Our Team

Jon Polin

Over a 20+ year career across Fortune 500 companies and running his own organizations, repeat entrepreneur Jon Polin has brought numerous consumable and technology products to market in both the United States and Israel. He’s raised tens of millions of dollars in venture capital and private equity funding, established a range of corporate partnerships, and led and scaled product development, marketing, operations and finance teams. Jon has a BA in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a MS in Management from a joint program of Ben Gurion University/Boston University.

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Strategic Advisors

patricia Lahy-Engel

Patricia Lahy-Engel is Senior Director, Social R&D at the Israel Innovation Authority. Her division harnesses the Israeli hi-tech industry to find solutions for a variety of substantial problems the public sector in Israel and raises awareness of the special needs of the disabled population in areas such as health, security, and food, which require technological solutions.  Prior to her work at the Innovation Authority, Patricia ran numerous hi-tech accelerators and spent 14 years at The Walt Disney Company, the last four as General Manager, Israel.

alan t brown

Alan T. Brown is Director of Public Impact at the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Alan was injured in 1988, when his neck was crushed by an ocean wave in Martinique. The accident caused a C5-6 spinal cord injury and left Alan quadriplegic, with no movement below his chest. Since the accident, Alan and his family have, through the Alan T Brown Foundation to Cure Paralysis, provided support, education, and advocacy for the paralysis community. In addition to his foundation work, Alan has enjoyed a successful career in public relations and marketing and launched sports radio station 790 The Ticket and his own public relations firm. Alan has achieved many personal goals, including completing three New York City Marathons, skydiving, and scuba diving, but his proudest accomplishment is becoming a father to his two young sons, Max and Sam.

Shai Melcer

Dr. Shai Melcer is CEO of BIOHOUSE, which redefines the medical innovation ecosystem by offering biomed companies R&D space in medical centers, innovation services and strategic connections to industry and investors. With a career spanning roles at BioJerusalem (JDA) and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Shai is a central figure in the Jerusalem biomedical ecosystem. Shai has LL.B and LL.M degrees in Law, and a Ph.D in Genetics, all from The Hebrew University.

Assistive Tech Entrepreneur Committee

danny weissberg

Danny Weissberg is Co-Founder and CEO at VoiceItt, which is developing the world's first speech recognition technology designed to understand non-standard speech. Danny has over 15 years of extensive experience in the hI-tech industry in entrepreneurship, business development, management, innovation, research and development in cutting-edge technologies of complex software solutions. He has a B. Sc in Civil Engineering from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and a B. Sc in computer science from the Open University.

yonatan wexler

Yonatan Wexler is Executive VP of R&D at OrCam, which makes portable, artificial vision devices that allow visually impaired people to understand text and identify objects through audio feedback. Yonatan has done academic work with Professor Rama Chellappa in the CfAR Lab at the University of Maryland and with Amnon Shashua from Hebrew University and completed post doc fellowships at Oxford and the Weizmann Institute of Science. Prior to Orcam, Yonatan spent 4 years as a Research Scientist at Microsoft. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from The Hebrew University and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Maryland.

idan meir

Idan Meir is Cofounder and CEO at Right-Hear, an advanced accessibility solution that allows people who are blind or visually impaired to acquire better orientation in public spaces. Idan is a repeat founder with a M.A. in Psychology and Management from The Open University.