BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Certagon's Board of Directors is comprised of industry experts alongside accomplished investors with a strong business background. Together, Certagon's board provides guidance and support for the Certagon management team.
Dr. Shlomo Kalish – Chairman of the Board
Shlomo is widely recognized as one of Israel's leading technology investors. In 2007 he was named No. 1 investor in Israel by Forbes Magazine. In 1994, Shlomo founded The Jerusalem Global Group, a technology focused investment house. In 1999 he founded Jerusalem Global Ventures, a venture capital firm managing $120M in JGV Fund I. This Fund invested in seed and early-stage communications, information technology and life sciences companies. From 1997 to 1999, Shlomo served as a General Partner of Concord (K.T.) Ventures I, LP, a leading Israeli venture capital fund, where he was responsible for the investments in Saifun Semiconductors, Oridion Medical and Oren Semiconductors. Shlomo frequently appears in the media and has been featured on the cover of Forbes (Israel) and Upside Magazine. He has also been cited in The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, Business Week and other business publications. Shlomo holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from MIT, a M.Sc. from the Sloan School of Management at MIT and a B.Sc. from Tel Aviv University. From 1970 to 1975 Shlomo served in the Israeli Air Force as a major and fighter pilot. Shlomo is active on the boards of many non-profit organizations and academic institutions, including Shalom Beineinu, a charitable organization of which he is Chairman; the Board of Governors of Bar Ilan University; the Board of Governors of the Technion and The Jerusalem College of Technology.
Ilan Grobman – CEO
Ilan has founded and built three successful organizations.
In 1998 Ilan co-founded Tradeum, Inc., where he was responsible for early product definition, direction and strategic planning. He was responsible for sales and business development during the launch of the company. He helped recruit a seasoned management team and led the company’s eventual acquisition by VerticalNet (NASDAQ: VERT) which acquired Tradeum for $ 500 Million.
Ilan was also co-founder of two additional telecommunications ventures, and notably a non profit that has helped thousands of chronically ill and severely ill children from all races and religious beliefs across Israel. Most recently Ilan served as an executive board member of a consumer electronics and registry service for digital music solutions, Catch Media, Inc. Ilan, as Executive Vice President of Strategic Business Development, helped raise seed financing and set the strategic direction for the company. In this role, Ilan initiated and negotiated the company's first international joint venture with a leading music retailer and distributor in Cyprus and Greece, as well as led the push to negotiating licenses with major music industry labels.
Dr. Michael S. Pliner
Dr. Pliner has over 30 years experience in computer software and systems technology, general management, and business development. Dr. Pliner has founded, financed, and built three successful high technology businesses.. Dr. Pliner co-founded Verity Inc., serving as Chairman, President, and CEO.He also cofunded Sytek Inc serving as its Chairman and CEO. Currently Dr. Pliner is a consulting entrepreneur serving on the Boards or advisory Boards of several high technology companies. His primary interests are in networking, security and enterprise software technologies.