Board of Directors

Sam Somech, Chairman of the Board

Sam Somech is one of the leading experts on middleware messaging technologies. An experienced and successful entrepreneur, he has an extensive track record transforming new technologies into profitable new businesses - from initial concepts to development and commercialization. Sam was the president, CTO and co-founder of Level 8 (NASD: LVEL), as well as founder and CEO of Data Voice Systems, where he developed the concept for the first transactional messaging product, which was the foundation of IBM MQSeries. Sam received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, an M.Sc. in computer science from Columbia University and an MBA from Baruch College.

Bruce Golden, Board Member

Bruce Golden joined Accel Partners in 1997 and primarily focuses on investments in enterprise software and internet companies, with a particular interest in data management, analytic software, next-generation SaaS and Open Source software companies.  Bruce currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors at several private and public companies, including  comScore (SCOR), Qliktech, and Responsys.   Some of the investments that Bruce has been responsible for at Accel include:  Ajuba Solutions (acquired by Interwoven, Inc.), eCommerce Industries Inc. (acquired by Insight Venture Partners), Exchange.com (acquired by Amazon.com), Itemfield (acquired by Informatica), Offermatica (acquired by Omniture), and SupportSoft (SPRT).Prior to joining Accel, Bruce held executive positions at Illustra Information Technologies, Informix Software, and Sun Microsystems.Bruce holds an MBA from Stanford and a BA from Columbia University.

Elisheva Yakobovich, Board Member

Elisheva has been a Partner with Vertex Venture Capital since February of 2001. Ms. Yakobovich is an investment professional with over 18 years experience in heading various public and private investment activities. Ms. Yakobovich has in-depth familiarity with foreign and domestic capital and money markets and with private equity investments as well as technological skills and a knowledge of the software industry. Prior to joining Vertex Venture Capital she worked at Bank HaPoalim Ltd. for 12 years, Israel's largest bank, where she held various positions including Head of Portfolio Management Team and Director of Research and Private Equity at Gmulot, a multi-billion dollar provident fund management company owned by Bank HaPoalim. Ms. Yakobovich received an M.A in Economics and Business Administration and a B.A in Economics and Mathematics and held several tutorial positions at the School of Economics at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Alicia Rotbard, Board Member

Ms. Rotbard brings valuable experience in bringing start-up companies from their R&D stage to commercial success. Ms. Rotbard managed the computer department of Israel's Central Bank and was the Deputy General Manager of the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange, managing its Computer Department and Operations. She was the CEO of DOORS Information Systems Inc. and of Quality Computers Ltd. Currently Ms. Rotbard is a board member in several public companies including Pilat HR, Hilan-Tech, Pointer-Nexus, Clal Investment, Kamada, Proseed, WideMed and Gilat-Satcom. Ms. Rotbard holds a BSc. in Mathematics and Physics from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Jacob Ukelson, D.Sc, Advisor

Jacob Ukelson is a well respected technology figure, with a proven track record of excellence and leadership. Previously, Ukelson was CTO of Itemfield (acquired by Informatica), as well as CTO and Business Development Manager for IBM's Global Technology Unit. Prior to these roles, he was a department general manager at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Lab in New York, managing a group of 130 cross-disciplinary researchers focused on creating the next generation of the Internet at the middleware and application level. Ukelson received his Doctorate of Science in computer science from the Technion University in Israel. His work has been published in several leading journals and is a well known speaker at conferences worldwide. In 1997 Jacob received the Alexander C. Williams Ergonomics and Human Factors Award from the Human Factors Society.

Ariel Gordon, Strategic Advisor

Ariel served as Chief Technology Officer at BMC software Inc. At BMC, Ariel was behind the creation of BMC’s Business Service Management (BSM) strategy and behind the creation of BSM enabling technologies like the Atrium Integration infrastructure. BSM was adopted by all major systems management vendors and is now a leading industry trend. Prior to joining BMC, Ariel served in a number of key roles including VP of R&D and CTO of New Dimension Software, later acquired by BMC for over $650M.

Prof. Itamar Procaccia, Chief Scientific Advisor

Prof. Itamar Procaccia, a pioneer in the interdisciplinary field of chaos research, has served as Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute since 1989. The aim of his research is to describe and quantify complex natural phenomena. The recipient of many prizes, he was three times appointed a Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He was appointed the UNESCO Professor in Science and Sustainable Development for Latin America for the period 1995-2000. He has held visiting professorships at Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Rockefeller University, Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques in France, and NORDITA in Denmark. Prof. Itamar Procaccia holds the Barbara and Morris L. Levinson Chair in Chemical Physics.