Board of Directors

Lior Samuelson is the founder and managing partner of Mercator Capital, a merchant bank specializing in advising and investing in the technology and telecom sectors. During his extensive career, Mr. Samuelson served as chairman, CEO and board member of several companies in technology, telecom, financial services and management consulting.  In 2008, he was the chairman of Deltathree (DDDC); from 1997 to 1999, he was the president and CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers Securities. Prior to that, he was the president and CEO of The Barents Group, a merchant bank specializing in advising and investing in companies in emerging markets. He previously was a managing partner with KPMG and held a senior management position at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Mr. Samuelson earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Economics from Virginia Tech.

Yair Bar-Touv is formerly the CIO of a leading government enterprise specializing in analytic software solutions for knowledge discovery (text and data mining) of large volumes of data, with a focus on changing the ways enterprise organizations make decisions with regards to primary business processes. Mr. Bar-Touv is also the former CEO of Elron Telesoft and co-CEO of NCC, a leading Systems Integrator operating in Israel and the USA, which was acquired in 1997 by Elron Electronics. Mr. Bar-Touv holds an M.Sc in Computer Engineering from the Technion Institute of Technology (1987) and a B.Sc in Electronic Engineering from Ben-Gurion University (1981).

Hila Karah has been the CIO of Eurotrust Ltd. since 2006. Ms. Karah has been a private and public equity investor in several high-tech, bio-tech and Internet companies for the past 8 years. Prior to her joining Eurotrust, she served as a partner financial analyst at Perceptive Life Sciences Ltd., a New York-based hedge fund. Prior to her position at Perceptive, Ms. Karah was a research analyst at Oracle Partners Ltd., a health care-focused hedge fund based in Connecticut. Ms. Karah holds a BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has studied at the UCB-UCSF JMP.

Aviv Raiz has served as a Director since December 2005. He is the founder and President of Eurotrust Ltd. Mr. Raiz has been active in the foreign exchange markets for the past twenty years, and has been a private equity investor in several high-tech, bio-tech and Internet companies for the past ten years. He holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University.

Yair Shamir is the Chairman and Managing Partner of Catalyst Investments and the Chairman of Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI). From 2004-2005, Mr. Shamir was Chairman of El Al, Israeli Airlines and lead the privatization process of the firm. He has also served as Chairman and CEO of VCON Telecommunications Ltd., executive vice president of the Challenge Fund-Etgar L.P., Chief Executive Officer of Elite Food Industries, Ltd., and Executive Vice President and General Manager of Scitex Corporation Ltd. Mr. Shamir served in the Israeli Air Force as a pilot and commander from 1963 to 1988. During his term in the Air Force, Mr. Shamir attained the rank of colonel and served as head of the electronics department, the highest professional electronics position within the Air Force. Mr. Shamir holds a B.Sc. Electronics Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Lloyd E. Shefsky has served as a Director of Commtouch since October 2003. He is a Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship and Co-Director of the Center for Family Enterprises at the Kellogg School of Management and has taught in several countries. In 1970, he founded the Chicago law firm, Shefsky & Froelich Ltd., where he is Of Counsel since 1996. Since 1981 he has represented the Government of Israel throughout the Midwestern U.S. For nearly forty years he has represented hundreds of entrepreneurs and their companies, and during the past twenty-five years, such representation has included numerous Israeli companies with U.S. operations. Mr. Shefsky authored Entrepreneurs Are Made Not Born, which was translated into five foreign languages. He received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, a B.Sc. in Accounting from De Paul University, is a member of the Illinois and Florida Bars, and has a CPA certificate in Illinois.

James Hamilton has been in the tech industry for 26 years and is currently CEO of CPSG Partners, a professional services and consulting company based in Houston.  In the past decade, he held leadership roles in security-focused companies including President and CEO of TippingPoint, Inc., which was acquired by 3Com in 2005. James also spent two years at SafeNet, a global leader in information security, as EVP of Corporate Development leading M&A and Strategic Alliances. James was named President and CEO of Efficient Networks in 2002. Efficient Networks was acquired by Siemens, AG. He also held executive positions with Picazo Communications (acquired by Intel in 1998), Compaq, Networth (acquired by Compaq in 1995), 3Com and Grid Systems. James holds a Bachelor of Science from Lawrence Technical University.

Todd Thomson joined the Board of Directors in November of 2011. Mr. Thomson is Chairman of Dynasty Financial Partners, a firm dedicated to providing the highest quality investment and technology platform to sophisticated independent advisors. Mr. Thomson is also Founder & CEO of Headwaters Capital, a proprietary investment business and strategic consulting firm.  From 1998 through 2007, Mr. Thomson served in top management positions at Citigroup, including CFO of the company and CEO of the Global Wealth Management division. Prior to joining Citigroup, Mr. Thomson held senior positions at GE Capital, Barents Group and Bain & Co. Mr. Thomson is also a member of the Board of Directors of Cordia Bancorp, Bank of Virginia and the World Resources Institute. Mr. Thomson is Chairman of the Wharton Leadership Advisory Board and is also a past member of the Board of Trustees of Davidson College. Mr. Thomson  received his M.B.A. with distinction, from the Wharton School of Business and his B.A. in Economics from Davidson College.