David Heller is a co-founder of Corundum Open Innovation Fund (COIF) and serves as a General Partner and Chairman of the Investment Committee of COIF.

David has been active in Asia-related investments and businesses – with Japan focus – since 1990 and has been engaged in private equity and venture capital investments since 1996.

In 1996, David co-founded and managed Israel International Fund (IIF) which was the first Israeli investment fund tailored for Japanese investors. Following a merger of IIF with Vertex Ventures – a leading Israeli technology investment firm – David became Vertex’s General Partner in charge of Asian activities.

David has raised capital for Vertex funds from Japanese and other Asian investors and has facilitated various business transactions between Vertex’s Asian investors and Israeli companies. He has been involved in investment transactions as well as M&As and IPOs of Vertex portfolio companies.

David started his Asia-related career in Japan (1990-1995) where he studied in Kyoto University and later worked as a foreign lawyer at the law firm of Wakabayashi & Watanabe, Tokyo. At the firm, he focused on cross-border investment and M&A transactions. Prior to that, in Israel, David was a Partner in the law firm of Yossi Avraham & Co. where he specialized in cross-border investment and M&A transactions and headed the firm’s Asia Department.

David received an LL.B (Bachelor Degree in Law) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel and an LL.M (Master Degree in Law) from Kyoto University, Japan.

Gilad Peleg (Lorberbaum) has 25 years of experience in life sciences management, including blue chip corporate pharma business development, the launching of innovative start-ups, and venture capital / private equity portfolio management.

From 2008 (foundation), up to late 2015, Gilad was C.O.O at Rainbow Medical Ltd., an operational investment company, with over a dozen fully owned subsidiaries, tens of pipeline projects, and over $200M in investments. Earlier on in 2006, Gilad was CEO in residence at Glenrock Israel private equity family office, and from 2002, CEO at NanoCyte Inc., leading the company from idea to clinical proof of concept. In year 1999, Gilad was VP at Reico Venture Capital managing the med tech portfolio, and thereafter was Co-Founder of Oncosurge technology. Between 1993 and 1999, Gilad was with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA, NYSE), initially as Finance Manager at Teva R&D division, and thereafter Business Development Director at Teva headquarters.

Gilad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and an MBA from the University of Hartford, Connecticut, USA.

David Ben-Ami has over 25 years of experience as an Executive in leading Pharma and Medical Device companies as a CEO, Entrepreneur, Board member and as an angel investor. He worked for Teva Pharmaceuticals where he spent 12 years involved in business development for Teva’s local Hospital Division and for Israeli operations. In 2003, he joined Boston Scientific and as Country Director, he worked closely with a team that identified and evaluated innovative Israeli medical technologies in the fields of Interventional Cardiology, Gastrointestinal Interventions, Interventional Radiology, Urology, Gynecology and Neuro Radiology. In 2005, he was named CEO of NVR Labs, a cell therapy company that developed a composite implant comprised of scaffold and Autologous cells for Spinal Cord Injury. In 2009, he co-founded Macrocure Ltd. a cell therapy and regenerative medicine company currently focused on hard-to-heal wounds.

He is past and current board member of various bio- and medical-device companies such as: Biocell Ltd, Entera Bio, Degania Medical, VVT Medical, Hairstetics, and Metyav Incubator.

He holds a BA in Economics & Management and an MBA from Tel Aviv University.

Takeda co-founded and manages Corundum Innovation Co. Ltd., Japan.

Takeda worked for Hitachi, Ltd. (www.hitachi.com), the biggest electronics company in Japan for 34 years since 1971,  and served as its Vice President of New Business Creation since August 1995, and as SVP and CTO of Hitachi America Ltd., Since 1998. Furthermore, Takeda proposed, established and managed the Hitachi CVC in the Silicon Valley, USA as the President of The Hitachi Corporate Ventures Catalyst Fund with US$80M. In this capacity he was responsible for making investment decisions and arranging business development projects between Hitachi and its portfolio companies.

From 2005 until 2011, Takeda worked as the Executive Director at RIKEN  (http://www.riken.jp/en/ ) the Japanese flagship science research institute with annual budget of US$1B responsible for innovation. In addition, Takeda had served as Senior Advisor of DBJ Capital since 2010, and as Corporate Auditor at MEDIASEEK Inc., since October 2011.

Takeda has been teaching entrepreneurship as a visiting professor of graduate school of Waseda University since 2004. He received a Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctor’s degree in engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and received a Master of Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

CIO, Managing Director

Industries: Tech industries, software, cyber security, semiconductor

Core competence: CTO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Tech consultant to top management of Sony, Softbank, Toyota, cross boarder business development for startup companies

Ilan Kieselstein serves as Senior Manager Business Development for Corundum Open Innovation based in Israel.

Ilan Kieselstein has 20 years of experience in dedicated sales and business development roles facing the Japanese and APAC market, in Software (Infrastructure, Developer Tools, and Applications), Telecommunications, Consumer Analytics, Digital Signage, Medical Devices, Consumer Electronics, and Cyber Security.

Ilan started his career at Triangle Technologies, Israel’s leading Japan entry consultancy company, managing several Israeli companies’ market expansions to Japan and Japanese accounts. Subsequently, Ilan joined RADLAN where he led Japan-Korea sales activities. Ilan then proceeded to RADVISION, opening its RADVISION Japan K.K. subsidiary in 2005 and serving as Country Manager full-time in Tokyo for 7 years. Up to 2016 Ilan served in several VP sales positions in startups.

Ilan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Japan Studies and an MBA (Marketing) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.