Sheinin has a Ph.D. & MA in economics from Tel Aviv University, and a BA in art history & economics from Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Margolin has more than 35 years of experience in the biotech, pharmaceutical and venture capital industries.
Served as President and CEO of Gamida Cell between 2005-2018, leading the company from preclinical development through phase 3 international registration studies. Former Vice President of Denali Ventures LLS, a venture capital firm focused on healthcare, and a program manager at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Margolin holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science and was a post-doctoral associate at the Yael University School of Medicine.
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR
- Co - Founder and Managing Partner of Israel Biotech Fund
Dr. Yuval Cabilly is co-founder and Managing Partner of Israel Biotech Fund, a venture capital fund investing in exceptional Israeli pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Cabilly serves on the Board of Directors of Pharma Two B and Tamarix. He is also co-founder and Board Member of 8400 - The Health Network.
Dr. Cabilly received his PhD in molecular cell biology from the Tel Aviv University. His research focused on neurodegenerative diseases.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Partner at Aleph
Eden is an equal partner at Aleph, an early stage venture capital fund with $344 million under management, focused on serving Israeli entrepreneurs who want to build big, scalable, global businesses.
Prior to founding Aleph, Eden was a general partner at Genesis where he focused on seed-stage investments and was a co-founder of face.com, the world leader in massive, web-scale face recognition in social networks, acquired by Facebook. He also co-founded and was the CTO of Aternity, acquired by Riverbed, where he led the strategic product direction for its dominant user-experience monitoring platform.
Entrepreneurship is a passion for Eden, who started The Junction that was voted as the #1 startup program in Israel. He is one of the organizers of the annual Geekcon geeks conference and also teaches at the IDC (Herzliya interdisciplinary center) Zell entrepreneurship program.
Job Titles:
- Venture Partner / Director at Google Israel
Job Titles:
- Director / Director - General of Tel Aviv University
Gady Frank is an alumnus of Tel Aviv University, having completed both his BA degree in Economics (Cum Laude) and Communication and MA in Economics (Cum Laude) at the University. From 2006-09 Mr. Frank served as senior economist on the National Economic Council of the Prime Minister's Office. He then went on to hold several key positions on the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education (CHE), including serving as Deputy Director-General for Planning and Policy from 2009-11; Deputy Director General, Head of Budgeting Division from 2011-13; and Director General of the Planning and Budgetary Committee and the CHE from 2013-2017.
Hadar is Operations Manager at TAU Ventures. Prior to TAU Ventures, Hadar was digital content executive and web and app content manager for Ananey and ViacomCBS channels which included planning and executing the companies social strategies. Prior to this, Hadar was an operations manager at Ximus Forum, an exclusive community for exceptional business leaders.
Hagai Itkin is an experienced leader in technology, strategy, and innovation across public and private sectors. Currently serving as Director of Industry Relationships at Tel Aviv University, Chairman of RAMOT (Tel Aviv University's technology transfer company), as well as CTO at I NEXT Capital, a digital health VC fund.
With over 30 years of experience spanning special operations in the IDF, senior governmental roles, and private sector leadership, he led Israel's national command and control center during the COVID-19 crisis.
High Lander provides a scalable, software-only platform, which enables coordinated air continuity, autonomous flight, and intelligent air space control. High Lander's drone fleets have the ability to massively change many industries, from emergency services, to utilities, agriculture, construction, and more. High Lander has created a unique solution that overcomes the existing limitations of commercial drone use.
Imad Telhami is a Businessman and entrepreneur who has substantial management experience and a long and successful history in global management.
For 25 Years he served in various management positions of Delta Galil and as a CEO.
In 2008, Telhami founded Babcom Centers in north. In 2020 the company employed approximately 3000 employees, of which 70% are from the Arab sector and 80% women. Babcom has sites all across the country. Babcom focuses on two main objectives: investing in people and providing excellent, high quality services including call centers, software and other services.
In line with Telhami's vision, the company has Arab and Jewish stakeholders and was co-founded with the industrialist, Dov Lautman.
Telhami is committed to empowering and advancing the Arab community in Israel.
Telhami has served in positions on several councils and boards of directors and has participated in a number of projects with partners who share his commitment, including:
Job Titles:
- Director / CEO, Ramot at Tel Aviv University Ltd
Keren has extensive and unique experience in leading complex technology transactions with Israeli and multinational companies in various fields.
Keren is an intellectual property expert with strong technological understanding, working closely with the industry, the Innovation Authority, Venture Capitals, Incubators, European Commission and other entities in initiating and structuring research collaboration, joint ventures and licensing transactions.
Keren had a major role in the formation of several funds that invest in promising technologies and the incorporation of dozens of start-up companies and serves as board member at several of Tel-Aviv University's spin-off companies, as well as at TAU Ventures.
She holds a B.A. in Economics and LL.B. and LL.M. degrees, all from Tel Aviv University, and has been a member of the Israeli Bar Association since 2000. Prior to joining Ramot, Keren worked at Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd., the technology-transfer office of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and at RiT Technologies Ltd., at the time, a publicly traded Israeli company at the Nasdaq.
Nimrod Cohen is the Managing Partner of TAU Ventures which he co-founded with Tel-Aviv University.
Nimrod is a serial entrepreneur and investor. Previously, he was Partner at Plus Ventures, making over than 50 investments in portfolio companies such as Bringg, YOTPO, WSC Sports, Cimagine, HouseParty, Coralogix and more. In addition, Nimrod is involved as a mentor and judge in numerous startup programs, events and organizations around the world.
Job Titles:
- Israeli Scientist
- Orna Berry / Director
Orna Berry is an Israeli scientist, High-tech entrepreneur, businesswoman, senior executive among the Israeli science and technology industries and laureate of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Award. Orna Berry is recognized for her work in promoting excellence, entrepreneurship, and innovation in Israeli society. She was the first woman to serve as Chief Scientist and head of the industrial R&D operation of the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour (1996-2000).
Among her many achievements, Orna received the Cyber Protector Award for her exceptional contribution to Cyber Research in Israel and two honorary fellowship awards recognizing her lifetime pioneering and entrepreneurship activities from the Academic College of Tel-Aviv and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
Berry received her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (USC) and was awarded with an honorary degree at McGill University in 2017.
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR
- President of Tel Aviv University
Prof. Ariel Porat was elected the ninth President of Tel Aviv University in May 2019. After receiving his LLB degree and direct JSD degree at TAU, he performed post-doctoral studies at Yale Law School. In 1990, he joined TAU's Buchmann Faculty of Law, where he is the incumbent of the Alain Poher Chair in Private Law. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Prof. Porat's main research interests are torts, contract law and the economic analysis of the law, and he has published many books and articles in these areas. He served for 15 years as an Associate Member and Fischel-Neil Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago (2003-2019). He was also Visiting Professor at Stanford University, and at the Universities of New York, Columbia, Berkeley, Virginia and Toronto. He was a member of the Board of the American Law and Economics Association for three years, and is a member of the American Law Institute.
From 2002 to 2006, Prof. Porat served as Dean of the Buchmann Faculty of Law, during which period he introduced joint LLM programs together with the UC Berkeley and Northwestern University. He also founded an admittance program for students from Israel's geographic and social periphery, which was initially at the Law Faculty and thereafter adopted throughout the University. Prior to his appointment as Dean, Prof. Porat was Director of the Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law (1997-2002), where he founded the journal Theoretical Inquiries in Law, today ranked as one of the world's leading journals in the field of law theory.
Prof. Porat has been the recipient of numerous honors, among them the EMET Prize, Chesin Prize, Zeltner Prize and Zusman Prize.
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR
- Life Fellow of the IEEE
Prof. Hagit Messer-Yaron received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University (TAU), ISRAEL, and after a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University, she joined the faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University in 1986, where she is The Kranzberg Chair Professor in Signal Processing at the school of Electrical Engineering.
On 2000-3 she has been on leave from TAU, serving as the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Science. After returning to TAU she was the head of the Porter school of environmental studies (2004-6), and the Vice President for Research and Development (2006-8). Then, she has been the President of the Open University (2008-13), and from Oct. 2013 till January 2016 she has served as the Vice Chair of the Council of Higher Education, Israel. She was also one of the co-founders of ClimaCell.
Prof. Messer-Yaron, a Life Fellow of the IEEE, is an active researcher in the field of Statistical Signal Processing, with applications to environmental monitoring. She is also interested in various aspects of higher education and science policy, including science-society interplay, women in science and technology, and commercialization of academic research. Prof. Messer-Yaron is a member of COMEST, UNESCO committee for ethics in Science and Technology, and a member of the Executive Committee of the IEEE Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems.
Prof. Benhar received his PhD in Molecular Biology from Hebrew University in 1992, where he studied control of bacterial gene expression. Prof. Benhar did his post-doctoral training at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, working with Dr. Ira Pastan on recombinant immunotoxins. In 1995, Prof. Benhar joined the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology at Tel Aviv University as a tenure-track assistant professor. Prof. Benhar received tenure in 2002, became an associate professor in 2005 and a full professor in 2008. Between 2007 to 2011 Prof. Benhar served as the Department Chairman. Since 2014, Prof. Benhar is serving as Vice Dean for Research of the Faculty of Life Sciences.
Shalom is the Chief Financial Officer of TAU Ventures. Shalom is one of the most experienced financing professional in the Israeli VC industry, with expertise in fund management, high tech companies valuation and performance evaluation analysis.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Board Member at Ramot
- Specialist
Sharon is a leading specialist in international business development within the healthcare industry (Biopharma, Medical Devices, Digital Health, Health IT).
Moved by the brilliant, innovative, and resilient ability of Israeli start-ups to contribute to the world's most pressing challenges, Sharon was inspired to help accelerate the growth of Israeli technologies and connect them with the right partners and investors.
Sharon also served as Research Analyst at Science and Technology Ventures, the Technology Transfer Office of Columbia University.
Sharon is a Board member at Ramot, the Technology Transfer Office of Tel Aviv University and a mentor in several Israeli accelerators.