Members

Dr. Edna Pasher

founder and first chairman

Dr. Edna Pasher earned her Ph.D at New York University in Communication Arts and Sciences and has served as faculty member at Adelphi University, the City University of New York, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Tel‐Aviv University.

Edna Pasher founded Edna Pasher Ph.D. & Associates Ltd in 1978. The firm, Edna Pasher Ph.D. & Associates Ltd provides customized consulting services to organizations both in the private and the public sectors.

Edna has been a pioneer and leader of the innovation and knowledge management movement in Israel and an active member of the international community of the KM pioneers. She has over 30 years of experience in regional and international IS projects using a variety of evaluation methodologies, modeling techniques, quantitative analysis.

Dr. Edna Pasher is the co-founder and chairperson of the Israeli Institute for Smart Cities.

Mr. Shmuel Ben-Tovim

Chairman

Shmuel is the Director of the Fintech.IL Innovation Community and the Israel Fintech Center.

From 1998 to 2005 he served as the directly-elect Mayor of Kfar Shmaryahu, where his achievements covered all walks of life: education, culture, welfare, citizens’ engagement, budgeting and planning. From 2010 to 2013 he was the Chief Economic Adviser of Tel-Aviv Global, where he helped creating the ecosystem of the “Start-up City”.

His other public positions include: President of the Israel-Malta Chamber of Commerce, Board member of: The Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites and of the Zefat Academic College.

Shmuel has served as Non-Executive Director at Israeli leading corporations such as Bezeq, Israel Chemicals, The Jerusalem Economic Corporation, the Tel-Aviv Economic Corporation, Israel Export Institute and the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce.

From 2005 to 2010 he was seconded to the Israeli Embassy in London where he served as the Minister for Economic Affairs. Among his duties was to liaison between the Local Government communities in the UK and Israel.

His career began in the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade & Tourism where he held the positions of Consul & Trade Commissioner to the USA, based in New York, and the Chief Economic Adviser to the Minister in Jerusalem. Later on he was Assistant Director General of the Bank Leumi Group.

He holds an MBA degree and BA in Economics, both from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Mr. Sergio Vinitsky

founder

Graduated from the Israeli Institute of Technology – TECHNION, BSc. In Economics and Management (1986). 

CEO at VISERCO Ltd. Global Enterprising. Former Head of “Tavor Consultants Ltd.” International Department. Vast experience in the Israeli market, as manager and consultant of leading enterprises.

Specialized in providing tailor-made solutions for private and public sector, finding creative business solutions for local and international clients, helping them move fast and create strategic alliances in today’s global market.

Main Activities: International business development for Israeli Companies, representation of Israeli companies worldwide, Joint Ventures establishments between Israeli and Foreign enterprises, Fira Barcelona Israeli Delegate including Smart City Expo World Congress, consultant of the Israeli Export Institute and the Ministry of Economy, lecturer at the Galilee College, Haifa Golda College and the International Institute of Leadership, Co-Founder of the Israeli Institute for Smart Cities

Mr. Shmuel Barkan

Providing Strategic Planning & Execution follow up based on unique Quantum Theory. High level Strategic Leadership and strong ability in business development and technology with focus on Economic AI & IoT implementation.

Shmuel has extensive managing experience in a global company with regional responsibility, along with rich experience in managing High Tech companies in Israel and abroad.

Previous positions: General Manager of Motorola Semiconductors (SPS) Israel, Director of Sales and Marketing for Eastern Europe & Middle East and Africa at Freescale Semiconductors, Managing Director of Elisra – Gan LTD, CEO of Gad – Line Ltd, CEO of the ELIS GmbH in Austria (was based four years in Vienna), and in Tadiran Communications: Marketing Director for North America on a mission (was based four years in New York), Development Engineer, Engineering Manager and Operations Manager.

BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion institute in Haifa, Certificate studies in Business Administration for Senior Managers at Bar Ilan University, Corporate Governance at IDC and Strategic Consulting & Coaching at Technion Institute.

Member of Shenkar, Engineering Faculty BOA

Mr. Dani Morgenstern

Environmental and waste management expert. Former manager of marine and railway delivery in the Ministry of transportation. Senior member of the national committee of solid waste recycling.

Mr. Erez R. Mizrachi

Erez is A digital/business/culture Transformation leader, combining deep Product knowledge, rich bottom-up insights and strategic operations know-how to lead change, innovation and growth in global organizations and cities (smart cities).

Deeply involved in the early stage scene as former founder of startups in The Mobility, AI and FinTech spaces. Erez is also MP @Kanarit in addition to mentor and founder at several accelerators, serial learner and New Media pioneer. Founding member of the Israel Smart City Institute. Committee member of the Merage Foundation leading the Smart City and FoodTech Chapters. Leader of over 2K tech founders community

Mr. Yossi Dan

Yossi Dan is an innovation expert and mentor at several accelerators/programs. He helps enterprises and cities in Europe and Israel to enable growth via Open Innovation activities and Public Private Partnerships, and is part of the H2020 IoT-EPI that aims to foster the IoT Innovation in Europe.

His role in IoT-EPI is around 2 major parts of the project: the community building and engagement (including online and offline), and the business partnerships with european and international partners. Yossi is a founding member of the Israel Smart Cities Institute.

Mr. Avigdor Sharon

Avigdor is environment and sustainability associate at the Israel Smart Cities Institute. In addition, he is a facilitator of workshops for Smart Cities and mentor of urban sustainability learning programs. Avigdor has an M.A in Environmental Studies from Tel Aviv University and is pursuing multi-disciplinary research at the Urban Innovation and Sustainability lab at Tel Aviv University.

Avigdor is passionate about creating engaging sustainable environments for work, learning and urban life in a systems approach – ranging from engaging urban experience to thriving digital collaborative work places. An ecosystem of work-life experience and wellbeing. A great win-win for both people, organizations and the cities they are in.

Following years of experience as enterprise knowledge architect at Amdocs, Avigdor had an established track in designing and implementing collaborative digital and physical work spaces, nurturing co-learning, co-creation & co-productivity.

Avigdor is also a board member of the Israel Knowledge Management Forum and a member of the ISO KM Expert Committee – developing the ISO 30401 Knowledge Management Systems standard (ISO/TC 260/WG 6 – International standard ISO 30401).

Eng. Danny Marian

Danny Marian is the Chairman of the Israeli Association of Construction and Infrastructure Engineers (IACIE), a Civil Engineer, a businessman and corporate director. He Specializes in, real-estate ,contracting, construction and infrastructure initiatives as well as BOT and PFI projects.

As Chairman of IACIE, a statutory association that represents all civil engineers in Israel, he is an ex officio member of government committees, the Board of Directors of the Standards Institution of Israel, and the Governmental Council of Engineering and Architecture.

Danny has specialized in high rise buildings development and construction. He is a member of the CTBUH and through IACIE was co-founder of CTBUH Israel.

He is experienced in initiating and managing tenders for BOT infrastructure projects and other PPP projects, including long term involvement in the largest BOT project in Israel, the Cross-Israel Highway. He was a partner in several consortia that competed for a wide variety of projects and were awarded several of them.

As a past and present member of many Boards of Directors and managerial bodies,

Danny Marian has extensive knowledge and experience in initiating, establishing, acquiring, managing and supervising companies and projects of all kinds. His specialties are integrative management of large, complex systems; he focuses on improvement and streamlining the operation while creating internal synergy.

As CEO of the largest construction contractor in Israel (Danya Cebus) for seven years and as board member for 8 years of Electra the major contracting, M&E and FM company in Israel , Marian acquired extensive experience in managing and operating contracting companies responsible for very large construction projects, with emphasis on integrating the business and engineering-operational aspects.

Mr. Hagai Dafna

Senior organizational consultant. Director/partner at TNUFA company consultants. M.Sc. in business administration and graduated M.A. in educational-clinical psychology with 38 years of experience in organizational development, and experience in working with local authorities and ministries to national project. Partner of the Ministry of education in the field of unique development in schools and consulting municipal managers in implementing the program in several cities.

Senior Officer (Col. ret.) in the HFC-expert assessments and coping with emergencies and consultant in the field of immune to the national emergency authority. Led program evaluations in the northern cities following the second Lebanon war. Partner to develop community models for dealing with emergency situations. Dealing with dozens of local authorities in the field of emergency Ministry of welfare.

Mr. Eddie Bet-Hazavdi

Eddie is an expert for energy efficiency and conservation, renewable energy, energy regulations standards & policy and the management of energy in cities.

He was the director of the Department for Energy Conservation and Smart cities at the Israel Ministry of National Infrastructures until December 2017. During his tenure he was in charge on implementing energy conservation and energy efficiency regulations for the government, in charge on the reduction of energy consumption in all sectors, implementing DSM projects and Energy efficiency projects, introducing and promoting new energy saving technologies, promoting educational programs on energy conservation and training courses. Eddie wrote the National energy efficiency plan to reduce electricity consumption by 20% until 2020.

Eddie is also a member of the Environment committee at the Israel Standards Institute (, since 1986), and head of smart cities committee at the Israeli standards institute. He is a member of the National Green Building Committee, The Electric PV forum and other organisations. He was head of auditors for the smart cities contest in Yintchuan China organized by TMForum.  As of Jan. 2018 he is CO of SigmaSmart consultants.

Mr. Yossi Pasher

Yossi Pasher is well known in Israel and abroad as a leading expert in O.D and training. Through more than thirty years of experience he has planed and implemented various projects in the areas of HRD, Knowledge Management and team development on a large scale as well as leadership in various organizations in the private business, industrial and public sectors, as well as assisting in building communities of practice on a large scale.

Yossi coordinated and trained the teams which negotiated the Gaza and Jericho accord as part of the Oslo agreement: sea, air and land as well as ample training experience with airline companies throughout their global system such as EL-AL and North-West in the realm of cross cultural issues. He also designed and implemented various programs for the IDF and Police academy for senior officers in Israel.

Yossi has experience in conducting seminars in the field of private banking in the US, Canada, Mexico and South America. He served as the executive director of the Jerusalem YMHA and the associate executive director of the New York Brooklyn YMHA community centers.

Yossi holds a Masters degree in the field of adult education from Wayne State University Detroit Michigan, a Bachelors degree in History and Biblical Studies as well as a teaching certificate from Tel-Aviv University. He has published two books under the title of “Effective Presentation” and “Effective Negotiations” as well as various articles on leadership and Management issues.

Mrs. Rachel Pasher Eijkenaar

Rachel is an Attorney at Law. The owner of a boutique Legal practice that focuses on Intellectual Property Law and Knowledge protection. She has experience in Copyrights, Patent litigation, Designs, Trademarks, Trade secrets, knowledge protection, Computer Software and Internet, Contracts, Employment and commercial Law, especially in reference to Intellectual Property and knowledge.

Rachel Leads an ISCI project for an Israeli city, regarding the protection and smart exploitation of Intellectual Property and valuable knowledge within the Municipality.

Rachel is a member of the Israeli BAR, INTA-   International Trademark Association and a certified mediator at the GOME institute for mediation.

She has written more than 150 articles about legal issues, such as Intellectual Property, for STATUS, the Israeli Management magazine.

Dr. Yaron Pasher 

Yaron is ISCI’s historian and cultural heritage expert. His research experience spans over
more than twenty years at distinguished academic and research institutions across Israel,
Britain and Germany and the US. He Holds an M.A magna cum Laude in Military and
diplomatic History and a PhD in History from Tel Aviv University co-supervised with University
of Oxford and University of North Carolina. Over the years Yaron has developed a unique
Knowledge and practice of research techniques in a global network environment. He is the
chief editor of the leading Business and Management magazine in Israel “Status – The
Journal of management and strategic thought”. Dr Yaron Pasher teaches modern history at
the Western Galilee College and is a Research Fellow at the International Institute for
Holocaust Research Yad Vashem, Jerusalem where he specializes in Military Logistics of the
German army during the Second World War. His book “Holocaust vs Wehrmacht: How
Hitler’s Final Solution Undermined the German War Effort” was published by University Press
of Kansas in 2014 https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2006-7.htm