FRIENDS OF THE FORUM
Joel Stein,
Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer
Joel (Jody) Stein received his law and business degrees (JD/MBA) from Columbia University in 1987. Before emigrating to Israel in 1993 he worked for six years at the New York offices of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and at Shearman & Sterling in corporate finance, securities and environmental law. Upon arriving in Israel and being admitted to the Israel Bar, Mr. Stein served for two years as general counsel of a leading Israeli software development company and its venture capital subsidiary. Mr. Stein joined the firm of Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer in Herzelia in 1996 and is a partner in its corporate and intellectual property department. His practice focuses on patents, licensing, private financing for the high-tech sector, cross-border joint ventures and technology licensing. His clients include a large number of start-up companies as well as several of Israel’s ‘blue-chip’ high-tech companies. Mr. Stein has resided in Bet Shemesh for the past 15 years with his wife and four children.
Dalia Megiddo,
MD, MBA, Managing Partner, 7 Health Ventures
Before joining 7 Health Ventures Dr. Megiddo was the managing partner in InnoMed Ventures, one of the leading Israeli healthcare venture funds since 2000.
Dr Megiddo has been involved in the Life Science Venture Capital Industry since 1999 and is well recognized as one of the leaders in the healthcare investment community both in Israel and internationally. She is a frequent speaker at local and international meetings and served as a board member of public companies: Given Imaging (NASDAQ-GIVN) and Elron (NASDAQ-ELRN), as well as private companies (Glucon, Impliant, Chiasma, Notal Vision and Barnev).
Dr Megiddo holds an MBA from Kellogg- Recanti School of Business, and teaches at various entrepreneurial programs in Israeli universities. She completed her medical studies at the Hebrew University’s Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem in 1978.
After spending a few years as a faculty member in the Family Medicine department at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Dr. Megiddo founded and sold two successful businesses in the medical field: The Journal Club - Israel’s leading provider of Continuing Medical Education for physicians, and Academia Medica – a medical multimedia developer and worldwide distributor for Continuing Medical Education programs for physicians.
Dan Zetland,
Corporate and Marketing Communications
Dan is a freelance consultant specializing in corporate and marketing communications. He is a seasoned copywriter and editor with over 30 years experience working with technology companies and their products and services on a broad range of marcom projects, including: advertising copy; annual reports; articles for the general and trade press; brochures and flyers; business plans and proposals; content for websites; naming names; PowerPoint presentations; press releases; and white papers. Dan was born, raised and educated in the United States. He holds B.A. (Psychology) and M.A. (Human Development) degrees, both from the University of Chicago. Immediately prior to immigrating to Israel in 1968 he was a Senior Market Research Analyst at Marplan, a Los Angeles-based subsidiary of The Interpublic Group of Companies. His career in Israel included a 20-year stint at Scitex where he held positions of Marketing Services Manager and Public Relations Manager.
Contact details:
dzetland@netvision.net.il
Phone - (03) 642-8279
Mobile - 050-586-1247.
Yair Safrai,
General Partner, Concord Ventures
Yair Safrai co-founded Concord Ventures and served as Vice President of the Nitzanim Venture Fund, where he was actively involved in all aspects of the fund's growth and success. As General Partner at Concord, he specializes in information technologies with emphasis on Internet-related, software and communication companies. Prior to joining Nitzanim, Yair was in charge of business development at BVR Technologies, a high-tech company specializing in aviation simulation. Prior to BVR, Yair held key consulting, marketing and business development positions at IGS Inc., a hi-tech start-up, and P.O.C., a leading marketing and strategy consulting firm in Israel. Yair holds a B.Sc. cum laude in Economics and Management from the University of Tel-Aviv, an M.A. in International Studies from the Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the Wharton Business School. Yair served as jet fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force.
Nir Ben Levy,
Co-Founder, Gstock
Nir is an internet entrepreneur. Nir Co-founded Gstock.com a distributed computing stock picking service in 2005. Before Gstock, Nir co-founded Huminity.com, which pioneered the social networking arena. Nir also developed several web ventures for analytics, seo, social search engine, and business intelligence, including Hasholtim.com, 50matches.com, pagealizer.com, netnir.co.il and more. Nir manages a portfolio of web services, and consults web site owners and internet entrepreneurs. Nir holds an Accounting (CPA) and Economics degree from Tel Aviv University. Prior to his entrepreneurship career he held various financial positions (CFO, Controller) in software and technology companies. Nir's personal web site can be found at http://netnir.co.il.
