Meet the Team

Management

• Yael Karov - Founder & Chief Executive Officer

  Yael Karov has an outstanding professional and academic record of almost 20 years in the field of natural language processing and machine learning, as well as a successful track record in the commercial launch of innovative products to the market. Prior to founding Ginger Software, Yael joined Rosetta Genomics [NASDAQ:ROSG] at its early stages, serving as Chief Technology Officer & Vice President Research and Development. She led the R&D team to achieve revolutionary scientific results in the domain of genetics, based on a breakthrough machine-learning model, and spearheaded a successful IPO. Prior to Rosetta Genomics, Ms. Karov was the founder and Chief Technology Officer of Agentics, a company specializing in free-text classification of e-commerce product information based on natural language processing.

  When Agentics was acquired by Mercado Software, Ms. Karov subsequently led the sale of Agentics technology to Microsoft's MSN division. Before founding Agentics, Ms. Karov served as a Director of Research and Development at Click Software [NASDAQ:CKSW], where she founded and led the R&D team of Nester Technologies in the development of a product based on a solution to a combinatorial optimization research problem. She is the inventor and co-author of over 20 patents, and the author of numerous publications in leading computer science journals. Ms. Karov holds a M.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Weizmann Institute of Science. In her free time, Yael enjoys writing fiction and reading poetry.

• Avner Zangvil - Co-Founder and Senior Vice President, Technology

  Avner Zangvil is a software developer, architect, product strategist, and inventor with 15 years of industry experience. Prior to co-founding Ginger Software, Avner served as a consultant and lecturer for major software companies such as Kodak, Amdocs and Comverse. Avner conceived and founded Menta Software in 1996 to develop a revolutionary product that instantly transforms any Windows-based application into a Web-enabled application usable from any remote computer running a Web browser. Menta was acquired by GraphOn Corporation in 2001 (NASDAQ:GOJO). Menta's source code was inclusively licensed to Jacada Ltd. in 2002 (NASDAQ:JCDA). Avner holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In his free time, Avner loves to sing and write music.

• Amit Gilon - Senior Vice President, Business Development

  Amit Gilon has vast experience in the high-tech/Internet industry, specifically in the on-line–education sector. In his last position before becoming a part of Ginger Software, he headed the marketing department of BrainPOP, the leading producer of animated educational movies. The BrainPOP brand family consists of several products, including BrainPOP.com, BrainPOP Jr., and BrainPOP Espanol. His experience spans across both the institutional and consumer markets, and during his tenure at BrainPOP, the company grew its customer base to 10 million people worldwide. Prior to BrainPOP, Amit served in various marketing functions at Hotbar.com (later acquired by 180Solutions). He also worked as a public-relations consultant at Doran Communications/BBDO, a leading marketing and communications agency. Amit holds a B.A. in Communications and Management from the College of Management in Tel Aviv, and an M.A. in Corporate Communications from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. In his free time Amit enjoys music, movies, and spending time with his family.

• Ziv Isaiah - Chief Architect

  Ziv Isaiah is a software architect, product strategist and entrepreneur with 15 years of industry experience in high-tech companies as ECI Telecom (ECIL), Check Point (CHKP), Cellglide and Imagine Communications. Prior to joining Ginger Ziv served as a technology and strategy consultant for several startups and major software companies in the spaces of communication, digital video and solar energy.
  Prior to that Ziv founded Spritecom, an advanced TV advertising platform and BOXEE, an award-winning social media center.
  Ziv holds degrees in Electrical Engineering (B.Sc) and Physics (B.Sc) from Tel-Aviv University as part of an interdisciplinary excellency program.
  In his free time, Ziv loves to cook, bake and spend time with his family and friends.

• Alex Ben-Ari - Vice President, R&D

  Alex Ben-Ari has 13 years of experience in software engineering, architecture and management of software development processes. In his previous position, Alex managed the software development unit in Rosetta Genomics, where he led a large scale effort of developing and executing distributed machine learning algorithms on very large amounts of genomic data. Alex has a special passion and expertise in agile software development practices and processes and has successfully introduced and cultivated them in multiple development environments over the years.

• Guy Shalom - Vice President, Applications Development

  Guy Shalom brings over 15 years of experience working within the software sector, performing architecture, design, development and management roles.
  Prior to Joining Ginger Software, Guy co-founded Sophistica Software. Sophistica provided software consulting services to startups as well as developed a cloud based website performance testing product.
  Before founding Sophistica, Guy served as Vice President Research and Development at Shunra Software, a market leader of network emulation and remote applications performance prediction and analysis. He led the company’s development activities in its entirety, which spanned a wide range of technologies including web based and desktop applications, network drivers and appliances. Prior to Shunra, Guy spent several years working with software startups including Personetiscs, and MINT, MINT was acquired by Sungard during his tenure there. Guy graduated Cum Laude from Ben Gurion University with a BS in Computer Science and Math; he earned his MBA from The College of Management again graduating Cum Laude. In his free time, Guy enjoys playing the guitar, singing and spending time with his family.

• Miki (Michal) Feldman-Simon - Vice President, U.S. Operations

  Miki brings varied experience in entrepreneurship, education, and organization management to Ginger Software. She started her career working with underprivileged teenagers and their families and helping them prepare for military service in Israel. Miki went on to coordinate a student assistance program (Big Brother) that partnered underprivileged kids with volunteer university students. Following this, Miki served as National Sales Manager for an educational startup company, Geometrix, which created and marketed an innovative visual-thinking program for elementary school children. She managed operations throughout Israel and grew sales from 4 to 140 groups.

  She went on to establish a human-resources consulting company providing services for several successful Israeli startups including Agentics (later acquired by Mercado) and Demantra (later acquired by Oracle) and introduced Employee Assistance Programs services to the Israeli market through an alliance with an established Australian EAP provider. Miki moved to Boston in 1998. She went on to head the Human Resources department of Phonetic Systems, which was later acquired by Nuance Inc. Miki has a B.A. in Psychology and Educational Counseling and an M.Sc. in Organizational Behavior (graduated Magna Cum Laude) from the Tel Aviv University. Miki’s passion is education and innovative educational programs.