Management

Andrew Viterbi, co-founder and former vice chairman of QUALCOMM, is one of the world's leading experts in digital wireless communications systems. Widely recognized for his contributions to QUALCOMM's core technologies, Dr. Viterbi has been involved in developing CDMA for wireless communications and evangelizing the technology worldwide. His earlier inventions are used in the vast majority of digital wireless phones, data terminals and digital satellite broadcast receivers, as well as in such diverse applications as magnetic recording, speech recognition and DNA sequence analysis. Dr. Viterbi served as QUALCOMM's chief technical officer from July 1985 through July 1996. Prior to co-founding QUALCOMM, Dr. Viterbi co-founded LINKABIT Corporation in 1968, where he served as executive vice president and later as president. A member of both the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, Dr. Viterbi has received numerous awards including induction into the RCR Wireless Hall of Fame. From 1963 to 1973, Dr. Viterbi served as a Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Viterbi received his bachelor's of science and master's of science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1957, and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 1962

Ray Stata was a cofounder of Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) in 1965 and served as CEO and Chairman until 1996 and now serves as Chairman of the Board. Upon his retirement as CEO of Analog Devices, Mr. Stata became active in funding and directing new start-up ventures in America, Israel, and India through Stata Venture Partners.

Mr. Stata is active in the high technology industry and in public service. He was a founder and first President of the Massachusetts High Technology Council and also a founder of the Center for Quality of Management in 1989.

Mr. Stata holds a BSEE and MSEE from MIT, is Chairman of the Visiting Committee of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and is a member of MIT’s Executive Committee. In 1984 he was elected a member of the MIT Corporation and now serves as a life member.

Dr. Joseph Perl is an internationally recognized expert in the field of digital wireless communications. Dr. Perl was President and CEO of DSP Communications (DSPC) until shortly before its acquisition by Intel Corporation in 1999 for approximately $1.6 billion. Dr. Perl had been with DSPC since 1990, serving in various management positions including General Manager of its Israeli subsidiary. Prior to DSPC, Dr. Perl's career combined academic appointments and managerial positions. He previously served as Adjunct Professor at Tel Aviv University, Florida State University and the University of Nebraska, and held management positions at Tadiran Electronics and Elbit Computers, both leading Israeli high-tech companies. Dr. Perl received his B.Sc. degree from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Colorado State University, all in Electronic Engineering. Throughout his career, Dr. Perl worked for high-tech companies in the areas of wireless communications, digital signal processing and semiconductors. Dr. Perl serves as a Board Member and Advisory Board Member of several technology companies.

Shabtai Adlersberg co-founded AudioCodes in 1993, where he serves as Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer. In 1987, Mr. Adlersberg co-founded DSP Group, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company and later established a digital cellular communications company, DSP Communications, Inc., which was spun-off in 1992. Mr. Adlersberg holds a M.Sc. degree in Electronics and Computer Engineering from Tel Aviv University.

Mr. Eli Harry, Chairman

Eli has over 25 years of experience in the telecommunication and semiconductor industries. Prior to joining Provigent Eli was President and CEO of LanOptics. He led the company since its inception, and turned it to a highly profitable multi-million dollar business. Eli has taken the company to an IPO in NASDAQ raising over $27M in less than 3 years from company inception. Has consummated strategic relationships with vendors such as Cisco Systems and IBM. Under his management, LanOptics opened subsidiaries in the US and UK, and branch offices in various European countries. Prior to LanOptics Eli was Vice President International Sales in Adacom Technologies, a manufacturer of data communication systems products for the IBM 3270 environment. Prior to Adacom Technologies, Eli held several positions in Reiter Software Systems, ultimately becoming General Manager of this communications projects company. Eli holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science degree from The Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology.

Mr. Dan Charash, CEO

Dan has over 10 years of experience in digital signal processing in telecommunications and other fields. Prior to co-founding Provigent, Dan led an interdisciplinary group with expertise in DSP, software, analog electronics and statistics at Carmel Biosensors. Previously Dan served eight years in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as part of the prestigious Talpiot program. His work in elite IDF and Ministry of Defense R&D units focused on digital signal processing algorithms, primarily for telecommunications applications. Dan holds an M.Sc. in the field of Digital Signal Processing from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Technion and a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Mr. Victor Koretsky, COO, Senior Vice President World Wide Sales & Business Development

Victor has more than 25 years of experience in the semiconductors industry in different aspects: sales, marketing, business development, R&D – including chip design and system engineering. In his last position, before joining to Provigent, Victor has served as the Corporate VP Sales and Marketing of DSPG (NASDAQ: DSPG), was responsible for annual sales of more than $ 250M of semiconductor devices to telecommunication vendors. Prior to this position Victor has served in different positions in the DSPG, and in one of its subsidiaries, including in R&D positions, such as system engineering. Prior to DSPG Victor has served as senior system engineer in GAT Systems Ltd, and prior to that he has served as research engineer in the Academy of Sciences of USSR in Moscow. Victor holds MSEE degree from the Moscow Academy of Communication in Moscow, Russia, and MBA degree from Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK.

Mr. Ran Soffer, Vice President Marketing and Product Management

Prior to joining Provigent in 2004 as Vice President of Marketing, Ran accumulated over 10 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He is deeply involved in the development and penetration of Provigent’s microwave solutions to transition wireless backhaul from legacy TDM to Ethernet traffic for increased capacity and improved system gain. Ran served on the standardization body that introduced and adopted Adaptive Code and Modulation (ACM) to the new ETSI standard. Prior to joining Provigent, Ran served as Director of Product Management for Metalink, a developer of DSL ASIC solutions, where he managed the xDSL product line. Ran led Metalink’s efforts to standardize Ethernet over VDSL by the IEEE Standards Association. Prior to Metalink, Ran was a Product Marketing Manager at Redux Communications, a developer and manufacturer of devices to provide next-generation voice and data services over Ethernet networks. Previous to that, Ran held positions as an Engineer and Product Manager with several leading telecommunications companies, such as ECI Telecom and Motorola. Ran holds an MBA, M.Sc. EE and B.Sc. EE (cum laude) from the Technion.

Andrew has more than a decade of experience in the communications semiconductor industry. Before joining Provigent, Andrew was in charge of sales in western US for NetLogic Microsystems, a supplier of leading edge ternary content addressable memories (TCAM) and content inspection processors. Andrew was instrumental in improving sales to enable an IPO in 2004 and subsequent revenue growth that made NetLogic the best performing semiconductor stock of 2005. Prior to NetLogic, Andrew was successful in multiple field sales roles at IDT. Andrew served nine years of active duty in the US Navy and achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Andrew holds a B.Sc. M.E. with distinction from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. Jonathan Friedmann, Vice President, Research and Development

Dr. Jonathan Friedman VP of R&D advanced from System Group Manger position through AVP System Engineering to VPDr. Friedmann has over 10 years of experience in the statstical signal processing field. Prior to joining Provigent, Dr. Friedmann was the SHDSL Project Manager in Metalink (NASDAQ: MTLK), a developer of DSL ASIC solutions. In this position, he lead the development of the SHDSL ASIC modem from the design stage to Tape Out. Prior to that, he was an Algorithm Team Leader in Metalink. Prior to Metalink, Dr. Friedmann worked as an Algorithm Engineer in Tadiran. Dr. Friedmann holds PhD and M.Sc. EE (Magna Cum Laude), and B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering (Magna Cum Laude) from Tel Aviv University. He published several papers on signal processing.

Mr. Guy Nathanzon, CFO

Guy has 10 years of experience in the financial aspect of high-tech companies. Before joining Provigent, Guy was the controller of Action Base, a developer of software platforms for business activity intended to better manage organizational boundaries. Previously Guy was employed at the Israeli branch of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of leading CPA offices in the world, where he was senior auditor of a wide range of customers, including NASDAQ registered companies, in the fields of high tech, venture capital and investment banking, retail business and others. Guy holds a Master’s in Business Administration, BA in accounting (with honors) and LLB degrees from Tel Aviv University.

Miki Brikenstein has 27 years of most advance experience in Microelectronics technologies and broad experience in ramping devices into production. This includes VLSI testing, Characterization, Qualification, Failure Analysis, Cost Reduction and Production Management. Prior to joining Provigent, Miki worked at Texas Instruments as a member of TI-Israel Staff management for ten years, and took part in TI-Israel strategic company decisions. As a VP of operation, his was responsible for all post Tape-Out VLSI Engineering and Manufacturing activities, including production of more than 50M devices. Miki worked at ITH (Israeli Test House) for five years as a VP. He managed the Reliability and the Failure Analysis departments and ITH’s QC. For 3 years, Miki was the technical leader of Elbit’s Flat Panel Display activity at Stuttgart University, Germany and the design leader of the ELBIT LCD Fab in Israel. For 9 years, at Rafael, Ministry Of Defense, Miki was the technical leader of the microwave GaAs process, power FET(1W,X-band) and MMIC process development projects.
Miki wrote numerous papers published in technical magazines and holds two patents on LCD manufacturing process technology. Miki holds B.SC, 1982, Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) Department of Electrical Engineering specializing in Microelectronics, Electronic circuitry and Computers. He has advanced studies in Strathclde Graduate Business School, Glasgow, Scotland (Burn-In and accelerated life testing seminar, 1995) and at the Stuttgart University, Germany AMLCD (Flat Panel design and technology, 1993-1994)