"Marketing starts when you identify your target audience, and relevant communities."

Prof. David Gershon

Prof. Gershon is a 25-year veteran of the FinTech industry who founded SuperDerivatives, one of the most influential FinTech companies in the financial derivatives sector. After Selling his company in 2014 Prof. Gershon joined the Hebrew University and engaged in his new mission to assist FinTech companies in growing their business and the FinTech industry in Israel to reach a larger scale. For this purpose, he established the Gershon FinTech center at the Hebrew University.

Prior to SuperDerivetives Gershon worked as an option trader on Wall Street and in the City of London and his last role was global head of options for Barclays capital.

"The challenge in marketing is to find the real motivation of your potential client, does he have an opportunity to use the product you want to sell him."

Reuven Ben Menachem

Reuven Ben Menachem founded Fundtech in 1991, a leading global provider of software to the financial services sector and was the CEO until 2011. He led Fundtech to a very successful IPO in 1998 and raised $100 million in a secondary offering in 1999. Fundtech was sold in 2011 to GTCR -a Chicago-based private equity firm.

Prior to Fundtech Ben Menachem was a Technical Director and Product Manager at Logic Data Architects and a Director of Banking Systems at Manof Communications Systems.

Mr. Ben Menachem studied for a B.A. in Business at Haifa University.

"Fintech companies who touch the money tend to grow bigger than those who only service those who touch the money. Leadership within a niche have a huge premium."

Yuval Tal

Yuval Tal is the founder, President and board member of Payoneer, one of the most successful B2B cross-border payment platforms. Before founding Payoneer in 2005, Tal co-founded Borderfree (NASDAQ: BRDR), and was its CEO from 1999-2005. Borderfree is a provider of services that expedite cross-border ecommerce and payments for many large online and offline retailers.  Tal previously served as vice president of business development for RADWARE (NASDAQ: RDWR). He is a member of YPO and an angel investor in number of start-ups in the payment space, including ZooZ and TravelersBox.

Tal is a member of Harvard Business School plan for managers. Tal holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and a M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering, with minor in business administration, from Tel Aviv University

“Fintech Startups should offer the traditional financial industry only amazing, special, innovative and different product with real value to them. It’s not about a cheaper solution to an existing financial product.”

Haim Pinto

Haim joined Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest bank, in 2016 after spending 12 years in New York working in the financial services industry. He is currently the CTO of the bank , leading a highly skilled team of technology evangelists focused on disruptive technologies. In his role Haim is also responsible of leading the banks interface with Fintech oriented startups and technology firms while developing new business modules and exploring future revenue streams. Haim's group is forming strategic partnerships with relevant institutions such as financial firms, investment firms, higher education establishments and large scale domestic and international companies. As CTO , Haim is has a key role in shaping and leading the creation of the future banking experience in Israel and defining the banks future state.

Haim has over 25 years of experience in technical in support of designing, architecting and the delivery of solutions to address business needs and is a renowned player in the start-up space. 
Prior to joining Bank Hapoalim, Haim worked for Morgan Stanley in New York where he served as the global head of Client Experience. Haim was responsible for leading the firm’s strategy and vision for client experience, Unified Communication and Collaboration (UCC), Mobility, BYOD, Social enablement, customer digital engagement and disruptive innovation in client related technologies. 
Prior to Morgan Stanley, Haim held senior technology roles with Cisco systems and Avaya, including heading solution architecture for Avaya Israel.  

“Become independent in your core business. Maintain diverse distribution channels and partners. Invest in scale and adequate infrastructure.”

Nir Klar 

Nir Klar co-founded of BlueVine Capital in 2013, a leading lending platform for small businesses that operates in the USA and has already funded more than $700 million in working capital through its pioneering online platform. A technology innovation leader with 20 years of experience, Nir has expertise in building large scale, web and mobile platforms and products. Prior to co-founding BlueVine, Nir was CTO for Planet SOHO and Founder CTO of Media Layers. Nir received his BSc. in Computer Science from the Israel Institute of Technology and his MBA from Tel-Aviv university. 

“Don’t’ be afraid to make dramatic changes in your product due to changes in the market. Embrace change but keep your big vision to reach the long-term success.”

Ronen Assia

Ronen Asia founded eToro – a world leading social trading and investment platform - together with Yoni Assia in 2007. The award-winning platform connects a community of 9 million users with expertise in investing in traditional asset classes like stocks, commodities, currencies and indices through to cryptocurrencies.

For more than 20 years, Ronen has been merging technology and design to create products that perform across multiple platforms. Prior to co-founding eToro, Ronen designed medical devices, household appliances, and desktop and web applications. Ronen oversees products and engineering at eToro. He holds a BA in Industrial Design from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, and an MA in Product Design from the Royal College of Art in London.

“Our story is not only our service. It has a social goal that has made it easier to share via social networks. We have made educational content that could go viral.”

Yael Wissner-Levy

Yael Wissner-Levy is the Head of Content and Communications for Lemonade, a fast growing full-stack insurance company powered by artificial intelligence and behavioral economics, and driven by social good. Lemonade, backed by SoftBank, Sequoia, and others, offers renters and homeowners insurance in the US and aims to set foot globally in 2018. Previously, Yael was a speechwriter and communications consultant for political and business leaders, having written for heads of state, CEOs of multibillion dollar corporations, and non-governmental organizations. She holds a MSc from the London School of Economics.

“Startup companies need to find their audience and tell them their story. There are three important components: Building trust, Simplicity and do it in a “sexy” way. Focus on people and solving their problems rather than about technology.”  

Nir Orren

Nir Orren is the Head of Business Sector at Facebook Israel. He joined Facebook Israel in 2015 to lead Facebook’s professional business sector and oversee a few of the fastest growing industries in Israel, including FinTech, Marketplaces and Aggregators. Nir has more than 15 years of experience with Digital Marketing, Media and Innovation. Prior to Facebook, Nir was VP Growth at eToro, the very successful Social Trading Network, and before that he held various senior marketing roles in leading digital native businesses such as Shaker, Metacafe, and 888.