Management
Valens' seasoned management team has wide-ranging experience in the consumer electronics and semiconductor industries, having held high-level managerial, business development, marketing and R&D positions at leading international companies.
Dror Jerushalmi, CEO and Co-Founder
As CEO and Co-Founder of Valens Semiconductor, Dror Jerushalmi draws upon his 20 years of high level international business development and marketing management experience in the semiconductor industry to manage the company’s strategy and business. He has led Valens through its first rounding of funding, product demo milestones and the initiation of Valens’ HDBaseT™ technology as a new global digital connectivity standard.
Previously, Dror was director of business development at Saifun Semiconductor (acquired by Spansion), an Israeli provider of intellectual property (IP) solutions for the non-volatile memory (NVM) market. At Saifun, he was responsible for the sales and marketing of the licensing business and achieved new major licensing deals for the company. Before that he was vice president of marketing at Emblaze Semiconductor (acquired by Zoran Corporation), where he increased the company’s reputation from an unknown to an industry leader recognized by customers, as well as the press and analysts. During Dror’s tenure, Emblaze made a move into the China and Japan markets, signed strategic partnership agreements with market leaders in the cellular industry and defined two new products. He has also held business development and marketing management positions at Tioga and DSPG.
Dror earned both bachelor’s and master’s (cum laude) degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Ben-Gurion University, Israel and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University, Israel branch.
Massad Eyal, Vice President Research and Development and Co-FounderWith 22 years of R&D management, VLSI engineering and mixed signal design experience, Massad Eyal manages Valens Semiconductor’s R&D and engineering activities. As a co-founder, Massad established the company and its R&D team, as well as developed its HDBaseT technology from concept to real products.
Before Valens, Massad was a co-founder of Mysticom Semiconductor, Israel, where he built the mixed signal design expertise of the company from the ground up. After Mysticom was acquired by TranSwitch, Massad held the position of director of VLSI and managed the entire team and engineering activities of TranSwitch Israel. Prior to that, he held engineering management and design positions developing mixed-signal modules at LSI Logic and at National Semiconductor.
Massad holds a bachelor’s degree (cum laude) in electrical engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He is a senior member of IEEE.
Eyran Lida, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
Eyran Lida’s background includes 16 years of communication systems software and hardware architecture development experience with primary expertise in wire line hardwired DSP modems design. As Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Valens Semiconductor, he is responsible for the HDBaseT technology development, and for the company patent portfolio/strategy development.
Before Valens, Eyran was a co-founder of Mysticom Semiconductor, Israel, a leading supplier of high-speed communication integrated circuits. At Mysticom (acquired by TranSwitch), he held the position of director of architecture and system solutions. There, he was involved in the development of the 100BaseT, 1000BaseT and 10GBaseCX4 Ethernet Phy ICs, including major contributions to the unique patented architectures of those solutions. Prior to that, he was at RND (Rad Bynat Group), where he developed real-time software for IP and IPX routers.
Eyran has a bachelor’s degree in physics and computer science from Hebrew University, Israel. He is the inventor of numerous patents.
Zvika Lifschitz, VP Finance
Prior to joining Valens in 2010, Mr. Lifschitz was the VP finance of Tessera (Israel), a leading provider of IP technology for CSP and WLC. Prior to Tessera, he served as CFO of Resolute Networks, a leading technology provider of solutions for delivering TDM over packet switched networks (acquired by BATM). During his tenure at Resolute, he was responsible for a successful merger between Redux and Lycuim to form Resolute. Prior to Resolute, Mr. Lifschitz served as the CFO of Shiron Satellite Communication (acquired by Elbit).
Mr. Lifschitz holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Accounting and an MBA, both from Tel-Aviv University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant (with excellence award for achievement from the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Israel).
Micha Risling, Vice President Sales and Marketing
As Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Valens, Micha Risling brings 12 years of expertise in marketing and R&D executive roles in established NASDAQ and startup companies, plus vast experience in the global mobile and telecommunications industry.
Previously, Micha was director of marketing and strategy at Saifun Semiconductor, Israel (acquired by Spansion), a leading provider of intellectual property (IP) solutions for the non-volatile memory (NVM) market. He led a group of internal and external teams to define and execute the company’s long-term strategy for business and marketing. Prior to that, he was director of the mobile division product strategy at M-Systems, Israel (acquired by SanDisk), a world leader in flash memory addressing the mobile, portable and embedded markets. Micha also previously served as director of technical customer integration at M-Systems, managing a group of technical experts (System/HW/SW) responsible for the integration of M-Systems’ products at leading mobile handset manufacturers, such as Nokia, HTC, Motorola, Samsung and Sony. Prior to that, he was a senior VLSI engineer at semiconductor companies OptiX Networks, Conexant and LSI Logic.
Micha received an executive MBA from the Kellogg School of Business through Northwestern University in Chicago and the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Tel Aviv University.
Ariel Sobelman, Vice President Corporate Alliances
With 12 years of high level business development, industry standardization and strategic research experience, Ariel Sobelman serves as Valens Semiconductor’s Vice President of Corporate Alliances. Based in the state of Washington in the U.S., he leads the standardization process for HDBaseT technology.
Before joining Valens, Ariel was with SanDisk, where he was general manager of the corporate liaison office to Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., managing the relationship (executive, political, technical) work taking place between the two companies. Prior to SanDisk’s acquisition of M-Systems, Sobelman was vice president in the CTO’s office, where he was responsible for all industry standards activities. He also held responsibility for standardization of embedded cryptographic modules in mobile phones while part of the research group at Discretix Technologies, Israel.
Ariel is a founding chair of IEEE 1667 Transient Storage Device Authentication working group.