The Forum Group′s Professional Team
Most members of the Forum Group management team draw on more than 20 years of multidisciplinary expertise. The team combines strong academic backgrounds from the world's leading universities, achievements with the most sophisticated technologies evolved in places like 8200, with extensive successful experience in entrepreneurship, management, consulting, investment banking & underwriting, together with hands-on years of investment management of Billions of USD.
This experience covers all necessary disciplines, including macroeconomics, investments, international management, marketing and business law, capital financing of private and public companies, and more.
The teamwork of this talented lineup creates a synergy that benefits both institutional and individual clients
Ami Segal
President, Forum Group
Ami has degrees in Management, Economics and Business Administration, from the Tel-Aviv University and New York University, with majors in Finance and International Business. He was an Analyst at Dun & Bradstreet, Tel Aviv in 1983 and then a Management consultant in the New York office of Grant Thornton.
From 1986 to date Ami has been an investor, entrepreneur, executive and consultant for over 200 Israeli companies through Biderman & Co. Ltd., and Forum Consulting and Business Development Ltd.
Ami has accumulated work experience in Israel, USA and the Far East and speaks Hebrew, English and French.
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Ram Willner, Ph.D.
Managing Director, Forum Global Fixed Income Fund
Dr. Willner has most recently managed global fixed income portfolios for Analytic Investors LLC. and Global Fixed Income Partners, LLC. Prior to that he headed Banc of America Capital Management's International fixed income department, responsible for the management of $750mm in global sovereign and credit bonds. Dr. Willner worked for Morgan Stanley Investment Management in London as a portfolio manager and director of global fixed-income analytics, and for PIMCO as a senior member of the international fixed income team.
Beyond portfolio management, Dr. Willner has been recognized by the FDIC as an investment risk expert.
Prior to practicing in the field, Dr. Willner was an academic: he was a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and at the Stern School at New York University. He served as Visiting Professor at the University of California at Irvine. He has lectured at USC and UCLA. Dr. Willner has been a member of the investment community since 1987.
Dr. Willner earned a Ph.D. (DBA) in business administration (finance/quantitative methods) from Harvard University, an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Brandeis University. Dr. Willner has published in such journals as the Journal of Fixed Income and the Journal of Portfolio Management and has lectured in many venues.
Shlomo Maoz
Chief Economist, Alfa Platinum, and Chairman, Honline
Prior to the Forum Group, Mr. Shlomo Maoz was a Chief Economist at Excellence Nessuah Limited. Mr. Maoz has served as an Equity Analyst of Excellence Nessuah Brokerage Services Ltd., Research Division. He has also served as an Economic and Financial Counselor to large companies in the economy, banks and other financial institutions. From 1992 to 1997, Mr. Maoz served as the Economic Advisor to the Minister of Finance to London. He serves as a Director of Israel Land Development Co and ICL Fertilizers Ltd. He serves as a Lecturer in the economic and financial subjects for businesses. Inter alia.
Shlomo Maoz holds a Degree of Ms.C. from London School of Economics and has a Bachelor Degree in the same field from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Michael Galai
VP & General Counsel, Forum Group
Michael Galai serves on the Boards of Analyst Provident Funds Ltd., Analyst I.M.S. Investment Management Services Ltd. and TAT Industries Ltd. Prior to joining the Forum Group he served as VP Legal & General Counsel at Telit Communications Plc. (AIM: TCM), as well as serving as its Finance Director during part of his tenure there. Before that Michael was General Counsel at Lipman Electronic Engineering (Nasdaq, TASE: LPMA) where he took an active part in a secondary offering on Nasdaq and the company's sale to VeriFone Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PAY). Before that, Michael worked as a senior associate for Israel's leading law firm, Goldfarb Seligman, working on capital markets and M&A transactions. Prior to that, he spent six years in the Israel Securities Authority, holding a variety of positions, including spokesperson. He has an MBA and an L.L.B from the Tel Aviv University School of Law and is a member of the Israel Bar.
Email : michael@forum-mobile.com
Shmulik Kollender
CFO, Forum Group
Shmulik is a seasoned CFO and senior manager with comprehensive experience in all aspects of financial management, operations, turnaround & restructuring, fund raising, risk management, M&A, business and strategic development, IT, logistics and legal.
Shmulik has over 20 years of experience in public and private companies in various industries: hi-tech, industrial and trade. Prior to joining Forum, Shmulik was the CFO and acting COO of Arrow Israel, (subsidiary of Arrow Electronics Inc. (NYSE:ARW), a Fortune 200 company), Prior to Arrow, Shmulik was the CFO of the Rapac Group (listed in the Tel Aviv stock exchange), of MobileAccess Networks (later acquired by Corning) and Orpak Industries.
Email: shmulik@forum-group.com
Eran Notea
CEO of Alfa Platinum
Eran is a portfolio manager licensed by the SEC. Active in the capital market since 1995, Eran is former director of the Northern branch of Migdal Capital Markets. From January 2007 Eran serves as the CEO of Alpha Platinum Asset Management.
Eran has a BA in Economics and Business Administration with honors from the University of Haifa, a master's degree in industrial management M.SC cum laude from the Technion.
Shay Barak
Chairman of Alfa Platinum Mutual Funds
Prior to joining Alfa Platinum, Shay served as the CEO of Modelim mutual funds. Barak is best remembered as one of the youngest CEOs of a company involved in the mutual fund market thanks to his position at the age of 29 as the CEO of Ilanot Discount. Later in his financial career Barak had several key roles in the capital market including being the CEO of Gaon Investment House, the Chairman of the Israeli Mutual Funds Association and the Investment Director at Phoenix Insurance Company.
Yaron Pitaru
CEO - Quantecom
Founding Principal and CEO of Quantecom, Yaron Pitaru is responsible for all of Quantecom investment models. Prior to founding Quantecom Capital, Yaron worked at Prisma Investment house as a CIO. He was in charge of research, investment and risk management for all the Prisma activity (around $12bn). Prior to joining Prisma, Yaron worked at Bank Leumi, the biggest Israeli Bank, where he managed all the investment activity (CIO) of Leumi provident fund (around $9bn AUM). Before that Yaron worked in leading investment companies in Israel. He was CIO at Kahal ($3bn AUM) and Head of Research at Ofek. During the last 20 years, Yaron has developed several investment decision models based on both macroeconomics and technical analysis. He holds an MBA, specialized in Finance and a BA in Economics from Tel Aviv University. Yaron holds a portfolio manager license from the Israel Security Authority (ISA)
Shai Bar-Lavi
CEO, ForumTel
Shai has a vast experience in investment banking focusing in technology and marketing companies - both US and Israeli companies. In addition, Shai served in various senior management positions (including, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer) in public and private companies, in the telecommunication, internet, marketing and media sectors.
He is the co-founder of Forum-Group USA Inc. and Forum Telecom Inc.
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Benny Yehezkel
Executive VP, Forum Mobile, Inc.
Benny Yehezkel has over 20 years experience in executive management and telecommunications. Benny serves in a number of executive leadership roles ranging from start ups to publicly traded companies. Prior to Forum Tel Benny served as EVP of Ectel Ltd. (ECTX), CEO of Elron Telesoft, various executive positions in the Elron Electronic Industries Group (ELRN) - VP of Bus Dev of Elbit Ltd., CEO of Dealigence Inc and previously as CEO of Sintec Call Centers. Mr. Yehezkel holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology.
Email: benny@forum-group.com
Dr. Daniel Baraz
Head of Research. Real Estate Fund Manager
Daniel Specializes in International Management, with a focus on global real-estate markets. He serves as the Executive Director of the Fishman-J.E.C. Real Estate Center at the Hebrew University Business School. He also teaches on global real-estate markets at the Inter-Disciplinary Center, Herzliya. Daniel is co-founder of Bregman-Baraz Real Estate, a consulting company that specializes in real estate investments and research. Formerly he served as a Consultant for the IBI investment house. Daniel received his Ph.D. degree in Medieval History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and subsequently was a post-doc at the University of Pennsylvania (2000-2001). He received his M.B.A. degree summa cum laude from the Hebrew University in 2006.
Email: daniel@forum-group.com
Nirit Bergman
CPA (Isr.), LL.M.: Senior Researcher, Real Estate Fund Manager
Consultant to Forum Real Estate Funds
Nirit is the Director of Investor Relations at “REIT 1”, the first Israeli public REIT. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the Executive MBA program at the Hebrew University. Nirit is a financial analyst by training.
In her previous positions she was a Senior analyst at Maalot S&P, Head of Research at Discount Capital Markets and the CEO of National Consultants, an affiliate of Bank Leumi.
Orly Brown
F.A.M Forum Asset Management - CEO
Orly Brown is a co-founder and the CEO of F.A.M. Forum Asset Management (subsidiary of Forum Group). Orly has over 25 years of professional wide ranging experience both in wealth creation and wealth preservation, with the banking and the financial industry, Specializing in asset management, and financial structuring consulting.
Orly has been with the banking system in Israel and abroad providing domestic and international financial solutions to high net individuals. He also served as the Chief Representative of a bank for Australia, as well as Canada for over 10 years in total, as well as holding various senior positions at Bank Hapoalim.
Orly received a Bachelor degree in Economics and Business Administration from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
Email: orly@forum-group.com
Ruthy Waxman
F.A.M Forum Asset Management - First VP
Ruthy Waxman is a co-founder and the First Vice President of F.A.M. Ruthy has over 30 years experience in Bank Hapoalim, one of Israel's leading banks. She served as the Head of the International Business Department and later the Head of the Anglo-Saxons desk and served as First Vice President at Bank Hapoalim.
Ruthy specializes in International Banking, as well as Global Wealth Management. Ruthy has experience in dealing with international conglomerates, banks, high network individuals, off-shore companies and representative offices all over the world. She holds a B.A. in Business Administration.
Email: ruthy@forum-group.com