Eden Shochat

Eden Shochat is an equal partner at Aleph, a +$300 million venture capital fund focused on serving Israeli entrepreneurs who want to build big, scalable, global businesses. Prior to founding Aleph, Eden was a general partner at Genesis where he focused on seed-stage investments and was a co-founder of face.com, the world leader in massive, web-scale face recognition in social networks, acquired by Facebook. He also co-founded and was the CTO of Aternity, recently acquired by Riverbed, where he led the strategic product direction for its dominant user-experience monitoring platform.

Entrepreneurship is a passion for Eden, who founded ‘The Junction’ which was voted as the #1 startup program in Israel. He is one of the organizers of the annual Geekcon Geeks Conference and also teaches at the IDC (Herzeliya interdisciplinary center) Zell entrepreneurship program.

Yoran Bar

A mission oriented entrepreneur with a track record performing senior executive roles in the Israeli High Tech Scene. Currently CEO and Co-founder of BeaconCure, a startup developing an AI discovery platform for life science and healthcare data. 
Founder and member of the advisory board of The HAC, a successful municipal backed accelerator in Israel (Herzliya, Israel), 
Israel Country Adviser for the ‘International Accelerator’ (Austin Texas, USA), 
International Adviser for TechGrind Asian Accelerator (Bangkok, Thailand).

Yoran received an MBA from University of Den Haag and a BA in Psychology and Communications from the University of South Africa.

Tair Kowalsky

Tair is the general manager of SigmaLabs accelerator, and the founder of HAC- Herzliya Accelerator Center. Tair is also a Mentor in the IDC Entrepreneurship School and a Lecturer in Public Relations in the IDC Communication School. As head and founder of accelerators, Tair works closely with early stage startups on their Biz-Dev challenges, while creating tailor-made programs, International agreements, networking around the clock and so much more. Tair is an international speaker, representing the Israeli ecosystem with vast knowledge on B2G, B2B, the accelerators field in Israel and guiding international programs from the US, Europe, and Asia.

Tair holds a BA in Communication & PR, and an MA in International Relations & Conflict Resolution, both are from The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Before meeting the entrepreneurship world, Tair acted as Head Department of Public Relations and Strategic Consulting for a media firm, and as a VP in a Public Relations and Strategic Consulting firm.

Samuel (Sam) Balanga

Sam is an Entrepreneur and Tech Investor in early stage startups in Israel, England and the United States. He completed his BSc in Computer Engineering in London and graduated with honors.  While in England, he served in various leadership positions, including two startups in the area of data and cloud computing which were acquired. Throughout his career, he has specialized in solutions in the field of data and cloud computing.

He has received numerous _­awards for his success in unique projects in those fields. He serves as a mentor in ZELL entrepreneurship program at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, 8200 EISP and TechStars Barclays. Sam returned to Israel after spending more than 17 years in London and now lives in Herzliya.

Liad Rubin

Liad Rubin is an investor with Kaedan Capital, a private investment group focusing on Israeli related, seed to early stage ventures in diverse technology areas.

Liad has experience working with start-ups on strategy and business development from both sides of the fence.
Liad holds a MBA from IE Business School in Madrid and a BA in Business Administration from IDC, Herzliya.

Moran Nir

Moran Nir is the Executive Director of the Zell Entrepreneurship Program at IDC, Herzliya, Israel. She holds a B.A. in computer science, with a major in entrepreneurship from the Zell Program at IDC Herzliya, where she also received the Efi Arazi Scholarship for leadership. Moran is an entrepreneurial leader, who is passionate about innovation, community and technology, and connecting them to make a difference. Her work experience is diverse; she led the MassChallenge Israel accelerator program, consulted and mentored young entrepreneurs, worked in several start-ups in Israel in different industries, including two which she founded.

Moran volunteered with the Jewish Agency in the US, England and Israel and is an active member of the ROI Schusterman Community.

Adi Zamir

A serial entrepreneur with vast management experience in corporates & startups, Adi is currently CEO and Founder of “Pink Of View”, a digital health solution in the breast cancer risk assessment field. She is co-founder of WMN, women entrepreneurs lead community as well as a mentor and advisory board member of startups and accelerators.

Maya Katz

Maya served for four years as a senior advisor for the Minister of Education. She is currently the deputy and acting mayor of Herzeliya. Maya was chosen to serve in the Herzeliya city council as the chairman of the “Tzeirim Neto” party, the young party of Herzliya. Among her activities in the city, she established the “HAC” (Herzliya Accelerator Center) facility, which is used to promote and encourage entrepreneurship and start-ups in a wide range of interests.

She has a BA in Political Science and Business Administration from the Open University of Israel and a MA in Government and Diplomatic Relations from IDC Herzliya. Among her duties is the responsibility for the areas of urban renewal, transportation, young population, women etc.

Iris Arbel-Ganz

Head, HAC

Iris has over twenty years of experience in forming cross –sector strategic partnerships. Her specialty is instigating and executing business cooperation between governments, the private sector and non-profit organizations.

As the manager of HAC, Iris is responsible for recruiting startups, creating the eco-system to support their growth and facilitating business development opportunities in the local and international arena. Under her leadership the number of active pilots increased and the total funding resources grew substantially. She recently formed a unique addition to the program – CEO.il – a platform that enables high tech CEOS to benefit from the HAC infrastructure and connecting them to the HAC alumni and mentors.

Mentors of the Program