The core competencies of the management team include
experimental hematology, chemical engineering,
molecular and cellular biology and biotechnology
management.
Zami Aberman, President & CEO
Aberman joined Pluristem in September 2005 and
changed the Company’s strategy towards cellular
therapeutics. Mr. Aberman has 20 years of experience
in marketing and management in the high technology
industry. He has held Chief Executive and Chairman
positions in Israel, the USA, Europe, Japan and
Korea. He has operated within high-tech global
companies in the fields of automatic optical
inspection, network security, video over IP,
software, chip design and robotics. Mr. Aberman
serves as the Chairman of Rose Hitech Ltd., a
private investment company; and has served in the
past as the Chairman of VLScom Ltd., a private
company specializing in video compression for HDTV
and video over IP and as a Director of Ori Software
Ltd., a company involved in data management. Prior
to that, he served as the President and CEO of Elbit
Vision Systems (EVSNF.OB), which supplies inspection
systems for the microelectronic industry.
Mr. Aberman has served as President and CEO of
Netect Ltd., specializing in the field of internet
security software and was the Co-Founder, President
and CEO of Associative Computing Ltd., which
developed an associative parallel processor for
real-time video processing. He has also served as
Chairman of Display Inspection Systems Inc.,
specializing in laser based inspection machines and
as President and CEO of Robomatix Technologies Ltd.
(RBMXF.OB).
In 1992, Aberman was awarded the Rothschild Prize
for excellence in his field from the President of
the State of Israel. Aberman holds a B.Sc. in
Mechanical Engineering from Ben Gurion University in
Israel
Yaky Yanay, VP Finance & CFO
Prior to joining Pluristem, Mr. Yanay was the Chief
Financial Officer of Elbit Vision System Ltd. (EVSNF.OB),
a company engaged in automatic optical inspection.
He has extensive experience in the financing and
management of technology companies. He played a
major role in planning and executing a turn-around
plan for Elbit Vision System, including the
completion of three acquisitions and the raising of
more than $20 million, resulting in a tripling of
the company’s revenues and attaining profitability.
Mr. Yanay began his financial career at Ernst &Young
Israel in 1999, where he served as a manager of
audit groups for the technology sector. He joined
Ernst &Young’s financial team after serving in the
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1993. Mr.
Yanay holds a bachelor’s degree with honor in
business administration and accounting from the
College of Management Studies in Rishon Le Zion,
Israel and is a Certified Public Accountant in
Israel.
William R. Prather RPh, MD, Senior VP Corporate
Development
William R. Prather RPh, MD, is a Registered
Pharmacist as well as a Board Certified Internist
and Geriatrician. Dr. Prather received his BS in
Pharmacy (1970) and medical degree (1973) from the
University of Missouri. He practiced internal
medicine in the Kansas City, MO and Vail, CO areas
until leaving Internal Medicine in 1987 to pursue a
Fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at Harvard
University. He completed this Fellowship in 1989.
In 1992, Dr. Prather left the practice of medicine
to pursue a career in the financial industry where
he has held Senior Healthcare research positions for
a variety of investment banks . Dr. Prather
co-founded Panacos, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANC), a public
pharmaceutical company. Additionally, he has been on
the Boards of several public and private companies,
including Boston Biomedica Inc. (a public medical
diagnostics company), PriMed (a private medical
device company), MdBio (a Maryland healthcare
venture firm), and sat on the Advisory Board of MDS
Capital Management, (a Canadian venture firm).
Amir Toren, Ph.D., Director of Business Development.
Dr. Toren graduated with honors (Summa Cum
Laude) from the Department of Molecular Microbiology
and Biotechnology at Tel Aviv University.
Prior
to joining Pluristem, Dr. Toren was the Head of
Regulatory Affairs and R&D at MediWound Ltd., an
innovative Israeli Biotech Company specializing in
development of products for the wound care market.
Dr. Toren was responsible for all research and
development activities of the company and was in
charge of new process development. In addition he
was in charge of all regulatory affairs and
conducting the contacts with regulatory authorities
such as the Israeli Ministry of Health, FDA, MCA,
etc.
Dr. Toren has extensive knowledge in
protein/peptide purification, chromatography and
molecular biology.
Chaya Mazouz, Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs
Ms. Chaya Mazouz received her BSc in Nursing and
MA in Philosophy of Science from the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem and is a registered
Nurse. Ms. Mazouz joined Pluristem in August
2008 to lead the Company’s clinical trials.
Prior to joining Pluristem, Chaya Mazouz held
the position of Clinical Operations Director for
Medgenics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical
company involving gene therapy, where she
engineered Phase I/II clinical studies.
Previously, Ms. Mazouz served as Clinical
Manager for TransPharma Medical, a drug delivery
company, where she was responsible for managing
all of the company's clinical activities. In
previous positions, Ms. Mazouz led a multi-center
Phase II study for Pharmos, a pharmaceutical
company, and was CRA and Project Manager at
IDgene, a startup company engaged in gene
discovery.
Dr.
Moran Meiron received her BSc from the
Department of Food Engineering and Biochemistry
at the Hebrew University. She received her MSc
degree from the faculty of Biotechnology and
Food Engineering at the Technion - Israel
Institute of Technology. She studied the
expression regulation of VEGF (Vascular
Endothelial Growth Factor). This protein has a
key role in angiogenesis, cardiovascular
disorders and cancer. Moran received her PhD
degree from the Faculty of Medicine, the
Department of Immunology, at the Technion. The
research in her lab concerned autoimmune
diseases. She studied the regulatory role of
SDF-1 in EAE, a mice model for the human
autoimmune disease - Multiple Sclerosis.
Nirit
Drori-Carmi received her BSc (Suma Cum Laude) in
Biochemistry and Food Sciences and an MSc in
Biotechnology from the Hebrew University,
Jerusalem. Prior to joining Pluristem she served
as a researcher in Biogenics, developing and
optimizing production and delivery of
therapeutic proteins from genetically engineered
tissues. Ms. Drori-Carmi joined Pluristem as a
project manager in the R&D department. In
October 2007 Ms. Drori-Carmi was appointed
Director of Development. In her new position she
is responsible for all aspects of product
development, including manufacturing process
optimizations. Ms. Drori-Carmi has experience in
production methods optimization and extensive
knowledge in protein and histological analyses.
Hagay
received his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and
M.Sc. in Biotechnology from the Faculty of
Engineering Sciences at the Ben-Gurion
University.
After his studies, Hagay worked as a Researcher
in the R&D Division of InterPharm Laboratories
(a subsidiary of the Serono Group) where he
participated in the development of several
production processes of recombinant proteins
using mammalian cells cultures in bioreactors
and was responsible for the production of
recombinant protein in pilot scale bioreactors.
In 2004, Hagay moved to the Serono facility in
Spain to serve as a bioreactors specialist.
There he was responsible for the implementation
of various bioreactors in a new production
facility and for the technology transfer of a
production process.
Before joining Pluristem he worked for 2 years
as an associate scientist in the Israel Biotech
R&D group of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
Hagay has extensive knowledge in bioprocess
development and bioreactor systems. top
