The Best & Brightest in Technology

Yaron Galai is the Co-Founder and co-CEO at Outbrain.

Prior to founding Outbrain, Galai was Co-Founder and SVP of Quigo, Inc., a provider of performance-based marketing solutions for advertisers and premium publishers. He served as CEO of the company for three years until Quigo was acquired by AOL in December 2007.

Galai was also Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Development at Ad4ever, a developer of rich-media, web-based advertising technologies, later acquired by Atlas, a division of aQuantive.

Earlier, he was the Founder of NetWorks Web Design, an SEO and Web Design firm. At NetWorks he oversaw the production and search engine optimization of over 30 websites.

Galai studied Industrial Design at the Holon Technological Institute, and is a Lieutenant Commander (res) in the Israeli Navy.

David Kostman is the Co-CEO of Outbrain, and has served in this role since November 2017.

Prior to this, Kostman acted as CEO of Delta Galil USA and COO of Verticalnet. He was also a Managing Director in the investment banking division of Lehman Brothers, heading the Global Internet Group, and earlier, an Investment Banker at NM Rothschild & Sons.

Kostman holds a Bachelor of Law degree from Tel Aviv University and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD.

Ori Lahav is the Co-Founder, CTO, and General Manager of Israel at Outbrain, while also overseeing the company's R&D center located in Netanya, Israel.

Prior to co-founding Outbrain, Lahav led the R&D groups in Search and Classification at Shopping.com, which was acquired by eBay for $634 million. Ori also previously led the Video Streaming Server Group at technology company Vsoft.

A practical engineer from the Rupin Academic Institute, Lahav is also a Major Reserve Officer in the Israeli Navy.

Yossi joined Outbrain in 2014 as vice president of Cyber Security. Prior to his CIO role, he served as VP IT and Security where he established and scaled operation in cybersecurity, anti fraud domains, IT and information systems. Yossi's group lead cross-functional efforts/projects and drive business scaling driven by automation and operational excellence.

Yossi serves on several advisory boards for early stages starts-up on various technology domains, with a focus on product mgmt and scale. Prior to Outbrain, Yossi was Conduit's head of security.

Prior to that role, Yossi lead various roles in Amdocs such as global IT operation and cross-functional projects, IT tech lead on Amdocs M&A, and in his last role, head of Amdocs corporate security and cyber technologies research & innovation with overseeing global teams who were responsible on security for more than 60 offices /locations.

Yossi holds a BA in Management and Political Science specializing in International Relations, The Open University of Israel.

Gilad de Vries is the Chief Strategy Officer at Outbrain, and has served in this role since January 2016.

Prior to this, de Vries served as Vice President of Products and BI and Head of the Brands and Agencies business at Outbrain since he joined the company in 2011.

De Vries brings more than 30 years of experience in the digital media and technology fields. Before joining Outbrain, de Vries was VP of Digital Media and Principal at Viola Ventures, one of Israel’s top-tier venture capital firms, where he lead the fund's investments in digital media, Internet and mobile startups.

De Vries served as a Lieutenant in Mamram, the prestigious Israeli Defense Forces’ Technology Unit. He holds a B.A. degree in Economics and Business Management from the Bar-Ilan University and a Global MBA from Reichman University Herzelia.

Veronica Gonzalez is the Chief Administrative Officer & General Counsel at Outbrain. Prior to joining Outbrain, Veronica served as an Associate with the law firm Day Pitney LLP from September 2008 to April 2013.

Gonzalez graduated from Brown University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and attended Fordham School of Law where she earned her Juris Doctor.

Jason Kiviat is the Chief Financial Officer at Outbrain. He joined Outbrain in 2013, serving in roles of increasing responsibility within the Company’s finance team spanning the controllership, FP&A, IR and special projects.

Prior to joining Outbrain, Jason served as a Senior Associate in the audit practice at KPMG LLP.

Kiviat holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Maryland and received his CPA license in New York in 2011.

Prior to joining Outbrain, Knegten was CMO of Beeswax, which was acquired by Comcast’s FreeWheel. Following the acquisition of Beeswax, Knegten joined FreeWheel, the leading CTV platform, as a senior marketing executive.

Knegten held various executive marketing roles at MediaMath, Yahoo!, and Dapper, in addition to co-founding Amitree, an Accel-backed tech startup

Daphna Michaeli is the Chief People Officer and joined Outbrain in 2012. She has successfully led HR efforts for a variety of companies and carries nearly two decades of experience in recruiting, employee development and training.

Prior to her current role, Michaeli was the Vice President of Human Resources for ICQ where she developed and implemented policies for staff recruitment and professional training and development. She also helped define the organization's mission statement and spearheaded initiatives instilling core values of transparency and trust throughout the workforce.

Michaeli holds a B.A. Degree in Psychology and Sociology and actively mentors professional women who are both entering the workforce or have an interest in human resources as a career path.

Asaf Porat is the Chief Operating Officer and leads Outbrain’s Business Operations and Business Intelligence Departments as well as the Global Business Optimization efforts.

Prior to that, Porat served as Vice President of Corporate Operations where he led and supported a variety of strategic initiatives aimed at increasing the organizational effectiveness with an emphasis on operational excellence and corporate development.

Porat joined Outbrain in 2014 as a Business Analyst and held positions of increasing levels of responsibility. He played a key role in the acquisition and integration of Ligatus, AdNgin and Zemanta.

Prior to Outbrain Porat served as a Captain and Squadron Leader in the Israeli Navy.

Porat holds an International Master of Business Administration from Tel Aviv University and graduated its exchange program with Johnson Business School at Cornell University.

Sarah Baird is the General Manager for Outbrain's North America business. In this role, she leads our commercial teams and is responsible for revenue growth, product adoption and setting the region's strategy.

Baird has held several roles at Outbrain since joining the team in 2014. Prior to becoming GM, she served as VP of Account Strategy & Operations where she built commercial relationships with leading publishers and advertisers in North America.

Prior to joining Outbrain, she was the Director of Business Operations for Studio One Networks. In this role, she ran the commercial relationships with the firm's largest advertisers and was a member of their deal team leading up to their acquisition in 2014.

Baird is a graduate of the University of Miami, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts.

Alexander Erlmeier is Chief Revenue Officer at Outbrain, responsible for sustainable growth and product adoption for all international markets across APAC, EMEA, and LATAM.

Erlmeier joined Outbrain in 2012, and has led the DACH business as Managing Director, Central Europe into a high and sustainable growth market. He also established Outbrain as the market leader in Germany and Austria for native discovery.

Erlmeier has more than 20 years of professional experience in the online sector, has founded several start-ups, and worked for leading international companies such as AOL and Mail.Ru.

Before joining Outbrain, Erlmeier was Country Manager of DACH for ICQ and established the brand as the market leader in Instant Messaging in the region.

Stephanie Himoff is the Vice President of Global Publishers and Platforms at Outbrain, responsible for the strategic growth of the global organization.

Since joining in 2012, she has grown the business into a dominant market player in the Native Advertising space, building commercial relationships with leading publishers and advertisers.

Himoff has over 20 years of experience spearheading the growth of Internet businesses in Europe, working with innovative digital start-ups and world-leading technologies.

Himoff holds a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of San Francisco as well as a Masters from IESEG.

Ayal Steiner is the Vice President of Global Ad Revenue at Outbrain, responsible for leading Advertising Sales and Commercial Strategy, globally.

After completing his Master’s of Business Administration and working for several tech-startups in Product Strategy positions, Steiner joined Outbrain in 2012, launching both the Australia and New Zealand markets. He later became the Managing Director of the APAC business and oversaw expansion into several new markets in Asia.

In 2017, he became Vice President of International Revenue, leading Commercial Strategy and Revenue across all markets outside of the United States before being promoted to Vice President of Global Ad Revenue.

Ms. Krindel has served as a director of our Company since April 2022.

Ms. Krindel has served as a director of Sol Gel Technologies (NASDAQ:SLGL) since March 2018; as a director of BGN Technologies, the technology transfer company of Ben Gurion University, since May 2011; a director of Ashdod Port Company LTD, since May 2022, and also serves as a director of several privately held companies. Ms. Krindel served on the board of the following NASDAQ-traded companies until their acquisition or merger: BreezeCOM Ltd. (NASDAQ:BRZE) from August 1993 until August 2001, Fundtech Ltd. (NASDAQ:FNDT) from February 2004 until November 2011, Voltaire Ltd. (NASDAQ:VOLT) from February 2008 until February 2011, Syneron Medical Ltd. (NASDAQ:ELOS) from November 2005 until July 2017 and Itamar Medical Ltd. (NASDAQ:ITMR) from June 2016 until December 2021. From 1997 to 2007, Ms. Krindel served as managing partner of Star Ventures, a German-Israeli venture capital firm. Previous leadership roles included Chief Financial Officer and VP Finance of Lannet Data Communications Ltd. (NASDAQ: LNTF) from February 1992 until June 1996 and corporate treasurer of Rotem Amfert from April 1986 until January 1992.

Ms. Krindel holds a BA in Economics and Far Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MBA from the Tel Aviv University.

Kate Taneyhill Jhaveri has served as a director of our company since 2021.

Jhaveri is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Having held the role since August 2019, she leads global marketing, research and analytics and is responsible for driving revenue, commerce and brand growth for the NBA, NBA G League and NBA 2K League around the world.

Prior leadership roles held by Jhaveri include Chief Marketing Officer at Twitch.tv; Head of Consumer Marketing at Twitter; Head of Brand Marketing at Facebook and global marketing positions at Microsoft.

Jhaveri received her MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business in 2003 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from College of the Holy Cross in 1995.

Jonathan (Yoni) Cheifetz has served as a director of our company since 2008.

Cheifetz has served as a Partner at Lightspeed Ventures since June 2006. Mr. Cheifetz serves as a Director of BlueVine Inc., eBuzzing, EyeView Inc., Personetics Technologies Ltd., Ginger Software, Inc., Scodix Ltd. and SolarEdge Technologies Inc.

Cheifetz holds a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the Tel Aviv University and an M.S. in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from the Weizman Institute of Science.

Arne Wolter has served as a director of our company since 2019.

Mr. Wolter has served as Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Statista, a leading data and business intelligence company, since September 2021. Wolter was the Chief Digital Officer at Gruner + Jahr from autumn 2015 through spring 2022, where he led G+J’s digital business and further digital transformation. His responsibilities included the digital content brand business (including CHEFKOCH, STERN, BRIGITTE, GALA), the marketing platform AppLike, the Greenhouse Innovation Lab, M&A and the Digital Ventures fund.

Wolter earned a joint masters degree in civil engineering and business administration in Germany and holds an MBA from URI, USA. After initial positions at G+J he moved to arvato mobile in 2002 where he built the B2B business and was promoted to Vice President B2B/B2C and Member of the Executive Board. He returned to G+J in 2007 as Managing Director of G+J EMS.

Shlomo Dovrat has served as a director of our company since 2009.

Dovrat is a co-founder of the Viola Group and General Partner and Co-Founder of Viola Ventures, an Israeli venture capital firm. Dovrat previously served as the Chairman of ECI Telecom Ltd. from 2002 through its acquisition in 2007 for approximately $1.2 billion.

Dovrat also served as the President and CEO of OshapTechnologies Ltd. (formerly NASDAQ: OSHSF), which was acquired by SunGard Data Systems Inc. (NYSE: SDS) in 1999. Mr. Dovrat also founded Tecnomatix Technologies, Ltd. (formerly NASDAQ: TCNO) and served as its CEO and President from its inception until 1995, as its Chairman until 2001 and thereafter as director until 2005.

Dovrat currently serves as a director of ironSource, Red Bend, cVidya, eXelate and other privately held companies.

Nithya B. Das has served as a director of our company since 2023.

Over the last three years, Das has served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer at Olo (NYSE: OLO), a leading open SaaS platform for restaurants. Das joined Olo in 2019 as General Counsel, became Chief Legal Officer in November 2020, and moved into the Chief Operating Officer role in January 2022 to oversee the company’s primary corporate operations including legal, people and culture, strategy and operations, corporate development, and partner ecosystem teams. Das will be stepping down from her position at Olo effective March 31, 2023.

Prior to her role at Olo, Das held the position of Chief Legal and People Officer at AppNexus where she led the company’s acquisition by AT&T for approximately $2 billion as well as the integration. Earlier in her career, Das served as an attorney in the New York office of Goodwin Procter LLP where she represented public and private growth technology companies.

Nithya holds a degree in Business Administration from the SC Honors College at USC and a J.D., cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School.

Liesbeth Mack-de Boer is Managing Director, EMEA, and responsible for the commercial teams in the EMEA region as well as revenue growth, product adoption and business strategy.

Before taking over the commercial leadership for Outbrain’s EMEA region, she was Managing Director for Central Europe at Outbrain and Managing Director for the German-speaking market at Ligatus prior to the acquisition by Outbrain. Previously, she held senior international roles at e.g. Sedo.com and Trusted Shops and has over 20+ years experience in global / international leadership roles.

Her entrepreneurial acumen led her to driving growth for multiple digital companies and building as well as managing teams for sustainable business success.

She studied commercial economics - international management in the Netherlands and additionally holds an MBA in Media Management from Steinbeis Hochschule, Berlin.