Universal-Ad - Directors

Yosi Ben-Dov, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board

As the company`s CEO, Dr. Ben-Dov provides the leadership and vision for Universal Ad with his wide ranging knowledge of international high tech management.

Prior to joining Universal Ad, Yosi was the CEO of Schema, a global provider of industry-leading network optimization software solutions for telecom operators. During his nine-year tenure at Schema he grew the company from a small start-up into a stable, profitable company with a broad client base and a competitive product offering. Previously, Yosi was previously a VP at Amdocs and the Managing Director of the Financial Strategies Group at Prudential Securities. 
He was also a co-founder and vice president for a start-up company, Carmel Biosensors, which developed a blood glucose sensor for diabetic patients.

Yosi has a B.Sc. in mathematics, economics and statistics from the Hebrew University and a Ph.D. in operations research from the University of California, Berkeley. Yosi lectured Operations Research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the Wharton school of Business, and serves as a director on the boards of Carmel Acoustics Ltd. and the Haifa Center for Entrepreneurship.

Aviel Amit, Founder, CEO & CTO

As the company`s founder and CTO, Mr. Amit conceived the visionary technology on which Universal Ad`s products are based on and now directs the overall activities of the company.

Aviel has more than 20 years of extensive managerial experience in the area of computerized publishing and media solutions, working with the largest advertisers and retailers in Israel in a variety of software development and professional services roles. Prior to founding Universal Ad and developing its flagship product, he founded and served as CEO of two companies - Aviel-Amith Ltd. which focused on software development for large organizations and SoftGraph Ltd. which offered professional computerized graphical publishing services.

Aviel holds M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees with Honors in Computer Science from Ben-Gurion University where he focused his studies and thesis on computer graphics and image processing. Aviel also registered three US patents.

Elisheva Yakobovich , Board Member

As a member of Universal Ad's Board of Directors, Ms. Yakobovich is in charge of helping the company determine its path to market leadership and financial success.

Elisheva is an investment professional with over 15 years of experience in heading various public and private investment activities. She has in-depth familiarity with foreign and domestic capital and money markets and with private equity investments, as well as technology skills and software industry know-how. Prior to joining Vertex, Elisheva worked for 12 years at Bank HaPoalim Ltd., Israel's largest bank, where she held various positions including Head of Portfolio Management Team and Director of Research and Private Equity at Gmulot, a multi-billion dollar provident fund management company and the largest institutional investor in Israel, owned by Bank HaPoalim.

Elisheva has M.A in Economics and Business Administration and a B.A in Economics and Mathematics. She held several tutorial positions at the School of Economics at Tel Aviv University.

Eyal Kaplan, Member of the Board

Mr. Kaplan assists Universal Ad with his years of experience dedicated to investing in and nurturing early-stage start-ups.

Eyal joined Walden Israel in October 1994 and is a General Partner with the firm, which now manages close to $200 million in early-stage investments. He focuses on investments in the wireless communications and information technology sectors. Prior to that, Eyal served for four years as an early employee and a Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development with Geotek Communications, Inc., an American start-up company that developed leading edge wireless technology based on Israeli technology and was later traded on NASDAQ.

Eyal holds an MBA from the Wharton School, as well as an MA in international studies from the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a B.Sc. in Economics from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. Eyal has lectured classes on entrepreneurship for MBA students at the Technion.

Robert F. Hussey, Advisory Board Member

Mr. Hussey has served as a consultant to Universal Ad since 2004 helping assess both chain retail needs and advertiser market demand in the US.

Bob is currently Chairman of HiEnergy, Inc. He started his career at American Home Products / Wyeth Pharma and worked at Grey Advertising as SVP Management Supervisor. In 1985, Bob founded POP Radio Corp., which became the largest in-store radio network broadcasting in over 15,000 chain food, drug & mass merchandise stores in the US. Bob took POP Radio public, completing an NASDAQ IPO in 1986. The company was acquired by Heritage Media in 1991. Since that time, Bob has founded several private and public companies,while also working as a private investor in the new-media/retail sectors. Today, he serves on the Board of Directors of three public companies.

Bob graduated from Georgetown University and received an MBA in International Finance from George Washington Univ. He is a member of Georgetown University Board of Regents.

Leonard M. Lodish, Advisory Board Member

Leonard M. Lodish is the Samuel R. Harrell Professor in the Marketing Department of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His primary research and consulting areas are in entrepreneurial marketing, strategic and tactical marketing resource planning, marketing decision support systems, and applications in firm/marketing strategy, sales force, advertising, and promotion planning. He has published over 50 articles, is active as an editor in leading Marketing and Management Science Journals, and is the author of The Advertising and Promotion Challenge: Vaguely Right or Precisely Wrong, published by Oxford University Press.

Professor Lodish has been at Wharton since 1968 and was department chair from 1984-1988 and 1991-1992. He co-founded and is leader of the Wharton Global Consulting Practicum and its subsidiary partnerships overseas. In 1995, he initiated, developed, and currently teaches Wharton’s Entrepreneurial Marketing MBA Course and wrote Entrepreneurial Marketing: Lessons from Wharton’s Pioneering MBA Course, with Howard L. Morgan, and Amy Kallianpur, published in 2001 by John Wiley. He has also been a visiting Professor at the Harvard Business School, as well as the Vice Dean for Wharton West, Wharton’s San Francisco campus since 2001.

As a part time entrepreneur, Professor Lodish co-founded Management Decision Systems, Inc. (MDS) in 1967. In 1985 MDS`s, 300 employees, merged with Information Resources, Inc. to become a premier international decision support and marketing data supplier. He also was co-owner and co-founder of Shadow Broadcast Services in 1991 (sold to Westwood One, Inc. in 1998). He is a Corporate Director of public companies including Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc., and J&J Snack Foods, Inc; a director or advisory board member of private companies including Mobility Technologies, Information Resources, Planalytics, and Compete, Inc.; and an advisor to the Jerusalem Global Venture Funds. Professor Lodish has consulted with many major firms world wide, including Procter and Gamble, Anheuser Busch, Syntex Laboratories, Merck and Company, McNeil Consumer Products Company, the Campbells Soup Company, the Interep Company, Merrill Lynch, the Coca-Cola Company, the Indymac Bank, and Walsh/PMSI.

Professor Lodish received a Ph.D. (Marketing and Operations Research) from MIT`s Sloan School of Management in 1968 and an A.B. (Mathematics) from Kenyon College in 1965.