In 2017, the infamous Lazarus Group hacked into four South Korean exchanges and stole $200M of Bitcoin.
Working for the cybersecurity leader Check Point at the time, the would-be founders of Fireblocks were part of the task force that investigated the massive cyber breach.
The shift and motivation of cybercriminals from hacking traditional finance to digital assets, and the complexity and the lack of solutions for securing digital assets in an enterprise environment.
Michael, Idan and Pavel each spent the last twenty years transforming how cybersecurity is being applied to mobility, cloud and critical infrastructure so the next obvious challenge was clear, to secure the blockchain. They teamed up to create Fireblocks — an easy to use digital asset security platform that helps financial institutions protect digital assets from theft or hackers by using breakthrough MPC & patent-pending chip isolation technology to secure private keys, API credentials and eliminate the need for deposit addresses.
Michael is the CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks, a secure digital asset infrastructure company. Prior to Fireblocks, he co-founded Lacoon Mobile Security, which was acquired by Check Point, and was then appointed the Head of Products, Mobile and Cloud Security for Check Point. Michael is a serial cybersecurity entrepreneur and investor. He is also a recognized industry speaker, delivering talks at RSA Conference, BlackHat and Infosec. Before his commercial endeavors, Michael pioneered the mobile security field in an elite military technological unit (8200), where he received the Israeli Presidential Excellency Honor for his contributions. He holds a BSc in Computer Sciences and Physics from Ben-Gurion University, Israel.
Prior to his role at Fireblocks, Pavel Berengoltz was Director of Mobile Solutions at Check Point Software Technologies, where he managed the development of Check Point’s new emerging technologies, including innovative cybersecurity solutions that allow enterprises and consumers to securely use mobile devices. Prior to his role at Check Point, Pavel was Director of Research of Lacoon Mobile Security, which was acquired by Check Point in April 2015. Prior to that, Pavel worked in Wave Systems as VP R&D of Safend Subsidiary, where he drove the research and development, QA and product management of Safend flagship products. Prior to his role in Wave, Pavel was CTO of Safend, which was acquired by Wave Systems in 2003. Pavel is a former member of the elite Israel 8200 Intelligence unit, where he developed and led multiple cutting edge products.
Idan brings two decades of experience in software engineering, cyber-security, and product management. Idan was VP R&D and a founding team member at C4 Security, a company that specializes in critical infrastructure protection and the first ever to build a SCADA firewall, followed by a successful acquisition by Elbit Systems. Prior to that, Idan served in an elite cybersecurity unit in the Israeli Intelligence where he led an Israel Defense Award-winning project. Idan is also a big believer in decentralized technologies. He was a co-founder and CTO at Yeloha, a disruptive platform that aimed to decentralize energy trading, and as VP of Product at Orbs, a public blockchain for high scale apps. Idan Holds BSC. In Computer Science and Management from Tel Aviv University (Magna Cum Laude).
Ran Canetti
Ran Canetti is the Professor of Computer Science at Boston University and Tel Aviv University, and Director of the Check Point Institute for Information Security and of the Center for Reliable Information System and Cyber Security. His main areas of research span across cryptography and information security, with an emphasis on the design, analysis, and use of cryptographic protocols.
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Jay Clayton
Former Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Jay Clayton was the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from May 2017 to December 2020. Clayton focused on modernizing the regulation and oversight of our equity and fixed income markets, concentrating on the interests of long-term investors. In addition, under his leadership, the women and men of the SEC addressed various market developments and emerging risks, including the 2020 COVID-19 economic shock, the digitization of securities and other assets, the Brexit and LIBOR transitions, and various cybersecurity matters. Clayton was an active member of the Financial Stability Board, the International Organization of Securities Commissions, the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.
Prior to Clayton’s government service, he spent over 20 years at Sullivan & Cromwell where he was a member of the management committee, co-managing partner of the General Practice Group and co-head of the Cybersecurity Group. He was a lead lawyer in an array of complex M&A and capital markets transactions, as well as regulatory and governance matters, in the financial, telecoms, energy, transportation and e-commerce sectors. Clayton also advised a number of individuals in connection with their public and private investments as well as transition matters.
Gili the Founder and General Partner at Cyberstarts. He is also a General Partner at Sequoia Capital (Israel) since 2009. Gili started and led two private companies in the enterprise software market till their acquisition by EMC and IBM. Earlier, Gili worked for 10 years at the Israeli Intelligence agency, and for this work, he was awarded the Israel Security Presidential award in 1996 and the Israeli Defense Forces Innovation award in 1992. Over the year, Gili’s innovation has been recognized in the 10 United States patents that he holds for various inventions in security and application management fields. Gili is also a recognized inventor of CAPTCHA, one of the world’s most popular security algorithms.
Tom Banahan is a Partner at Tenaya Capital, and he has been a member of the Tenaya investment team since 1999. Most recently, he was the vice president of business development for Marimba. Tom joined Marimba as the fourteenth employee and was involved in all areas of the company's growth through its successful public offering in April 1999. Prior to Marimba, Tom was the vice president of worldwide sales for Spyglass. He joined Spyglass as the twenty-third employee and was instrumental in helping the company deliver a string of 12 consecutive profitable quarters that positioned Spyglass as the first Internet company to access the public equity markets in June 1995. During the six years prior to Spyglass, Tom worked for Comdisco, Inc. as a vice president of sales, with his sales team directly responsible for significant revenue generated from sales to Fortune 1000 companies. Tom holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Gil Mandelzis is a serial entrepreneur and CEO in financial technology. He has a successful record of creating disruptive products and companies, and leading them through global scaling. Prior to Capitolis, Gil was CEO of EBS BrokerTec, NEX Group’s (formerly ICAP’s) foreign exchange and fixed income Electronic Markets business. He also served as a member of ICAP’s Global Executive Management Group. Before EBS-BrokerTec, Gil was CEO of Traiana, a post-trade processing company he founded in 2000. Gil led Traiana’s growth from a small start-up to a recognized global leader, resulting in Traiana’s acquisition by ICAP in 2007 for $250M. Gil has been a member of the New York Federal Reserve’s Foreign Exchange Committee, the Bank of England’s Joint Standing Committee, and the Bank of Canada’s Foreign Exchange Committee. He was awarded the e-FX achievement award by FX Week in 2012 in recognition of his lasting contribution to the development of the FX industry, and in 2013 he was inducted to Profit & Loss Magazine’s Hall of Fame. In 2015 and 2016, Gil was named to Institutional Investor’s prestigious Trading Technology 40. He holds a BA in Management and Sociology from Tel Aviv University (Magna Cum Laude) and an MBA (With Distinction) from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
Fred Ehrsam is co-founder and Managing Partner at Paradigm. Previously, Fred co-founded Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency company in the US, and held the role of President from 2012 to 2017. Fred purchased his first Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an angel investor in some of the space’s most formative companies. Prior to Coinbase, Fred was a foreign exchange trader at Goldman Sachs in New York. Fred holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Economics with honors and departmental distinction from Duke University.
Ken is the Founder of Stripes. Prior to forming Stripes, Ken was a Co-Founder and Managing Director with Internet Capital Group and a Director with Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. and TL Ventures. Ken is also a co-founder of A10 Capital. Ken has been a successful entrepreneur, operator and investor in internet and branded consumer product companies for over 15 years, has started six companies, led investments in over 35 companies and taken two companies he started public. He earned his B.S. in Economics from The Pennsylvania State University.
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