20MinuteLeaders

Eli is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in establishing startups, companies, and community social activities. He is the co-director of Green, an innovative community center in the Hefer Valley for both entrepreneurs and youth. Additionally, he is the Chairman of the board of directors of Ruppin College of Technology as well as two startups (Scentcom and Crumbiz). Eli is passionate about STEM education and providing inspiring opportunities for youth, and is one of the most respected mentors in FIRST Robotics Israel.

Lexi is considered one of Silicon Valley’s candid and most prominent voices. Her thought-provoking advice and opinions on how to create a more equitable work environment stem from her own experiences working in companies such as Airbnb, Facebook, and most recently Twitter. In 2017, she founded Sista Circle: Black Women in Tech, a community that supports Black women in tech companies and related professions. This 7200+ international community has partnered with organizations such as Instagram, Youtube, Linkedin, and Slack. Lexi’s main mission is to inspire people to create their desired life journey by understanding their purpose and life goals. 

Maya's passion for technology started during her army service in 8200. After completing her engineering degree at Tel Aviv University, she joined Google and managed a $100M eCommerce client portfolio targeting the US market. Today Maya is pursuing her MBA at Stanford and is a student investor at the Impact Fund. During the past 6 months, she worked as a Product Manager at Brex and co-led the Women of Startup Nation Accelerator designed for Israeli women entrepreneurs.

Jill Wesley helps world-class leaders stand out in their industry as the “go-to speakers” for virtual and in-person global events. Her mission is to help people find common ground and work together to find solutions to the world’s biggest challenges. Jill has worked as an executive coach, professional speaker and event producer for over 25 years and has led professional development programs in communication and leadership to over 85,000 leaders and their high-performing employees at some of the world’s top organizations (Panasonic, LinkedIn, NFL Players Association, Salesforce, Stanford Law School, Google, Twitter, Square, Art.com, Lyft). She’s also Head of Speaker Coaching for TEDxSanFrancisco, one of the top TEDx events in the world.

Ayal is the CEO of Anjuna and has been building enterprise security products for over 20 years. He was previously VP of product management at SafeBreach–a Sequoia-backed enterprise security startup–and led the Umbrella product management team at OpenDNS (acquired by Cisco for $635M). Ayal held senior PM positions at Lookout and Imperva and was a part of Imperva’s IPO in 2011. He holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and a B.Sc in EE and CS from Tel Aviv University.

Nikos is the COO of MarineTraffic, a startup aimed at transforming shipping tech. Previously he founded SpaceNation and 1derground. He is a proud StartUp Grind Ambassador with a passion for politics (working with the Greens). A former journalist, Niko transitioned to a leadership role at a multinational pharmaceutical company before joining the startup community. He was Head of Sales & Innovation for Brand Collective in Australia and New Zealand. Find him somewhere between US + Europe + Australia, speaking at conferences and events.

Kiran Chin is the Founder and CEO of MKA Insights, a management consulting firm that works with companies in the life science, medical device, cell/gene therapy, clinical diagnostics and healthcare market sectors.  Prior to starting MKA Insights, Kiran worked in various roles at large life science companies in M&A, organizational strategy, marketing strategies, business development and commercial market penetration strategies. She is driven by intellectual curiosity and problem solving. She has an MBA, a Masters in Finance and a Bachelors in Economics.

Russell Rothstein is the founder and CEO of IT Central Station, the leading review site for B2B enterprise technology products. The Wall Street Journal has called it the “Yelp for IT”. Russell began his career at Oracle and subsequently worked at startups in the US and Israel that have been acquired by SAP, CA Technologies, and Dell EMC. Russell holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard, MIT, and MIT Sloan.

Denise is the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Lab where she works with executives and entrepreneurs to build their visibility and credibility. She co-founded Springboard Enterprises, the prestigious women’s start-up launch pad that has led to over $9B in funding for women entrepreneurs. She was recently a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business (where she received her MBA) and is the author of Ready to Be a Thought Leader? In 2012 the White House honored her as a Champion of Change.

Steve joined Gilead Sciences, Inc. in 1989 when it was a 30 person antisense company, working over the years on projects which led to Tamiflu, Viread and other breakthrough therapies. Fast forward ~30 years, he earned an MBA and J.D. degrees and is now an Attorney and “Emotional Support Angel” in Silicon Valley. He advises and invests in diverse startups, and specializes in coaching early stage in IP and pitching while investing strategically.