Management Team

Ofer Shapiro

President, CEO, Board member and co-founder

Ofer Shapiro, Vidyo’s co-founder and CEO, has been an innovative force at the heart of two major architectural transformations in the videoconferencing industry seen over the past two decades. Ofer was integrally involved in the development of the H.323 specification and the first IP based multi-point control unit architecture, which provided a platform for multi-point conferences that were unconstrained by bandwidth limitations of an externally programmable Gatekeeper, enabling the transition from ISDN to IP transport. The products introduced by Ofer during his tenure at RADVISION were adopted by Cisco, Tandberg and Polycom, and reached almost 100% market share. A decade later, he innovated the use of Scalable Video Coding for video conferencing and led the development of a new media relay based architecture designed for affordable scale and extended reach over unmanaged IP networks and general purpose computing devices. The Vidyo architecture has been hailed and accepted as the market shifting innovation necessary to address the burgeoning $19B personal telepresence market. Ofer is a named inventor on 20 issued and 19 pending patent families and has 14 years of experience in bringing innovations in this field to successful, wide-scale adoption.

David Kaminsky

Chief Financial Officer

David is a veteran finance and administration executive with more than 25 years of diverse experience that includes significant positions overseeing all aspects of global financial, IT and business operations. Prior to joining Vidyo, David was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NTT Data Inc.(a combination of Keane, Inc., Intelligroup, Inc., MISI Inc., Revere Inc. and Vertex Inc.), where he oversaw global finance, IT management and Administrative Operations. Before his work at NTT Data Inc., David was the CFO of Altegrity, Inc., where he was responsible for all finance, tax, sourcing, and IT infrastructure operations.

David spent 12 years at the General Electric Company where he was the CFO of GE Commercial Finances North American Leasing Operations, CFO of GE Commercial Distribution Finance, CFO of GE Information Technology Services Managed Services Business and European Operations. David holds a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Bridgeport.

Dr. Alex Eleftheriadis

Chief Scientist and co-founder

Alex drives the technical vision and direction for Vidyo and also represents the company on standardization committees and technical advisory boards. He is an award-winning researcher, bringing over 19 years of research experience in video compression and communications to his role at Vidyo. Prior to Vidyo he was an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. Alex has more than 100 publications, holds 15 patents, has served as the Editor of the MPEG-4 Systems specification and Co-Editor of the H.264 SVC Conformance specification, and is currently Co-Editor of IETF’s RTP Payload Format for SVC.

Ashish Gupta

CMO and Senior Vice President, Corporate Development

Ashish joins Vidyo having successfully led product marketing, product management, channels and business development teams in unified communication, collaboration, mobile and telecom companies with a focus on growing and scaling the business. Previously, Ashish led the Business Development and Strategy team for Microsoft Office Division’s Unified Communications Group. He also led Microsoft’s Channel Sales and Marketing team for Real Time Communications, led and managed key Microsoft Office and Unified Communications and Collaboration strategic alliances and co-led key strategic initiatives. Prior to Microsoft, Ashish was VP of Product and Solutions at Alcatel/Genesys Telecommunications, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Telera Inc., management consultant for Braxton/Deloitte Consulting, and held marketing leadership positions at HP and Covad. Ashish has an MBA from UCLA and a Bachelors in Economics and Computer Science from Grinnell College.

Rob Hughes

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Support

Rob has over 19 years of experience in the conferencing industry. Previously, he was the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Support at LifeSize Communications (where he was responsible for building the worldwide sales team and distribution network); Vice President and General Manager, Americas at RADVISION Ltd. (where he was responsible for the sales, marketing, and support organizations); President and Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at VSGi (where he oversaw worldwide sales, services and marketing organizations); and the Vice President of North American Channel Sales at Polycom, Inc. Rob holds a BS in Communications from Northwestern University, and an MBA from Loyola University.

Roi Sasson

Senior Vice President, Engineering

Roi has a proven track record of technology execution and delivery with 20 years in the telecom and datacom domains. Before joining Vidyo, Roi led the development of IP-based network access and soft-switching solutions. Prior to that he participated in the founding of a start-up company where he led the software development for a distributed, multi-service access multiplexer.

Amir Shaked

Senior Vice President of Product Management

Having previously held positions as president, CEO, and general manager in companies focused on video conferencing, new media, e-commerce, application acceleration and telecommunications applications, Amir brings a great wealth of experience to Vidyo’s product team and is driving the company’s entire product portfolio, leading product strategy and road map. Prior to joining Vidyo, Amir was responsible for ComQi’s North American ecosystem of partnerships and for channel sales. Amir was also President of the Americas at Press-sense, where he was also responsible for the company’s global OEM relationship with Xerox. Before his tenure at Press-sense, Amir was the CEO of DiskSites, an application acceleration company he sold to Expand Networks, and the founder and CEO of CeLight, an optical communications company where he raised $47M from leading investors including Goldman Sachs. Previously, Amir was President of North America at Accord Video Telecommunications where he was instrumental in achieving a 10X ROI for investors, realized when Polycom acquired Accord for $350M in 2001. Prior to his tenure at Accord Video Telecom, Amir founded the Americas’ Carrier Messaging Division at Comverse Technologies, establishing the company as the market leader in the wireless and fixed network carrier messaging market. Amir has a B.Sc. Summa Cum Laude in math and computer science from Tel Aviv University.

Amnon Gavish

Senior Vice President, Vertical Solutions

Amnon brings more than 15 years of experience in the telecommunications market. Before joining Vidyo in October 2009, Amnon was the Chief Technology Officer at Keisense Inc., an innovator in the field of textual user interface for Computer Electronics devices. Previously, he served as Vice President of Business Development at RADVISION, where he was responsible for the company’s strategic partnerships and for the definition of the company’s product offering to the service providers market. Amnon was the CEO and co-Founder of Surf Communications, where he was responsible for all company activities, from product inception, through go-to-market strategy, strategic partnerships and sales. Amnon holds a Sc.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Dror Futter

General Counsel

Dror brings more than 20 years of high tech and intellectual property legal experience to Vidyo. Prior to joining Vidyo, Futter was General Counsel of a venture capital fund, New Venture Partners LLC, where he helped form and advise multiple start-ups in the IT and telecom space, as well as creating the firm’s legal function. Previously, he was a corporate counsel at Lucent Technologies, Inc. where he represented the CIO organization and various procurement organizations. He holds a J.D. from Columbia University Law School and an A.B. in political economy from Princeton University.

Tami Lev-Golan

Vice President, Human Resources

Tami is responsible for leading the strategy and initiatives for leadership development, recruiting, performance management, compensation, and benefits across all Vidyo offices worldwide. Mrs. Lev-Golan has over 15 years of leadership and development experience, with a diverse background in HR, recruiting, and operations management for fast growing high-tech organizations. Prior to joining Vidyo, she led the Global HR, and operations, at NICE-Actimize, the world’s largest and broadest financial crime, risk and compliance solutions provider. Mrs. Lev-Golan holds a BA in Business & Industrial Psychology from Baruch College and an MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.

Yossi Massafi

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales Operations

Yossi has over 13 years of experience in video technology having worked in numerous roles and capacities including sales, engineering, customer support and professional services. Prior to joining Vidyo, Yossi was General Manager, US Video Division, of Magal Security Systems Ltd., a worldwide provider of hardware and software solutions for the security market. Before his tenure at Magal, Yossi was Director of NiceVision Americas Customer Services at NICE Systems Inc. At NICE, Yossi was part of the core team that launched the company’s video security division in the US and key instrumental individual in securing the first deals for the US region. Yossi holds an Aerospace Engineering degree from the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, and an MBA from Tel Aviv University.

Eric Le Guiniec

Vice President & General Manager, EMEA

Eric has a proven track record working with major enterprise accounts, service providers, system integrators, and telecom equipment suppliers. He joins from Arel where he was Vice President EMEA, and from First Virtual Communications (FVC) where he served as Vice President EMEA Sales. He has also spearheaded the sales operation in France at Tekelec Europe for the company’s service provider products. Eric has an MS, Sales and Marketing from Universite de Valenciennes et du Hainaut-Cambresis, and a BS in Computer Science from Universite Paris X Nanterre.

Chris Thomas

Vice President, Sales, U.S.

Chris brings over 19 years of senior management experience with leading global providers of technology, marketing and process management solutions. Prior to joining Vidyo, Chris was Senior VP of Business Development at Intralinks, Inc., where he was responsible for building a global network of strategic business partners. Chris was also the Eastern Regional Sales Manager at Kontiki, a venture-funded leader in business and broadcast video on-demand solutions for Fortune 1000 companies. Prior to Kontiki, he was President and CEO of Summitworks Technologies, Inc., a provider of project-based consulting and outsourced IT solutions. Chris received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

William Yu

Vice President, Sales, Asia Pacific

William joins Vidyo with over 17 years of video conferencing experience with Lifesize, Polycom and PictureTel. Prior to joining Vidyo, William was with Lifesize Communications, where he was the Director of Sales for APAC and built their channels and sales organization covering 14 countries in the region. William was also the Director of Asia Pac Sales for Polycom, where he led their expansion into the video conferencing market, and the Regional Technical Manager for PictureTel Asia. William received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University. William is based in Hong Kong.

Jim Fairweather

Vice President, Worldwide Channels and Sales

Jim drives the recruitment, growth and profitability of Vidyo’s Global Channels, OEMs and Service Providers. Jim has held several Executive Management positions in the VC and UC market for over 13 years. His long standing commitment to client relationships and customer satisfaction has been a key contributor to his success. Prior to joining Vidyo, Jim was VP of Worldwide Sales for HP’s Visual Collaboration Business Unit. He was responsible for global sales, channel strategy, and HPVC field engagement with over 25,000 Sales Professionals at Hewlett Packard. Jim grew HPVC revenue, established sales plans and recruited strategic distributors and channels. Prior to his tenure at HP, Jim was Vice President, Americas & US Sales at Polycom, PictureTel and MCI WorldCom. He was responsible for the revenue attainment of over $1B, and led several large sales organizations. Jim is very well known and highly respected in the industry. His strategic relationships and influence have significantly contributed to the growth of the UC industry over the years. Jim completed the Executive Management Program at the University of Michigan and holds a BS in Accounting from Bentley University.

Brett Flenniken

Vice President, Vertical Sales

Brett has over 22 years of communication and networking industry experience in a broad range of roles in both public and private companies, including Engineering, Sales Engineering, Product Marketing, Product Management, Sales, Business Development and Sales leadership at companies such as Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), Lucent Technologies, Polycom and Radvision. Brett was most recently Director of Sales at 2Wire where he led strategic sales efforts at 3 of the Top 11 US Service Providers, and prior to that was Vice President, Americas Sales and Business Development at WatchGuard Technologies. Brett earned a BS in Electrical Engineering (magna cum laude) from West Virginia University.

Greg Thener

Vice President, Sales, CALA, Australia, New Zealand

Greg Thener joined Vidyo, Inc. just as the company began to offer it’s disruptive video conferencing technology. He has been a part of the video conferencing market almost since it’s inception, starting his career at Rockwell International as a Senior Telecommunications Analysts. Prior to Vidyo, Thener most recently came from Ubiquity Software (acquired by Avaya), and Voyant Technologies (acquired by Polycom). Thener has held a variety of positions ranging from systems engineering to senior sales management at leading videoconferencing players including PictureTel (acquired by Polycom), VideoServer/Ezenia, STARBAK, CUseeMe Networks (where he grew the region from 200K per year to 3 million dollars), First Virtual, Madge Networks and Teleos. Thener has developed significant relationships throughout the Asia Pacific/Australasia markets as well as Latin America and Canada.

Marty Hollander

Senior Vice President, Market Development

With more than 20 years of high-tech marketing experience, Marty specializes in developing lasting strategic assets through creative market development. Previously, Marty served as Vice President of Marketing at Cemaphore Systems, Latitude Communications (later acquired by Cisco) and ProactiveNet (later acquired by BMC). He also founded CollectiveSpace and IntelliCorp, where he played a variety of executive roles. Marty has also held senior level positions at Silicon Graphics and Storm Technology. Marty earned an MBA from Stanford University as well as an MS from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Michal Raz

Vice President, Business Development

Michal Raz is Vice President of Business Development at Vidyo and is responsible for strategic partnerships that align with the Vidyo strategy for video collaboration and virtualization. Michal brings over 17 years of background in business development, strategic planning, marketing and engineering. Michal joined Vidyo from RADVISION where she served in a series of roles in engineering, business development, marketing and strategy. Michal is a visual communications veteran with a passion for innovation. Michal graduated with honors with a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. Michal also received a Software Engineering scholarship from the Israeli electronics industry consortium and the Technion.

Robb Cason

Vice President, Adoption Services

Robb brings over 25 years of Marketing and Sales experience and is a leader in creating programs for driving adoption of conferencing solutions. Before joining Vidyo, Cason served as Vice President of Sales at Voice Assist and served as Vice President of Collaboration at InterCall where he was responsible for delivery of Unified Communication products, training, and adoption services into Fortune 100 companies. Prior to InterCall, he was the Founder/CEO of Corvent, specializing in adoption services for conferencing vendors which quickly became the vendor of choice amongst partners, resellers and end users using web conferencing or implementing unified communications solutions. He also led a team at Microsoft/Placeware where he enabled strategic partners MCI, British Telecom, and Intercall to achieve greater than 100 percent year-over-year growth in Live Meeting revenue by “farming” their accounts through innovative adoption programs. Cason holds a BS in Business from Oregon State University and lives with his family in Portland, OR.