"Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Israel"
Keynote Speaker:
Ayla Matalon, Executive Director, MIT Enterprise Forum of Israel
Panelists:
Ran Harnevo, Co-Founder and CEO, 5min Media
Yaron Galai, Founder and CEO, Outbrain, Inc.
Amiad Solomon, CEO and Founder, Peer39
Moderator:
Bruce Bachenheimer, Clinical Professor of Management, Pace University
Bruce Bachenheimer, Clinical Professor of Management, Pace University
Bruce Bachenheimer is a Clinical Professor of Management, the Executive Director of Entrepreneurship@Lubin, and a Faculty Fellow of the Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Pace University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, primarily in the areas of entrepreneurship, management, and strategy.
Mr. Bachenheimer is a member of the Global Board of Directors of the MIT Enterprise Forum, a Board member and past Chair of the New York City Chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum, and on the Board of Directors & Advisors of LeadAmerica. He has served as a consultant to the New York City Department of Small Business Services, the New York City Economic Development Corp., and a variety of new ventures. He has been quoted in a wide variety of publications and interviewed on public radio and television.
Mr. Bachenheimer's earlier career includes having served as a Vice President of iQ Venture Partners, an Assistant Vice President of Westpac Banking Corp. and an International Banking Officer for the Bank of Tokyo. As the International Product Manager for MSI, he was responsible for the initial commercialization of a high-technology forensic science system. In that position, he conducted business in over twenty countries. He was also the founder of Annapolis Maritime Corp. and the Co-founder of StockCentral Australia. Other activities include having sailed his 36' boat from New England, through the Caribbean, to South America and back.
Mr. Bachenheimer holds a BBA, summa cum laude, from Pace University. He received the McKinsey & Company Leadership Scholarship to pursue an MBA degree, which he earned from the Australian Graduate School of Management.
Ran Harnevo, Co-Founder and CEO, 5min Media
Ran has vast experience both in management and in creating, managing and deploying content. In his last job he was the site manager of a large scale UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicles) Surveillance Project in the American Oil Fields of Angola - working for the Israeli company LR Group, and was the company's representative in North Angola. This work is based on Ran's experience in the Israeli Air Force. After several years in the army, Ran was a journalist and deputy editor of "Tel-Aviv" Magazine (a Tel Aviv newspaper within the Israeli Yedioth Ahronot group) where he has also served as a political writer, the editor of the sport section, the news section and the Internet site. Ran studied Philosophy and Computer Science in Tel-Aviv University.
Yaron Galai, Founder and CEO, Outbrain
Yaron is a co-founder and the CEO of Outbrain, Inc., a startup developing a blog and RSS rating platform. Outbrain caters to RSS aggregators, online publishers, and bloggers. Outbrain provides a related content widget for over 25,000 sites, including USA Today, Slate, Fox, and Golf.com. It reaches 12 million U.S. visitors according to Compete, up from 1.3 million a year ago.
Yaron was also a co-founder and SVP of Quigo, Inc., a provider of performance-based marketing solutions for advertisers and premium publishers. He served as the CEO of the company for three years, until the company was acquired by AOL for $360M in 2007. Quigo developed a network for contextual advertising on content sites.
Prior to Quigo, Yaron was a co-founder of 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, a SEO and Web design firm. At NetWorks he oversaw the production and search engine optimization of over 30 Web sites.
Yaron studied industrial design at the Holon Technological Institute, and is a Major (reserve) in the Israel Navy.
Ayla Matalon, Executive Director, MIT Enterprise Forum of Israel
Ayla joined the MIT Enterprise Forum with 15 years of experience in the high tech and venture capital industries. Previously an analyst at Steps Investments in Technology and Managing Director of the US-Israel Science and Technology Center, and with over 10 years of experience as a software engineer in both Israeli and foreign high-tech companies, Ayla has acquired a profound knowledge of the Israeli high-tech scene and the needs represented by this sector.
Ayla lectures on high-tech entrepreneurship and business development in the MBA program of Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Tel-Aviv University's Faculty of Engineering, and the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center. She consults to early-stage startup companies, and holds a number of board positions.
Ayla has an MSc degree in Computer Science (Technion, Haifa) and an MBA (INSEAD, Fontainebleau; emphasis on Entrepreneurship).
Amiad Solomon, CEO and Founder, Peer39
Amiad Solomon is the CEO and Founder of Peer39. Together with Peer39 scientists, research and development and marketing groups, he developed the core patents covering Peer39's unique semantic analysis technology and business practices. Recognized as one of the world's leading experts on the application of semantic technology to next-generation online advertising, Mr. Solomon is a sought after speaker and author on advertising, product innovation and start-ups. His articles have been published in such diverse media outlets as The Huffington Post, Ad Age, iMediaConnection, Ad Exchanger and Digiday. Mr. Solomon currently serves on the Content Board of Directors for the Software Information Industry Association. Prior to founding Peer39, Mr. Solomon was a sales and business development executive at IDX (acquired by GE).