Dr. Gleitman is Founder and Managing Partner of Platinum Venture Capital Fund, focused on investments in Israeli high-technology companies. Dr. Gleitman is also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Danbar Technology Ltd., an investment corporation listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). Previously, Dr. Gleitman was Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shrem, Fudim, Kelner - Technologies Ltd., Chief Executive Officer of AMPAL Investment Corporation, and Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade. Dr. Gleitman also served as Director General of the Ministry, leading the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS), the division of the Israeli Government responsible for setting up and executing national policies for investing in technology industries in Israel.
In addition to Danbar Technology, Dr. Gleitman currently serves on the boards of directors of the following publicly traded companies: Capitol Point Ltd., a technology incubation company; Walla Ltd., an Internet portal; Teuza Ventures Ltd., a publicly traded venture capital firm; Mer Telemanagement Solutions Ltd., a billing solution company for the telecommunications industry; and Widemed Ltd., a biomedical company, of which Dr. Gleitman is Chairman of the Board. He has also served as Honorary Consul General of Singapore in Israel since 1998.
Dr. Gleitman holds B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Physical Chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Dr. Orna Berry is a Venture Partner in Gemini Israel Funds where she applies her expertise in the high-tech arena to direct and advise Gemini portfolio companies. She has served on the boards of numerous Gemini portfolio companies and, until recently, as Chairperson of Riverhead Inc., which was acquired by Cisco in March 2004.
Formerly, Dr. Berry was Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Government of Israel. In this capacity, she was responsible for implementing government policy related to industrial research and development, including grants of $450 million a year. Dr. Berry is also the co-founder of ORNET Data Communication Technologies Ltd. (acquired by Siemens) and was Chief Scientist of Fibronics, Inc. In addition to her role on the boards of Gemini companies, Dr. Berry also sits on the boards of a number of private and public companies, including: Adamind Ltd. (AIM:ADA), Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd.(NASDAQ:ALDN), Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ:CGEN) and Poalim Capital Markets.
Dr. Berry holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Statistics and Mathematics from Tel Aviv and Haifa Universities, respectively, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California.
Carmel Vernia served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Tower Semiconductor Ltd., a silicon foundry based in Israel, from 2003 until 2005. Previously, Vernia served as Chief Scientist in the Government of Israel's Ministry of Industry and Trade. In this position, Vernia was responsible for Israel's R&D policy and grants for industrial R&D worth approximately $450 million annually.
Prior to that, he spent 16 years with Comverse Technology, from the startup stage of the company, in various positions, culminating with his appointment to the dual positions of Chief Operating Officer of Comverse and Chief Executive Officer of Verint Systems.
Vernia earned an M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Vernia also serves on the Executive Council of Tel Aviv University.
Almog Aley-Raz is one of PerSay’s founders, and he joined the company’s speaker verification team in 1999 as a system engineer and product manager, while it was still a part of Verint Systems Inc.-formerly Comverse Infosys. Aley-Raz held an important position in the successful spin-off of the company in early 2000, raising funds of over $5 million from the Israeli VC industry. From 2000 to 2002, Aley-Raz served as PerSay’s Product Manager and VP of Professional Services-marketing, deploying and supporting PerSay’s speaker verification technology around the world. PerSay’s management board appointed him CEO in May 2002.
Prior to joining PerSay, Aley-Raz served in the technical wing of the Israeli Air Force (IAF) from 1990 to 1998, holding key field and headquarters positions, and managing various projects involving avionics, command and control, and air-defense technology. Aley-Raz holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Digital Signal Processing from Ben-Gurion University and is an MBA graduate of the Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration at Tel Aviv University.
Arik began his career in Israel’s General Security Service (GSS), and between 1991 and 1995 served as a Field Operator and a team leader. He continued his career with the GSS from 1995-1998 as the head of Acquisitions. There, he was responsible for the development and execution of the agency's logistics & operational acquisition budgets.
In this capacity Arik participated in numerous projects for the implementation of specific technologies needed for various HLS related needs. Between 1998 to 2001 Arik joined with Advent investment Bank there he was in charge of strategic Business development for the bank technology portfolio.
In 2002 Arik Co founded Viewrita, a developer of artificial intelligence image processing technology, there he lead the company in its approach to the Homeland Security markets.
In 2005 Arik joined with Athlone Global Security a pioneer in the Homeland Security venture marketplace, Athlone Global Security Inc. (AGS) focuses on investing in emerging growth companies specializing in the development and distribution of Homeland Security (HLS) related solutions
Arik holds a BA degree in Business, International Marketing & Finance from the Tel Aviv College of Management, Israel. Arik received his MBA (management & marketing) from Heriut Vatt College, Scotland.
