About
The Center
The Gershon FinTech Center of the Hebrew University was founded by Prof. David (Dudi) Gershon in 2018 and is named after his parents Sima and Shlomo Gershon. Prof. Gershon is a 25 year veteran of the FinTech industry. He started his career on Wall Street, managed the currency options business for Barclays in the City of London and in 1999 while living in London started SuperDerivatives, one of the most influential FinTech companies in the financial derivatives sector and the first company ever that provided financial technology and information over the internet. SuperDerivatives became one of the leading global data vendors and was acquired by InterContinental Exchange in 2014. After Selling the company Prof. Gershon engaged in his new mission to assist FinTech companies in growing their business and the FinTech industry to reach a larger scale.
The Gershon Fintech Center, situated in the academia, is aimed to create an ecosystem for the FinTech industry in Israel, including FinTech startups, entrepreneurs, financial institutions and investors.
As a not for profit organization The Gershon Fintech Center promotes entrepreneurship, advanced technologies such as machine learning and big data technology and analytics, strategic thinking, marketing and go to market methodologies.
The center aims to make the connection between startup companies and companies that seek their technology. It also make the connection between entrepreneurs and industry experienced mentors.
The Team
Prof. David (Dudi) Gershon
Founder of the new Gershon Fintech Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prof. Gershon is a 25 year expert in the FinTech industry and is viewed by many as one of the leading experts in FinTech in Israel. In 1999 while living in London he founded SuperDerivatives which became one of the global leading vendors in derivatives and financial data. Gershon was CEO and Chairman of SuperDerivatives until its acquisition by the Intercontinental Exchange in 2014.
Prior to SuperDerivatives Gershon had a rich career as a trader on Wall Street and in the City of London and his last role was Global Head of Exotic Options at Barclays Capital in their London headquarter.
Prof. Gershon has been awarded numerous awards such as CEO of the Year by Acquisition International in 2016 and ranked among the Top 50 most influential people in Financial Technology by the Institutional Investor magazine from 2004 to 2015 consecutively. In 2016 he was declared one of the “Game Changers” in the financial industry by Finance Monthly magazine, stating that “Gershon is the person that brought transparency into the options and transformed the options market”. In 2012 he was included to the Market Data Hall of Fame by Incisive Data magazine.
Prof. Gershon is among the world experts in option models and pricing. In 2016 he published a universal model for option pricing which reflects option pricing in all asset classes (currencies, interest rates, commodities and equities) remarkably.
Mrs. Ofira Eliav
Ofira Eliav is the managing director of the Gershon FinTech Center. Ofira was previously the Deputy to the Commissioner of Insurance in the Ministry of Finance of the State of Israel. Following her civil servant career, she was responsible for the Construction Workers Pension Fund recovery plan, while advising the government regarding the national pension reform.
Ofira has an extensive experience in regulation, insurance and financial services both in Israel and the United States. She opened her own consulting firm that focused on regulation reforms.
She consulted banks, insurance companies, technology startups and the Government of Israel.
Throughout her career Ofira mentored entrepreneurs as a business coach helping them with their business model, pricing and budgeting.
In her last role prior to joining the Gershon Fintech Center Ofira was a regulatory expert at KPMG assisting Fintech companies with regulatory and business consulting.
Partners
The FinTech Center is blessed with a growing list of partners and supporter in various capacities. Among this list are included the following organizations: JNEXT, Made in JLM, Israel Export Institute, the Asper Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
We also cooperate with Regulators, Financial Institutions, Funding and Advisory firms from the industry.
Activities
Workshops and Events
The FinTech Center organizes workshop for FinTech companies to improve their expertise, methods and techniques in sales, marketing and growth strategies and fintech international conferences.
Discussion Panels
The Center Organizes round tables discussions with leading professionals from the industry, government and Academia experts to discuss future trends in the Fintech industry worldwide and their influence on the Israeli market.
The FinTech center welcomes any initiative to organize a specific professional workshop for your staff.
Mentoring
The Center connects professional mentors with Fintech startups and entrepreneurs and help linking entrepreneurs to some leading Fintech companies, leading industry experts or Fintech veterans and accessibility to academia experts.
MBA Programs and courses
The FinTech Center promotes and support the MBA program in FinTech at Business School. A large variety of course in Fintech will be offered in order to equip the students with the most advanced tools in financial technology, modern finance, current trends in the financial markets and leading technologies such as big data analytics and machine learning technologies.
Mission
The mission of The Gershon FinTech Center is primarily to help the FinTech industry and startup companies boost their growth.
The Gershon Fintech Center is aimed to create an ecosystem between the FinTech industry in Israel, financial institutions and the Academia. It promotes entrepreneurship, advanced technologies such as machine learning and big data analytics, strategic thinking, marketing and go to market methodologies.
The Center makes the connection between startup companies and companies that seek their technology. It also offers a mentoring program whereby founders can get mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs and advice from academia experts.
The Center encourages companies to sponsor research and algorithm development to academic experts and provide anonymous data for research purposes in the Academia. It also promotes the FinTech MBA program at the Business School.
The FinTech center is suporting an MBA course Finnovation which promotes fintech startup ideas by MBA students.
Researchers
Below you can find the business school faculty and researchers, PHD students and other experts from all disciplines in the Hebrew University.
The Business School: Faculty and Research
The Business School: Research Students
Research experts from the Hebrew University
Contact us if you are a fintech company (financial or technology) or a financial institution that is interested in research cooperation.
The Center
The Gershon FinTech Center of the Hebrew University was founded by Prof. David (Dudi) Gershon in 2018 and is named after his parents Sima and Shlomo Gershon. Prof. Gershon is a 25 year veteran of the FinTech industry. He started his career on Wall Street, managed the currency options business for Barclays in the City of London and in 1999 while living in London started SuperDerivatives, one of the most influential FinTech companies in the financial derivatives sector and the first company ever that provided financial technology and information over the internet. SuperDerivatives became one of the leading global data vendors and was acquired by InterContinental Exchange in 2014. After Selling the company Prof. Gershon engaged in his new mission to assist FinTech companies in growing their business and the FinTech industry to reach a larger scale.
The Gershon Fintech Center, situated in the academia, is aimed to create an ecosystem for the FinTech industry in Israel, including FinTech startups, entrepreneurs, financial institutions and investors.
As a not for profit organization The Gershon Fintech Center promotes entrepreneurship, advanced technologies such as machine learning and big data technology and analytics, strategic thinking, marketing and go to market methodologies.
The center aims to make the connection between startup companies and companies that seek their technology. It also offers a mentorship plan to make the connection between entrepreneurs and industry experienced mentors.
The Team
Prof. David Gershon
Prof. David Gershon is the founder of the new Gershon Fintech Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prof. Gershon is a 25 year expert in the FinTech industry and is viewed by many as one of the leading experts in FinTech in Israel. In 1999 while living in London he founded SuperDerivatives which became one of the global leading vendors in derivatives and financial data. Gershon was CEO and Chairman of SuperDerivatives until its acquisition by the Intercontinental Exchange in 2014.
Prior to SuperDerivatives Gershon had a rich career as a trader on Wall Street and in the City of London and his last role was Global Head of Exotic Options at Barclays Capital in their London headquarter.
Prof. Gershon has been awarded numerous awards such as CEO of the Year by Acquisition International in 2016 and ranked among the Top 50 most influential people in Financial Technology by the Institutional Investor magazine from 2004 to 2015 consecutively. In 2016 he was declared one of the “Game Changers” in the financial industry by Finance Monthly magazine, stating that “Gershon is the person that brought transparency into the options and transformed the options market”. In 2012 he was included to the Market Data Hall of Fame by Incisive Data magazine.
Prof. Gershon is among the world experts in option models and pricing. In 2016 he published a universal model for option pricing which reflects option pricing in all asset classes (currencies, interest rates, commodities and equities) remarkably.
Mrs. Ofira Eliav
Ofira Eliav is the managing director of the Gershon FinTech Center. Ofira was previously the Deputy to the Commissioner of Insurance in the Ministry of Finance of the State of Israel. Following her civil servant career, she was responsible for the Construction Workers Pension Fund recovery plan, while advising the government regarding the national pension reform.
Ofira has an extensive experience in regulation, insurance and financial services both in Israel and the United States. She opened her own consulting firm that focused on regulation reforms.
She consulted banks, insurance companies, technology startups and the Government of Israel.
Throughout her career Ofira mentored entrepreneurs as a business coach helping them with their business model, pricing and budgeting.
In her last role prior to joining the Gershon Fintech Center Ofira was a regulatory expert at KPMG assisting Fintech companies with regulatory and business consulting.