14 Stellar Israeli Women of Silicon Valley
To celebrate the International Women’s Day, we have decided to spotlight 14 incredible women of substance with different styles and backgrounds. These women don’t shy away from being seen or heard. They set an example by sharing their experiences in a way that is honest and seemingly intended to celebrate diversity, connect and lift others. Through their actions they inspire and create more room for other women to join the conversation on both professional and personal levels.
We are proud to present our list of the brightest young women you should meet and follow.
1. Idit Kosti, PhD — Researcher at the Institute for Computational Health Sciences, UCSF
Idit Kosti is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Computational Health Sciences, UCSF. Idit studies adverse outcomes of pregnancy in women by deciphering the biological mechanism behind it using computational methods, which may lead to better treatment for the female patients.
Idit is also the co-founder of New Moms of the Silicon Valley Facebook Group, which she founded 7 weeks after her son Geva was born, and New Parents of the Silicon Valley Facebook Group. Both group supports hundreds of Israeli Moms and Families raising their children in the Silicon Valley and encourage daily discussions and activities outside of the virtual world.
2. Shiri Sivan — Program Manager at Google Launchpad Space
Shiri is a Program Manager in Google Developer’s Launchpad Space located in San Francisco CA. After working at Google for Entrepreneur’s Campus Tel Aviv and the Galvanize Campus in San Francisco and now at Launchpad Space, Shiri is passionate about bringing together entrepreneurs through in-person educational events, workshops, mentorship sessions and more to help them grow successful companies.
Today at Launchpad Space, Google’s physical event space that matches developers and entrepreneurs with the best of Google and SV, Shiri works with top tech community leaders and different Google teams to give developers and entrepreneurs access to knowledge and education.
In 2017, Shiri launched “Launchpad Female Founders”, a program that strives to provide a framework for conversations around gender equality, that can be adapted to support the unique efforts of female and female-identified entrepreneurs — wherever they may be.The program matches the best of Google — its people, network, and advanced technologies — to the global community of women-led startups, helping female founders support and inspire one another while building and scaling successful products and businesses.
Before moving to the US, Shiri co-led the 4th cohort of Google for Entrepreneur’s Campus for Moms, Google’s baby-friendly startup school for new moms.
3. Hadar Greenfield — IAC Program Manager
Hadar Greenfield is a Program Manager at the San Francisco Israeli American Council. Hadar’s expertise is in community building and engagement. Managing multiple programs for IAC: The Palo Alto Eitanim program — a leadership and entrepreneurship project-based program for middle and high school students. The Northwest Mishelanu program — a pro-Israel program that fosters leaders and provides a home for Israeli-American students across 6 college campuses.
Hadar leads projects and events as part of IAC BINA which focuses on building a united network of Jewish and Israeli young professionals in San Francisco, collaborating with multiple organizations to empower the Israeli-American community through events such as the recent Women In Tech.
A strong community is a bedrock of friendship, success and social change. Hadar finds satisfaction and pride in building the relationships that define the community for herself and others.
4. Hilla Behar — Data scientist , PhD
Hilla received her PhD in applied math two and a half years ago from Bar Ilan university. She moved to California as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in the department of theoretical biology.
Four months ago Hilla decided that she wants to apply her academic knowledge in the “real world” and started to work as a data scientist in a startup called TripActions. She applies machine learning algorithms on travel app data and studies human behavior.
Hilla is married to Ephy, and a proud mother of their three kids.
5. Karin Zimerman — Business Development
Karin is passionate about transforming healthcare through innovative technology.
After a few years being part of the Google Cloud Platform Business Development team and almost a decade at Pfizer Israel, it was only natural to combine technology with healthcare. Now, she is following her own passion as a Strategic Account Manager at a leading digital health company based in San Mateo.
Inspired by people’s life stories and deep powerful connections, Karin is encouraging and mentoring women of our great community who are figuring out their new path to success and fulfillment in the tech industry.
Karin is married to Yaron, a mother of two and a proud fashionista.
6. Michal Shoham — Innovative Producer & Marketer connecting Israel to the Silicon Valley
Michal Shoham has played an instrumental part in a number of the Israeli community biggest events including Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations, Zionism 3.0 and others together with Ronit Jacobs and the ICC@JCC in Palo Alto.
She has been connecting Executive MBA delegations coming from Israel with prominent business leaders here in the Silicon Valley.
Previously Michal was the Head of the Diplomatic Visits Department at the Israeli Consulate in New York overseeing the visits of The Prime Minister of Israel, Presidents and others to the US. Before moving to US 9 years ago, She led Sales and Marketing at 3M Israel.
Michal is married to Shani, an entrepreneur and investor and the mother of Shai (6) and Li-or (3)
7. Noga Eshed Baror — Product Manager at Google
Noga Eshed-Baror is passionate about improving people’s lives through technology. Noga holds a BSc. in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Stanford University, she worked as an engineer at Intel, a G.O. at Club Med, and a consultant at McKinsey. Noga is now the product manager for Google Doodles where she gets to put a smile on people’s faces around the globe with one of the most widespread canvases on the planet.
Noga is particularly enthusiastic about gender diversity in the workplace, having worked in male dominated environments for over a decade, often as the only woman on her team. Noga believes women lack sufficient mentorship and community at the workplace, therefore she leads a women’s circle at Google, she built a community for Israeli working mothers in the Bay Area, and she mentors several women in tech.
Noga is married to a tech entrepreneur and is the proud mother of two daughters. She spends her time crafting a delicate balance between her career and her family.
8. Pauline Cohen Vorms — Director of Business Development
Pauline Cohen Vorms is Director of Business Development at the Holberton School and previously at Coursera. She’s passionate about how technology can help us address today’s challenges, reduce biases and change how we approach Education and workforce development.
Over the last 3+ years she’s helped Coursera grow internationally, launched Coursera for Refugees and the new professional Certificates programs before joining the Holberton school , a new school offering alternative to CS undergraduate as Director of Business Development.
9. Ravit Bennier (Cohen) — Product Designer
Ravit Bennier (Cohen) is a senior designer at Facebook and an instructor at the Academy of Art University. Through the lens of design and culture, Ravit is helping shape the experiences around us and define the new media as the new message (Marshall Mcluhan). Ravit studied Graphic Design in San Diego, Interaction and Product Design in Los Angeles, and attended an MBA school in Singapore. She traveled the world and is now able to understand different cultures, leading her team at Facebook to comprehend the importance of diversity in design practices. Ravit believes that design is shaping the world we’re headed towards, and the focus on social and environmental responsibility is key to making a true difference.
10. Orly Liba, PhD — Research Scientist
Dr. Orly Liba is a Research Scientist at Google, working in the AI Perception team. Her current projects are focused on using computational imaging to encourage creativity on mobile devices. She recently graduated from the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford, where she developed new tools for seeing under the skin with coherent light. Before relocating to the bay-area, Orly worked in the Israeli high-tech industry and served for over five years in the Israeli intelligence corps.
Throughout her degree, Orly has been active in the Women in Electrical Engineering group at Stanford, which creates a community of women engineers by organizing mentoring, social and professional events. At Google, Orly is part of the Diversity & Inclusion council of AI Perception.
11. Tali Krakowsky — Partner, Executive Creative Director
Tali is a Design Partner and the Executive Creative Director at a global brand strategy and design firm called Prophet. Her focus is on experience design. From branding companies to creating signature experiences for B2B and B2C firms, all projects are strategically lead and in service of business growth, with a dedication to design excellence and seamlessly embedded with a digital pulse. In an industry where consulting Partners are predominantly male, Tali is dedicated to mentoring young women into leadership roles and serves on the Gender Diversity team at Prophet.
12. Tanya Glozman — PhD
Tanya is in her final year of PhD at Stanford, where she is developing novel methods to capture, model and analyze the shape of human brain structures using tools from computational geometry and computer vision.
Before and during her PhD, Tanya worked as a computer vision engineer in high-tech companies in both Israel and the US, solving problems in medical imaging, defense and security, consumer electronics and robotics.
Tanya is married to Alex and is a happy mother of two boys, ages 2 and 4.
13. Yaara Guetta Weidberg— Associate Mighty Capital
Yaara is an experienced technology and strategy professional and entrepreneur. She brings strategic initiatives to life by identifying market opportunities, bringing products to market, and scaling. Currently, Yaara works at Mighty Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in companies building “products that count:” products that transform lives and create value at scale.
Since its inception, Mighty Capital has been committed to diversity & inclusion. Accordingly, a disproportionate number of our decision makers (GPs) and investors (LPs) are female at Mighty Capital. In addition, Yaara is personally committed in helping fellow female entrepreneurs and professionals.
14. Dana Ben Shushan — Dana4Design
Dana is the founder and principal designer of Dana4Design an interior planning and design firm located in the East Bay. She is a kibtuznikit at heart that strongly believes in collaboration, especially with other women designers around the Bay Area. Her projects range from commercial retail to residential and offices. Over the last two years she has concentrated her efforts designing office spaces around the Bay Area that have a unique feel and aesthetic quality incorporating simple, clean lines and above all, functionality.
She is dedicated to the idea that a good designer is one who listens to the client, seamlessly integrating their vision with Dana’s experience in a harmonious manner. She recently designed the offices of WeAct, a shared co-working space for female entrepreneurs , with fellow designer Galit Arad.
In addition to designing phenomenal spaces, she chases her 2 children through the streets of Berkeley and bakes a mean chocolate cake.
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