Board
Yuval Cohen, Chairman of the Board
Mr. Cohen is a founder of Fortissimo Capital. Prior to founding Fortissimo, he was a General Partner at Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), an international venture capital firm with over $650 million under management. Mr. Cohen led investments in, and served on boards of numerous companies, including: PowerDsine Ltd. (Nasdaq: PDSN), Precise Software Solutions, Inc. (sold to Veritas Software Corporation. Nasdaq: PRSE), T.sqware, Inc. (sold to Globespan Inc. Nasdaq: GSPN), Sheer Networks, Sphera Corporation, Teleknowledge Group, Celltick Technologies, and Quarry Technologies.
Prior to joining JVP, Mr. Cohen held various executive positions in the Silicon Valley, and was the Vice President of Business Development and also served as the General Manager of the licensing division at DSP Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: DSPG). In addition, he served as the Vice President of Marketing at VDOnet Corporation and as the Assistant to the President of Intel Capital at Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC).
Mr. Cohen received an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Tel Aviv University.
Eli Blatt
Mr. Blatt is a partner in Fortissimo Capital funds, and possesses more than 15 years of professional and managerial experience in the fields of finance and business operations for leading high-tech companies. Prior to joining Fortissimo, he served as CFO and Vice President of Finance & Operations of Noosh, Inc., a supplier of cross-enterprise e-business software solutions. Prior to joining Noosh, Mr. Blatt was the Director of Operations at CheckPoint Software Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: CHKP) and was previously the Operations Controller at Madge Networks (sold to Avaya). Prior to joining Madge, Mr. Blatt held senior finance and operations positions at Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) and Israel Chemicals.
Mr. Blatt holds an MBA from Indiana University and a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Tel-Aviv University.
Marc Lesnick
Mr. Lesnick is a partner in Fortissimo Capital. Prior to joining Fortissimo, He served as the Managing Director of Jerusalem Global, a boutique investment bank that specialized in raising capital for Israeli based technology startup companies. Mr. Lesnick managed a team of 16 professionals and was instrumental in raising in excess of $250 million for 35 companies, several of which later went public or were acquired. He was also part of the founding team of a spin-off of Jerusalem Global, which raised $74 million from institutional investors and specialized in raising private equity for technology startup companies. The company was sold in 2001 to a US based incubator.
Prior to moving to Israel and joining Jerusalem Global, Mr. Lesnick served as a senior corporate attorney at the New York offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. As a lawyer, Mr. Lesnick led 16 Israeli related transactions and represented many of the leading financial institutions with respect to public and private financings as well as M&A, buyouts, restructurings, reorganizations and securities related activities.
Mr. Lesnick received a JD from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Yeshiva University.
Raanan Cohen
Mr. Cohen was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Koor in July 2006. He is also Vice President of Discount Investments Corporation Ltd. (DIC), Koor's controlling shareholder, having served in such position since August 2001 and as Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer of DIC from 1999. Mr. Cohen also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Scailex Corporation Ltd. (formerly Scitex) from 2004 to July 2006. Prior to joining DIC, he was an associate with McKinsey & Company, Inc. in London from 1997. Mr. Cohen is a lawyer, admitted to the Israel Bar, and from 1994 to 1995 he served as an attorney with S. Horowitz & Co., an Israeli law firm. He is a director of a number of companies in the IDB group, including Cellcom Israel Ltd. and Property & Building Corporation Ltd. Mr. Cohen holds bachelors degrees in law and in economics from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
David (Didi) Paz
Mr. Paz was appointed as a board member in February 2008. He is the Executive Vice President of Koor and also the Managing Director of Koor Corporate Venture Capital (Koor CVC). Previously he served as Executive Assistant to the Senior Deputy CEO of IDB Development Corporation Ltd. from 2003 and to the CEO of Ganden Tourism and Aviation Ltd. from 2000. Mr. Paz is a lawyer, admitted to the Israel Bar, and from 1998 to 2000 he served as an attorney with M. Seligman & Co., an Israeli law firm.
He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Third Millennium – Tourism and Recreation Holdings Ltd. Mr. Paz is also a director of AKA – Hutzot Ha'Mifratz ; Comsys – Communication & Signal Processing Ltd.; Simbionix USA Corp.; NSC – Natural Speech Recognition Ltd.; Diesenhaus-Unitours Ltd. and its subsidiaries; Open Sky Ltd. and Its subsidiaries; AVIAREPS AG and additional companies within the Koor, Clal Tourism and Ganden Tourism Groups. Mr. Paz holds bachelors degrees in law and in economics (Cum Laude) from Tel Aviv University.
Oren Hillinger
Mr. Hillinger was appointed as a board member in February 2008. He is the Chief Financial Officer of Koor Industries Ltd. Previously he served as Finance Director of Koor from 2005. Prior to joining Koor Mr. Hillinger served as a manger with the Financial Advisory Services division of KPMG Somekh Chaikin, a leading Israeli accounting firm, from 1997. Mr. Hillinger is a certified public accountant (Isr.). He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Koor-Tadiran Gemel Ltd., a provident funds management company, and also a director of Epsilon Provident Funds Management Ltd. and of Epsilon Mutual Funds Management Ltd, and additional companies within the Koor Group. Mr. Hillinger also serves as an observer of few other companies within the Koor Group.
Mr. Hillinger holds an MBA (Summa Cum Laude) from Tel Aviv University and bachelor's degree in accounting (Magna Cum Laude), and Bachelor of Laws, also from Tel Aviv University.