About us

Edward J. Ludwig

Chairman of the Board

Mr. Ludwig is lead independent director for the board of directors at Boston Scientific, director of CVS, and chair of the CVS board finance committee.

He formerly served as chairman of the board, president, and CEO of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company); as director and lead independent director of the Aetna insurance company; as chair of the Finance, Innovation & Technology Committee at Xylem, Inc.; and as chairman of the board at AdvaMed. He also served as a senior auditor with Coopers and Lybrand (now PwC), and as a financial and strategic analyst at Kidde, Inc.

Mr. Ludwig is a founding board member of The Center for Higher Ambition Leadership (CHL), and a past chair of the Health Advisory Board for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was a member of the board of trustees at the College of the Holy Cross and of the Columbia Business School board of overseers, and a trustee of the Hackensack University Medical Center Network Board of Trustees.

Mr. Ludwig graduated from The College of the Holy Cross with a BA in economics and accounting, and received his MBA in finance from Columbia University.

Ami Erel

Director

Mr. Erel is chairman of the board of directors at Cellcom, and a director at Elron, where he previously served as president and chairman of the BOD. He serves as chairman of the board at RDC (the commercialization arm of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems), in a full partnership with Elron. In addition, he serves as a director at Knafaim Holdings, which controls various aviation companies including El-Al; and at Dan Hotels, one of the largest hotel chains in Israel.

Previously, Mr. Erel served as director and chairman of the board of directors at Adama Ltd., currently controlled by Chemchina; as director at Shufersal, Israel’s largest retailer; as president and CEO at Discount Investment Corporation; and as president and CEO of Bezeq. He has also served as chairman of the executive board of Israel’s Manufacturers Association, and as chairman of Israel’s Export & International Cooperation Institute.

Mr. Erel holds a B.Sc in electrical engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Ari Bronshtein

Director

Elron’s CEO since 2009. Extensive experience in managing technology companies, business development, and financial management. Previously VP and Head of the Economic and Business Development Division of Bezeq, Israel’s national landline operator. Holds a BA in Finance and Management and an MA in Finance and Accounting from Tel Aviv University.

Zvika Slovin

Director

Head of Elron’s medical device investments since 2008. Serial entrepreneur, physicist, and well-rounded professional. Broad experience in founding, managing, and successfully exiting Israeli start-up companies. Holds a BSc and an MSc in Physics/Atmospheric Sciences from the Hebrew University and IMT International Campus.

Yaron Elad

Director

Elron’s CFO since 2010. Extensive experience in accounting, financing and tax. Previously Controller at Elron, and manager in the auditing and technology departments at BDO, a leading Israeli audit firm. Leads Elron’s IT investments and serves as a director at companies within the Elron group. Holds a BA in Economics and Accounting and an MSc in Finance from Tel Aviv University.

Abraham Ludomirski, MD

Director

Dr. Ludomirski is the founder of the Vitalife life sciences fund. He is an internationally renowned physician with over 20 years of experience in life sciences, and expertise in medical devices, health homecare, and biomaterials. He founded the SafeKeeping company for remote monitoring of high risk pregnancies and has served as a consultant to several Israeli and American VC funds and large medtech companies, including GE Medical, ATL-Philips, Medison, Matria Healthcare, and QED Technologies.

Dr. Ludomirski has instructed and led several startups through financing, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, and successful regulatory clearances. He currently serves as director or chairman at BioControl Medical, Deep Breeze, DIR Technologies, EndoSpan, MST, Recro Pharma, and Sensible Medical Innovations. Previously, he served as chairman of Sightline Technologies (sold to Stryker) and MediGuide (sold to St. Jude).

Dr. Ludomirski earned his MD at the Sackler Tel Aviv University Medical School, specializing in OB-GYN. He completed his fellowship in maternal fetal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he became one of the founders of the fetal surgery program and established an internationally known fetal blood-sampling registry. He served as director of the maternal fetal medicine division and as a professor of OB-GYN at Temple University Medical School. Dr. Ludomirski has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and has lectured around the world.

Sholem Lapidot

Director

Mr. Lapidot serves as CEO of IDB Development and as acting CEO of Discount Investments. He is as a member of the board of directors at IDB, DIC, Shufersal, and Cellcom, chairman of the BOD at Modi’in Energy Management Ltd., substitute director at Elron Electronic Industries, committee member at the IDB Fund, and member of the BOD of additional private companies owned by DIC and IDB.

He previously served as a member of the board of Adama Agricultural Solutions, as CEO and member of the board at CLADD S.A., and as a member of the board at Australtex S.A.

Mr. Lapidot holds a degree in rabbinical studies, economic science, and Jewish philosophy from Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires.

Jonathan Gurfinkel

Director, Co-Founder, President and CEO

Mr. Gurfinkel brings to the company accumulated management and technical experience in leading high-tech companies. Mr. Gurfinkel holds a Bachelor and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheba, Israel; and an EMBA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Prof. Nathan Keller, MD, Ph.D

Prof. Keller is head of clinical microbiology and a consultant on infectious diseases at the pediatric hemato-oncology department at Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan. He heads Israel’s national center for meningococcal disease, and is a member of Israel’s advisory committee for vaccines and infectious diseases. He serves on Sheba Medical Center’s animal ethical committee, as vice chairman of the hospital’s ethical review board, and as a member of Sheba’s formulary committee. He previously served as president of the Israeli Society for Infectious Diseases.

Prof. Keller is a member of the scientific advisory board at Pfizer Israel, MSD Israel, and Astella Israel. He is a scientific advisor to several Israeli biomed startups, including Pocared, Contipi, Elphitech, Eos, and other companies involved in developing microbiological diagnostics. Additionally, he is chairman of the advisory board at Anjon, USA, and a member of the advisory board at Safeguard Biosystems, USA

Having published over 147 manuscripts in peer-reviewed scientific journals, Prof. Keller’s main interests are diagnosis of infectious diseases, epidemiology of infectious diseases, epidemiology of antibiotic resistance, meningococcal disease, and fungal infections within pediatric hemato-oncology.

Prof. Keller is a graduate of Hadassah Medical School at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, with a Ph.D in medical microbiology from the Royal University in Utrecht, and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

Prof. Rasmus Bro

Prof. Bro is a full professor at the University of Copenhagen’s Dept. of Food Science, and holds several teaching positions in a number of universities worldwide.

Prof. Bro has published 188 peer reviewed papers with an h-index of 66. His most cited paper has been cited more than two thousand times and is by far the most cited paper on the subject on Web of Science. The research in this paper has led to new scientific fields such as the use of fluorescence spectroscopy for monitoring dissolved organic matter in environmental analysis.

Prof. Bro holds an MSc in Analytical Chemistry from The Technical University of Denmark, and a PhD in Multi-way Analysis from University of Amsterdam.

Marie Castagno Pezzlo

Ms. Pezzlo is a consulting microbiologist with years of experience in her field. Throughout her career Marie has held editorial board positions on several Journals such as Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Laboratory Medicine.

Ms. Pezzlo has 50 publications include peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and books, and 44 abstracts.
Ms. Pezzlo holds a BA from the university of Connecticut and an MA in statistical analysis of in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing from St. Joseph college.

Janet A. (Fick) Hindler, M.Sc

Ms. Hindler is a senior specialist in clinical microbiology and is the R&D manager of the clinical microbiology laboratory at UCLA Medical. She is also a consultant to the association of public health laboratories.

Ms. Hindler has over 110 publications, and 80 book chapters and monographs and is considered a go to source of knowledge on antimicrobial susceptibility testing and CLSI, CDC and FDA issues.

Ms Hindler holds a B.Sc. in biology from Albright college and an MSc in clinical laboratory science from the university of California.