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Board of Directors

Sam Somech - Chairman of the Board

Sam Somech is one of the world's leading experts on middleware messaging technologies. An experienced and successful entrepreneur, he has an extensive track record transforming new technologies into profitable new businesses - from initial concepts to development and commercialization. Sam was the president, CTO and co-founder of Level 8 (NASD: LVEL), as well as founder and CEO of Data Voice Systems, where he developed the concept for the first transactional messaging product, which was the foundation of IBM MQSeries. Sam received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Technion University in Israel, an M.Sc in computer science from Columbia University and an MBA from Baruch College.


Eli Barkat – Managing Partner, BRM Capital
Eli Barkat specializes in early stage software investments and has more than 20 years of technological, entrepreneurial and business management experience. Eli excels at growing companies - providing hands-on strategic and management guidance from founding to exit. In 1988, he co-founded BRM Technologies, leading the company to a first-to-market position in the anti-virus market, and selling the intellectual property to Symantec. Leveraging this success, Eli and his partners led BRM Technologies to become a leading Israeli incubator venture firm that successfully founded and managed several internet infrastructure companies, including Checkpoint Software (NASDAQ:CHKP) and BackWeb (NASDAQ:BWEB). Eli played a key role in Whale Communications, serving as Chairman of the Board of the company. He is currently Chairman of NPX, and sits on the board of GigaSpaces, SupportSpace and Pando. Eli holds a B.Sc in Computer Science and Mathematics from Hebrew University, Jerusalem.


Liron Gitig – Principal, FTVentures

Liron joined FTVentures in January 2006 and is a Principal with investment responsibilities in software. Prior to joining FTVentures, Liron was responsible for software investments at venture funds including Lazard Technology Partners, Giza GE Venture Fund and BRM Capital. Before entering the venture capital field, Liron served as Vice President of Corporate Development at Fundtech Corporation (Nasdaq: FNDT), a global provider of electronic payments, cash management and settlement solutions. At Fundtech, Liron was responsible for leading strategic planning, and for identifying and executing on strategic acquisitions and partnerships. Liron began his career as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers, where he provided corporate finance and strategic advisory services to leading companies in the technology industry. Liron received a BS degree magna cum laude from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a joint JD/MBA degree from the Columbia Law and Business Schools.


Ze'ev Zilber – Director, Formula Vision
Zeev Zilber led Formula Vision's investment in GigaSpaces in 2002. Prior to joining Formula Vision, Zeev served as CEO of several Formula Group companies, including New Applicom (traded on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange, with more than 600 employees and annual revenue exceeding $80 million) and FCT (Formula Computer Technologies), also traded on the TASE, which specializes in software-products distribution and CRM solutions. Zeev has a proven record within rapidly growing software companies as well as international sales and marketing operations, and serves as Chairman and Director of several Formula Vision-affiliated companies specializing in a wide range of technologies. Zeev is a graduate of the Israel Defense Force's Computer Center, with an academic background in economics, business management and psychology from Tel Aviv University and TAU's Open University.