Newsletter June 2012
Business Opportunities:
The Top 10 Icons of Israel’s High-Tec
Long before Israel was known as the startup nation, skilled and visionary men were
already putting it on course as the next Silicon Valley
1. Dan Tolkowsky
Born: 1921
Claim to fame: Founded the first venture fund to invest in Israeli high-tech and
startups.
Tolkowsky, one of the grandfathers of the Israeli high-tech industry, co-founded the
Athena Fund, which sired the companies that innovator Uzia Galil (see below)
envisioned. Through Discount Investments, Tolkowsky helped provide the finance
and commercial capabilities to the Israeli high-tech greats Elron, Elbit, Elscint, Daisy,
Fibronics, Optrotek and Scitex. He continues to work in biotechnology and high-tech
and gives strategic advice to Israeli high-tech companies traded publicly in Israel and
abroad.
2. Uzia Galil
Born: 1925
Claim to fame: At Motorola, he helped develop the world’s first color television. Started
the first successful non-military high-tech company in Israel.
Galil, an electrical engineer, is known for founding Elron Electronic Industries, the
first high-tech multinational holding company based in Israel. With a net worth of
about $5 billion, it has grown to include some 30 companies that have invented items
from medical devices to military technologies. Some of the more notable companies
that have been steered, founded or led by Galil include Netmanage, Zoran, Elbit,
Elscint, Chipx, Orbotech, Partner Communications, and Silicom Ventures.
3. Ed Mlavsky
Born: 1929
Claim to fame: Founder of Israel’s first VC, the Gemini Israel Fund, linking Israeli
brains to capital markets overseas.
A technologist in his own right, Ed Mlavsky has lent muscle to Israeli high-tech
through networking and financing platforms he established, setting the stage for Israeli
tech exports. Before there was Google, he was making lists of tech products and
pitching them to firms abroad. He eventually went on to lead and shape the US-Israel
Binational Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation from 1979 through
1992. He then founded Gemini, a fund that oversees dozens of startups specializing in
a span of Israeli tech from Internet technologies to “green” IT. Mlavsky made
significant contributions to the world solar industry as a founder of Tyco, now a New
York Stock Exchange-traded solar energy company. He coined the term “edge-defined
film-fed growth” (EFG), a method for making sheets of polycrystalline silicon for
photovoltaic devices.
4. Jacob Ziv
Born: 1931
Claim to fame: Developed data-compression technologies used in all personal
computers.
The groundbreaking work of Jacob Ziv enabled digital communication to be fast and
rapid. With Abraham Lempel, he co-founded the LZ family of lossless data compression
algorithms to make digital data occupy less space so it can be transmitted faster. Their
principle has led to modern data-compression standards such as MP3 for audio, GIF or
PNG for imaging and PDF for text. Ziv’s work has also improved the storage capacity of
hard drives and the performance of modems, and optimized fax technologies. Seminal
in scope, his contributions to computer science have inspired a new generation of
researchers.
5. Efraim (Efi) Arazi
Born: 1937
Claim to fame: Created Scitex, often referred to as the flagship of the Israeli high-tech
industry.
Effi Arazi founded and led Scitex Corporation (now renamed Scailex Corporation) in
1968. The company, later sold to Hewlett Packard, develops and manufactures
hardware and software technologies, and equipment for the printing and publishing
industries. This was Israel’s first high-tech firm and at its peak employed 4,000 people.
Since then, Arazi has gone on to found additional graphics and printing companies.
6. Dov Frohman
Born: 1939
Claim to fame: Invented a new memory chip for the personal computer industry,
leading to the ubiquitous flash memory technology used today.
The electrical engineer got his start at Fairchild Semiconductor, the catalyst for many
Silicon Valley companies. He followed many of his colleagues from there to Intel. A
former VP at Intel, Frohman invented the erasable and programmable read-only
memory called EPROM while troubleshooting an Intel product in the 1970s. At the time
there were only RAM and ROM chips, both severely limited. Frohman’s invention was a
paradigm shift for the personal computing industry. His new chip could be easily
programmed and retain a long charge. EPROM is as important as the microprocessor
itself, Intel founder Gordon Moore has said. Now retired, Frohman founded Intel-Israel
and was its first general manager.
7. Dan Maydan
Born: Circa 1939
Claim to fame: Made significant advances in semiconductor manufacturing.
Dan Maydan is an electrical engineer whose engineering breakthroughs in semiconductor manufacturing are lauded by the Smithsonian Institution as having shaped
modern society. For a number of years Maydan headed Applied Materials, which
manufacturers semiconductors for the computing, LCD, glass and solar industries. In
his early career at Bell Laboratories, he pioneered laser recording of data onto thin film,
and made significant advances in other aspects in semiconductor manufacturing.
8. Joseph “Yossi” Vardi
Born: 1942
Claim to fame: “The Mirabilis Effect.” Often cited as a godfather of the Israeli high-tech
industry and angel investor to dozens of start-ups.
Yossi Vardi is one of Israel’s first high-tech entrepreneurs and unofficial ambassador of
the Israeli high-tech scene. You will find him at conferences around the world and at
local events and luncheons championing the Israeli startup nation. Vardi has worn an
impressive number of hats over the years, including high-ranking positions in the
Israeli government in varying capacities, including peace negotiations. He founded or
helped build more than 60 high-tech companies in Israel, including Mirabilis, creator of
ICQ. This company was sold to AOL for $400 million, showing other young Israelis that
huge fortunes could be made in high-tech innovation. Vardi began his career at age 26
by co-founding TEKEM, one of the first software houses in Israel. It was later sold to
Tadiran.
9. Yehuda Zisapel
Born: 1942
Claim to fame: The “Bill Gates of Israel” behind the world’s most successful incubator
of telecom-related startups.
Yehuda Zisapel is the co-founder of RAD Group, a conglomerate of voice and date
communications companies that collectively employs about 3,500 people. Business 2.0
magazine calls him the world’s most successful incubator of telecom-related startups,
given that five of the companies he co-founded with his younger brother Zohar are
traded on the NASDAQ. RAD’s first commercial success was a miniature modem. The
company also founded and backed dozens of spinoffs, the first of which was Lannet
Data Communications. This company developed the first Ethernet switch for data
communications, eliminating the need for expensive coaxial cables.
10. Kobi Richter
Born: 1945
Claim to fame: Co-founder and head of Orbotech.
Widely recognized for his work in cardiovascular stent technology with Medinol, Kobi
Richter is considered one of Israel’s top entrepreneurs for co-founding and managing
Orbotech (El-Op). The company develops advanced high-tech tools for inspecting and
imaging circuit boards and display panels (LCD). Today these optical tools are used to
automate inspection for quality control in high-tech hardware manufacturing for faster
production with lower cost and less waste.