Board & Investors
- Nachman Shelef, Chairman and Co-founder, ConteXtream
- Dr. Yaron Simler, CEO, ConteXtream
- Sharon Barkai, Co-Founder, ConteXtream
- Eric Benhamou, Chairman and CEO, Benhamou Global Ventures
- Yossi Sela, Managing Partner, Gemini Israel Funds
- Matt Howard, General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners
- Daniel Keoppel, Executive Director, Verizon Ventures
- Louis A. Toth, Managing Director, Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC)
- Brian Wilcove, Partner, Sofinnova Ventures
Nachman Shelef, Chairman and Co-founder, ConteXtream
Chairman and Co-founder of ConteXtream and EnStorage, and board member of My6Sense. Formerly General Partner at Benchmark Capital and co-founder of the Benchmark Israel venture fund. Prior to Benchmark was VP of BD at 3Com, after serving as VP and GM of several 3Com organizations based in Santa Clara, Boston, and Israel. Joined 3Com when the company acquired NiceCom – a startup that he founded and headed. Serves on the Board of IVN – Israel Venture Network, a venture philanthropy network of high-tech entrepreneurs and executives from Israel and the U.S. Member of the MIU - Movement for Israeli Urbanism, a NGO of professionals promoting sustainable, high quality urban living through improved urban design with public participation.
B.Sc. Summa cum Laude in computer engineering from the Technion
Dr. Yaron Simler, CEO, ConteXtream
Dr. Yaron Simler joined ConteXtream in July 2009 as its CEO. Prior to joining ConteXtream, he spent three and a half years with Scopus Video Networks (NASDAQ:SCOP) as its President and CEO and a member of its Board of Directors. During his tenure, Scopus became a public company, grew its revenue by 25% annually and was sold to Harmonic (NASDAQ:HLIT) in early 2009. A veteran of the Cable and Satellite industries, Dr. Simler brings to ConteXtream rich multidisciplinary management experience and considerable knowledge and expertise in many aspects of the industry as well as a intimate familiarity with the American and worldwide communication markets.
Prior to Scopus, Dr. Simler was with Harmonic, Inc, (NASDAQ:HLIT) where he served as President of Harmonic Convergent Systems Division. In his 13 years with Harmonic, he has held several positions including Member of Technical Staff, Applications Engineer, International Sales Manager, Director of Applications and Technology and Vice President of Marketing.
Dr. Simler received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is named on one patent.
Sharon Barkai, Co-Founder, ConteXtream
Sharon conceived of and began ConteXtream in 2006 after a career spent founding and managing highly successful technology companies. Before ConteXtream, he was Founder & CEO of Xeround Systems, which, by virtue of its innovative approach to performance and scalability, is a leader in the rapidly growing market for mobile subscriber databases. Prior to Xeround, Sharon was Founder and CEO of Sheer Networks. Sheer Networks developed a highly successful management system for Consumer Broadband networks which was adopted by Tier 1 Operators worldwide. Cisco Systems bought Sheer Networks in 2005. Sharon began his career in Engineering, rising to Director of Engineering at 3Com. He received his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Hebrew University, and an MSc from Colombia..
Eric Benhamou, Chairman and CEO, Benhamou Global Ventures
Eric Benhamou's professional and personal accomplishments center on the creation and intelligent deployment of information technology towards improving the performance of businesses and non-profits and the quality of life of individuals around the world.
Eric Benhamou is chairman and CEO of Benhamou Global Ventures, LLC. Benhamou Global Ventures, started in 2003, invests and plays an active role in innovative high tech firms throughout the world. Mr. Benhamou is also the chairman of the board of directors of 3Com Corporation. He is an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD. He is also a visiting professor at Ben Gurion University. He served as chairman of the board of directors of Palm, Inc. from 1999 until 2007 and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. from 2001 until 2003. Benhamou served as chief executive officer of 3Com Corporation from 1990 until 2000.
Yossi Sela, Managing Partner, Gemini Israel Funds
Yossi Sela joined Gemini in 1993 when it was founded and became Managing Partner in 1998. He is one of the most accomplished venture capitalists in Israel and has achieved over 10 successful exits.
In addition to ConteXtream, Yossi represents Gemini on the boards of portfolio companies PrimeSense, Xjet and The Gifts Project. His past board positions include Allot Communications, Saifun Semiconductors, Commtouch, Precise and Ornet Data Communication, all of which enjoyed successful exits; in 1995, he acted as the interim CEO of Ornet until its acquisition by Siemens in September that year.
Currently, Yossi also serves on the boards of the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI) at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, and of the Faculty of Management – The Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration. He is on the board of trustees of the Academic College of Tel Aviv Jaffa as well.
From 1990 to 1992, Yossi was Vice President of Marketing at semiconductor firm DSP Group (Nasdaq: DSPG) and worked as the VP of Marketing at spin-off company DSP Communications. Prior to DSP, he was Marketing Manager at Daisy Systems.
Yossi spent 10 years in an elite intelligence unit of the Israel Defense Forces, reaching the rank of Major. He holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the Technion and an MBA from Tel Aviv University.
Matt Howard, General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners
Matt brings over 20 years of experience in marketing, product management, engineering, business development, and sales in a wide range of technologies to Norwest Venture Partners. Matt was named to the Forbes Midas List as a top 100 dealmaker for the past three years.
Matt focuses his efforts on communication and storage systems, embedded systems, semiconductors, mobile/wireless, security and rich media. He currently serves on the board of ConteXtream, MobileIron, Omneon, Retrevo, Spectra Linear and Summit Microelectronics. He is a board observer for his most recent investment, ShotSpotter. Previously, Matt was on the board of Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), Reconnex (acquired by McAfee), Skystream Networks (acquired by Tandberg Television), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance), Swan Labs (acquired by F5 Networks) and Webstacks (acquired by Extreme Networks). Matt is a board observer with FireEye. He was a board observer with Veraz Networks (Nasdaq: VRAZ), Yipes (acquired by Reliance/Flag Telecom) and ZettaCom (acquired by IDT). He previously served on the board of the Wireless Communications Alliance (WCA).
Prior to joining the firm in 2000, Matt held a number of senior positions with Cisco's IOS organization and the Internet Business Unit. He established Cisco's security and VPN strategy, situated Cisco as the leading firewall appliance manufacturer, and launched the first load-balancing product.
Previously, Matt was vice president of marketing at Vertical Communications, where he focused on voice over IP and launched the first MGCP enabled media gateway. In addition, Matt has held various positions at Digital Equipment Corporation, BDM International, and Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) Communications Corporation. He began his career as a cryptological analyst with the U.S. Naval Security Group.
Matt holds a bachelor of business administration, with an emphasis in information systems, and a master of science degree in telecommunications management.
Daniel Keoppel, Executive Director, Verizon Ventures
Keoppel has been with Verizon and its predecessor companies, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX, for 14 years. For the last 10 years, he has been leading Verizon's venture investment program.
Previously, he worked at AT&T in its mergers and acquisitions department, was controller to AT&T Ventures Corporation, and held various finance positions with Lucent (then AT&T) Consumer Products.
He received his B.S. degree from Rutgers University and his MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is based in Basking Ridge, N.J.
Louis A. Toth, Managing Director, Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC)
Louis oversees the investing activities at CV and is responsible for evaluating investment opportunities, coordinating due diligence efforts and assisting in the negotiation and structuring of financial terms for new portfolio investments. He also works with the management of CV portfolio companies on strategic, business development and operations issues. In addition, Louis collaborates with the various business units of Comcast on issues relating to new services, technologies and start-ups. Previously, Louis worked in investment banking and at a venture capital firm focused on technology and communications services. Louis graduated with honors and holds a MBA from The Wharton School and a MA in International Studies from the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He also graduated from the Management & Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Economics from The Wharton School and a BS in Materials Science & Engineering from the School of Engineering & Applied Science. Louis is involved as a Director, Board Observer or adviser for BNI Video, BroadLogic Network Technologies, ConteXtream, iControl Networks, Immedia Semiconductor, Ortiva Wireless, RGB Networks, the KPCB sFund, Verivue Networks, and Vitrue. Previously, Louis was involved with Arroyo Video Solutions, Broadbus Technologies, Cedar Point Communications, half.com, Jingle Networks, Movaz Networks, New Global Telecom, Nuera Communications, RF Magic, SkyStream Networks, and StrataLight Communications.
Brian Wilcove, Partner, Sofinnova Ventures
brian@sofinnova.com
Brian Wilcove joined Sofinnova Ventures in 2006 as a Partner on the Technology investment team. Brian focuses on investments in the communications, networking, and mobility markets. His current investments include ConteXtream, Guavus and microAzure.
Prior to joining Sofinnova, he spent five years with TeleSoft Partners, where he was responsible for a number of investments, including BayPackets (GENBAND), Calix, Internet Photonics (Ciena), LogLogic, OnFiber (Qwest), Tele Atlas (Tom Tom), and VoiceObjects. Earlier in his career, Brian was a co-founder of Virtela Communications, a managed services company, where he served as VP of Marketing and Business Development. Previously, Brian was responsible for Qwest's IP product portfolio, where he launched and managed the P&L of several business units, including DSL, Virtual Private Networking, and Internet Access. Brian began his career at America Online. He graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
