Maayan Ventures

Dr. Tsvika Ben-Porat, (Ph.D.) - CEO
Dr. Ben-Porat has been the CEO of Maayan since March 2005. During this time, he has brought Maayan from being a single, privately owned incubator to being the first incubator to be traded on the Israeli stock-market (TASE: MAYN), to purchasing 2 more incubators and thus becoming the leading incubator in Israel. Under his management, the Maayan incubator moved from managing approximately 10 portfolio companies to over 50.
The former founder and CTO of Ness Technologies Inc. (until Dec. 2004) Tsvika was also part of team that brought Ness to performing an IPO on NASDAQ (NSTC). He is also the founder and former CEO of IPEX ISI, acquired by Ness technologies to become Ness ISI. IPEX ISI was the first Microsoft Certified Solution Provider in Israel, and under Tsvika’s management was awarded the prestigious 1999 Microsoft RAD Award, the 1999 Microsoft European RAD Award and the 1998 MCSP Award.
Tsvika has extensive experience in the management of large scale high-tech projects and was also co-founder of Ness Ventures, a sub-division of Ness specializing in providing professional IT and consulting services to start-ups. He previously served as CEO and CTO of Media Market Makers Ltd., a McCann-Erickson enterprise.
Tsvika led the process of bringing Applisonix to an IPO, the first of Maayan's portfolio companies to be traded on TASE (APSX), he is also a member of the board of directors in other publicly-traded companies (such as Technoplus Ventures TASE: TNPV) and in several start-up companies.
Tsvika is a graduate of the special program for PhD students in Physics and has a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva.

Lior Pelleg – VP Finance
Prior to joining Maayan Ventures, Lior was a senior economist in the Budget, Pricing and Control Department at EL-OP Industries, and the Chief Economist and Department Manager of the Weizman Institute of Science.
Later, Mr. Pelleg served as the CFO of the Sixth Elements Group (SEG), VP of Business Development of Prowell Technology and CEO of Aferrix, a government backed bio-technology incubator start-up company. Mr. Pelleg holds a BA in Economics and Management from Hebrew University. He is currently completing his MBA from Harriot Watt University, Edinburgh Business School.

Yifat Leibovich – VP Operations
Yifat was formerly the CTO Project Coordinator at Ness Technologies HQ, and also the Logistics Manager of Ness-ISI Ltd. She has extensive experience in operations management.
Prior to her work at Ness, Yifat also managed a privately owned training center specializing in IT and Business Skills training. Yifat holds a BA in English Literature & Political Science and an MBA in Public Administration from Ben-Gurion University.

Dr. Judith Zilberstein, (Ph.D.) - VP Technology
Prior to joining Maayan Ventures, Judith served as a CTO of a number of biotech companies and scientific director for technological incubators.
Judith holds a Bachelor’s degree in biophysical chemistry from Ben-Gurion University, a Master’s degree, cum laude, in physical chemistry and Ph.D. in Life Sciences from the Feinberg Graduate School of the Weitzman Institute of Science.

Dr. Barak Ben-Avinoam - CEO of Iris Ventures
Barak held several C-level executive positions with technology companies and accumulated vast international business development and sales experience with leading Global 2000 companies.
His previous positions include: COO of Lab-One, Co-Founder & CEO of Prolify, Co-Founder & CEO of Flash Networks, General Manager (Europe) at Business Layers.

Barak holds an MBA and a DBA, both at the International School of Management in Paris, and holds a B.Sc. in Information Systems from Drexel University in Philadelphia. Barak is also a visiting professor for international business and entrepreneurship at several MBA programs in Paris.

Inbal Marciano, Adv. - Legal council
Prior to joining Maayan Ventures, Inbal worked as a corporate litigator at Berkman- Wechsler- Sahar - Bloom & Co, and at Michal Ohyon & Co who specialized in Corporate Law, Commercial Law and Securities Law. Later, Inbal joined Confino, Luchtenstein & Co. Inbal holds an LLB from the Israeli College of Management (with honors) and is qualified to practice law in Israel from 2000.

Monica Katan (CPA) -Controller CFO

Prior to joining Maayan Ventures, Monica worked at Mahod LTD.as the CFO. The company specializes in roads and traffic engineering.

Formerly, Monica worked at Kesselman & Kesselman , the Israeli representative of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC).