Michael Ehrlich

New Jersy Institute of Technology (NJIT) Associate Professor Michael Ehrlich, started his career on Wall Street, ending at Bear Stearns as Senior Managing Director. Upon leaving Wall Street, Ehrlich started FineStar Imaging LLC, a small technology company that he sold in 2007. Along with teaching and research, Ehrlich uses his experience to work with NJIT’s small business incubator. Ehrlich, a member of the NY Angels enjoys working with start-up companies and co-directs the New Jersey Innovation Acceleration Center (www.njiac.com), which helps entrepreneurs accelerate their time to market and revenue. Ehrlich has been working with the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program as a mentor, on the teaching team for the NYC Regional Innovation Node, and is now PI of the I-Corps Site at NJIT. Ehrlich received his doctorate from Princeton University in economics with a specialty in finance. His bachelor’s degree is from Yale University. 

Dr. Eyal Bressler

Founder of Dr. Eyal Bressler&co, a leading private patent attorney office. Prior to forming the firm and after spending 15 years at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dr. Bressler served as the CEO of a successful venture capital fund investing in knowledge-intensive start-ups.

PROF. YESHA SIVAN

Prof. Yesha Sivan is the Executive Director of The Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University faculty of management, and a visiting professor of innovation and venture at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), Design School. 

He is also the founder of Metaverse Labs (MVL) - a leading think tank focusing on innovation via virtual and real worlds. Sivan's professional experience includes developing and deploying innovative solutions for corporate, hi-tech, government, and defense environments (see for example: the Harvard 9-Keys for Knowledge Infrastructure).

He published numerous papers in the areas of strategy and IT, innovation and venture, knowledge, 3D3C virtual worlds, and standards.

Sivan received his doctorate from Harvard University. He has taught EMBA, MBA, engineering and design courses in his areas of expertise. His blog is http://www.dryesha.com.

PROF. EHUD GAZITH

Ehud Gazit i s a biochemist, biophysicist and nanotechnologist. He is Professor and the incumbent of the Chair for Nano-Biology at T el Aviv University. From 2012-2014 he also served as the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). His laboratory was the first to identify a romatic dip eptides that form nanotubes and nanospheres of unique mechanical and chemical properties. The applications of these nano assemblies for ultra sensitive biosensors applications, energy-storage devices, and the fabrication of metallic nanowires were demonstrated.
Prof. Gazith also develops small molecules that serve as anti-aggregation agents in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. His work was published in some of the most prestigious academic journals including Science, Nature  Nanotechnology Nature Chemical Biology, Cell, the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Science, and many more. He is also the inventor of few tens of patent applications.

Prof. Daniel Offen

Dr. Offen earned his PhD in Molecular Biology at Weizmann Institute of Science and did his post-doctoral studies at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in N.Y. Dr. Offen heads the Neurology Laboratory at Tel Aviv University and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Genetics and Biochemistry. Dr. Offen enjoys an internationally recognized reputation in neuroscience research. He has published over 150 original scientific papers on neurodegenerative diseases and is
co-inventor in over a dozen patents, including those on which Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics’ pioneering technology is based. Dr. Offen is a co-founder of BrainStorm, a biotechnology company developing autologous stem cell therapies for ALS and currently conducting Phase II clinical trials.

Dr. Iris Ginzburg

Dr. Iris Ginzburg, CEO of Demaya Innovation Practices, provides innovation services to large organizations in Israel and around the world, focusing on the financial sector and technology firms. Prior to establishing Demaya, Dr. Ginzburg has initiated and globally led IBM’s Innovation Management Practice, part of IBM’s On Demand Innovation Services. Iris is also the director of an MBA Program for Management of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.
With more than 150 students, this program is considered Recanati's flagship MBA program. Dr. Ginzburg holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Tel-Aviv University and an M.Sc. in Management of Technology from MIT Sloan School of Management. Mr. Shlomo Nimrodi. Shlomo Nimrodi is the CEO of Ramot, the tech transfer company of Tel Aviv University. He brings with him 20+ years track record in leading technology companies, in wide range of industries, locally and internationally. As the CFO and COO of Indigo, the market leader in digital printing technology, he led the company to its acquisition by HP in the early 2000. Shlomo graduated with an MA and MBA with Honors from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed the Advanced management Program (AMP156) at Harvard Business School.

Dr. Christian Tidona

Christian Tidona is a serial biotech entrepreneur and managing director at BioRN Cluster Management GmbH and BioRN Network e.V. inHeidelberg, Germany. He studied biology at the University of Heidelberg and received his PhD in 1999 at the age of 28. After several years of experience as a founder, managing director and coach of a number of biotech companies
such as Multimetrix (Regensburg), Microbionix (Neuried), Cytonet (Weinheim/Durham NC) and Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM), he was important in the development of a new economic growth strategy for the Biotech Cluster Rhine-Neckar (BioRN), one of the leading life science clusters in Europe. Based on this strategy, the BioRN cluster was distinguished as one of the five most significant high-tech regions in Germany (Leading Edge Cluster
Competition). It was awarded a 40 million Euro grant from the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), which is now being used under Dr. Tidona’s leadership together with another 40 million Euro from the local pharma and biotech industry for the implementation of the new growth strategy. Among other personal commitments, Dr. Tidona is a member of the executive board of the Health Axis Europe alliance between the three health clusters in Cambridge / UK, Leuven / Belgium and Heidelberg / Germany, member of the German-Israeli Life Sciences Committee, board member of the BioRN.

Dr. Dana Bar-On, Course Leader

Dr. Bar-On is the head of the industry-academia cooperation at the Sagol School of Neuroscience in Tel Aviv University. Tel Aviv University’s Sagol School of Neuroscience is a center for excellence in Neuroscience research and education (http://neuroscience-web.tau.ac.il/en/). The school's community is composed of over 120 research groups led by internationally well-recognized scientists, coming from 7 different faculties and 17 medical centers affiliated with Tel Aviv University and Over 350 undergraduate and graduate students. As part of the School's philosophy, Dr. Bar-On initiated "BrainBoost", a unique framework for bridging the gap between the industry and academy and for advancing translational Neuroscience.
Dr. Bar-On is a researcher in Tel Aviv University focusing on developing early biomarkers for Parkinson's disease. She finished her Ph.D in Neurobiology focusing on super-resolution microscopy of synaptic proteins, and her B.Sc and M.Sc in distinction in Biotechnology at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Bar-On served as a scientific consultant at leading financial and high-tech private firms.