Yuval Shahar – Chairman
Yuval is a highly respected entrepreneur and executive with an extensive track record in establishing, developing and selling high tech companies. Since retiring from Cisco Systems in 2009, where he was a General Manager in their service provider group for five years, Yuval has been an independent investor and advisor to leading technology companies globally. Yuval joined Cisco after that company’s acquisition of P-Cube Inc., an internet infrastructure business co-founded and led by Yuval. Yuval created two other companies acquired by Cisco. Prior to his entrepreneurial successes, Yuval was Vice President of research and development at VocalTec Communications Ltd., where he directed programs resulting in creation of the first set of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) architectures and products, such as the softphone and magicJack. Elsewhere, earlier in his career, Yuval guided development of data and voice communications products and protocols while holding senior positions at National Semiconductor Corporation and Motorola.
Sarit Firon – Board Member and CEO
Ms. Firon comes to Extreme Reality with over 20 years of business experience in leadership positions in the technology industry overseeing global operations, strategy and finance for several companies. Ms. Firon led two companies to an Initial Public Offering on NASDAQ and led two major M&A transactions to Cisco and DG . Ms. Firon joined Extreme Reality from Kenshoo where she served as Chief Financial Officer and helped the company scale as a global leader in digital marketing. Prior to Kenshoo Ms. Firon was CFO of MediaMind where she played a key role managing the company’s growth to 450 employees across 35 countries in addition to leading the successful initial public offering (IPO) and subsequent sale to DG. Ms. Firon also served as CFO of P-Cube, which was acquired by Cisco Systems. Sarit holds a B.A. in Accounting and Economics from Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
Dor Givon – Board Member and Founder
Serial innovative entrepreneur with vast experience in computer vision and image processing algorithms and 3D computer animation. Prior to Extreme Reality Dor developed a 3D 360° video camera, acquired by Micoy in 2004. This innovation was declared the 2nd best technology in the world for 2005.
Trip Hawkins – Industry Expert
Trip Hawkins is a Hall of Fame game industry and digital media consultant. He also advises Digital Chocolate where he was Founder and Chief Executive Officer from 2003-2012, and has spent his entire career in new media. Digital Chocolate has made more than 100 award-winning social and casual games and is a high-volume publisher for Facebook, web and smartphones. Working for Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. from 1978-1982, Mr. Hawkins helped define and deliver products that came to define the PC industry. In 1982, he founded and spent 12 years building and leading Electronic Arts Inc. to become the largest independent game publisher. After Electronic Arts, he returned to the hardware platform business with 3DO, a pioneer in network content and delivery, digital video, graphics, and optical storage before founding Digital Chocolate in 2003.
Nissim Zarfati – Board Member
Nissim is an entrepreneur in small-medium size companies in high-tech, real estate and financial services. Nissim was until May 2011 the CEO & Chairman of the board of Kardan Financial Services B.V. (KFS), and member of the supervisory Board of TBIF and TBIH. Nissim was involved with conducting the privatization process of Bulstrad Insurance & Reinsurance Company from the government (The largest insurance group in Bulgaria) and leading the development of the pension fund Doverie (the first private pension fund in Eastern Europe).
Board Observers
Dan Stone
Dan is the Vice President of Strategy, Corporate Development and Merger Management at Lenovo. He leads the development and implementation of global corporate strategy, sourcing and evaluation of technology investments, partnerships, alliances and M&A opportunities, as well as managing post-merger integrations. Previously, Dan worked for McKinsey & Company and Monitor Company, serving high-tech and telecom clients in North America, Europe and the Middle-East.
Ohad Finkelstein
Ohad is a founder of CP Lantern. He has an extensive background in the finance, technology, and telecom industries as well as in developing new companies, markets, and products globally. Until recently Ohad was a partner at Venrock overseeing some of its international investments. His prior stint was Chairman, President, and CEO of the pan-European Interoute Telecom Group added to his previous experience as Senior Vice President International Sales and Vice President Global Operations for VocalTec Communications Ltd.
Avner Goren
Avner Goren is the General Manager, OMAP Strategy and Differentiation for Texas Instruments’ OMAP Platforms business unit. In this role, Avner is responsible for identifying market trends and requirements, shaping the OMAP long term roadmap, technology roadmap and IP selection. Avner holds 10 patents for chip architectures and communication systems. Prior to joining Texas Instruments in 2002, Avner spent two years as Vice President Marketing and Applications for Lenslet. Prior to that, Avner spent 13 years at Motorola, where he held a number of progressively responsible positions in DSP management. Avner graduated from The Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology in Haifa where he majored in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Advisory Board
IU Kim
IU is the President of Adata Technology (US$1.3B revenue memory module manufacturer) in Taiwan. He is also a consultant to the CEO of Anobit and a board member of Clubs Choice Holding Co. (Canada). Previously, IU was a Senior Vice President of Samsung Electronics Co., General Manager Sales and Marketing for the Memory Business, Senior Researcher at Samsung Semiconductor R&D center and Senior Researcher at Pritzker Institute of Medical Engineering, Chicago, USA. IU holds a Ph.D. in Material Sciences from Illinois Institute of Technology.
Sariel Engel
Sariel is an industry expert and entrepreneur, previously Sariel was Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Modu. Before that he served as Sr. Director of Business Management at SanDisk Corp. Prior to joining SanDisk, Mr. Engel was the VP of Business Development of M-Systems until its acquisition by SanDisk for $1.6B at the end of 2006. Mr. Engel holds a M.Sc. in Finance from City University of New York-Baruch College – Zicklin School of Business