OUR TEAM
Yaron Carni - Founder
Prior to starting Maverick Israel, Yaron founded the Tel Aviv Angel Group and was personally involved in the business development of all its portfolio companies, as well as five exits from the portfolio. One of his most notable successes was facilitating Google's first acquisition in Israel - LabPixies. Before that, Yaron was the Head of Business Development of GC Marketing Services in New York until it was sold. He is a graduate of the Sam Zell Entrepreneurship Program and holds a Masters Degree in Law with a concentration in Intellectual Property.
Yaron served as a reserves officer in the I.D.F. and was a Spokesman. He sits on the board of the United Hatzalah, an independent, non-profit Emergency Medical Services Organization which consists of over 6,000 volunteer first responders to medical emergencies throughout Israel. Recently, the organization received the Schwab Foundation's Social Entrepreneur Award, was featured at the World Economic Forum in Davos and obtained a spotlight on TED. Yaron is a contributor to Forbes and writes about Israeli innovation.
Michel Abadi - Managing Partner
Michel spent over a decade and was the Global Head of Product Development at Gems Fund of Funds, which at its peak managed over US$7.5 billion. From 1995 to 1999, Michel was at Banco Patrimonio, a Salomon Brothers joint-venture in Brazil, where he was a portfolio manager for local and off-shore Brazilian hedge funds worth US$1.5 billion. Michel became Head of Products for the Local Private Bank after its sale to Chase Manhattan Bank, and soon after, J.P. Morgan. In this function, Michel was responsible for the design, structure and implementation of a local fund of hedge funds worth US$ 1 billion, in addition to an advisory desk for local markets, currency trading and creating structured trades. Michel holds a Production Engineering degree from the University of Sao Paulo, and a Master of Business Administration conferred jointly by Kellogg School of Management and Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration.
Michel is the Chairman of Aish TLV, which bridges the gap between religious and non-religious young leaders. He is also the Chairman of Beit Brasil, which helps Brazilian Olim in their first year in Israel.
ROCHELLE RAM - VP FINANCE
Rochelle brings with her over 18 years of experience in financial management, investor relations and fund operations.
Prior to joining Maverick, Rochelle managed a team at Tzur Management (acquired by Apex Group) focused on account management and investor services for private equity, real estate and venture capital firms. She was responsible for the preparation and review of fund financials, LP allocations, capital statements, capital calls and distributions.
Previously, she served as the IR and operations manager of a US/Israel medical device investment firm, where she was responsible for preparing and managing capitalization tables, financing rounds and distributions, as well as all investor correspondence with both local and foreign investors.
Rochelle holds a Bachelor’s degree in both Psychology and Philosophy from Bar Ilan University, Summa Cum Laude.
Miri Fenton - Associate
Miri Fenton is the Associate at Maverick Ventures Israel. She is responsible for deal flow and due diligence processes that result in new investments for Maverick.
If you're an entrepreneur who would like to discuss funding and development, kindly send an email with your deck to: miri@maverick.vc.
Originally from London, Miri holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Cambridge and Yale University. She completed her PhD in legal and economic history at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Throughout her PhD, Miri was a freelance consultant for individuals and early-stage companies applying to large research grants (e.g., ERC, ISF). She has over a decade of experience helping people craft compelling plans for how to turn their research into scalable, fundable businesses. After her PhD, she gained experience in the startup ecosystem at Chain Reaction, a chip-design startup in Tel Aviv, through their Series C raise. She was as a business analyst, focused on market research, investor relations and early-growth marketing.
Joe Raby - Venture Partner
Joseph Raby is a Venture Partner with Maverick Ventures (Israel) and sits
on the board of some of the portfolio companies.
He served as President and Managing Partner of Sunshine Suites, a business
incubator in New York City, which he co-founded in 2001.
Joe served as Senior Vice President as a financial advisor for Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter and has been a financial advisor for Prudential
Securities.
Professor Ed Roberts
Professor Ed Roberts is a four time investor in Maverick Ventures. He is a professor of technological innovation, entrepreneurship and strategic management and chair of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. He was the Co-founder of over 10 companies, on the board of over 20 companies and investor in more than 40 firms.
Professor Roberts has Bachelors and Masters degrees in electrical engineering from MIT, a master's of science in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a doctorate in economics from MIT.
Valerie Friedman
Valerie Friedman is a four time investor in Maverick and is the head of Advisory Board for all Maverick Ventures Israel funds. She is a Principal at Bracebridge Capital, LLC. Prior to joining Bracebridge she was a Managing Director at Citigroup.
Valerie is a member of the Northwestern University Board of Trustees. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Political Science from Northwestern University.
Mark Gerson
Mark Gerson has been partners with Yaron since inception of Maverick. He is a serial entrepreneur and is currently the CEO of Julius, an Influencer Marketing Platform, that is part of the Maverick 1.5 portfolio.
Mark was the Founder of the Gerson Lehrman Group, a global platform for professional learning. He graduated with a BA from Williams College and a JD from Yale Law School.
Gerson is the Chairman of the board of United Hatzalah and African Mission Healthcare Foundation.
Mario Fleck
Mario has served as the President of Rio Bravo for the past 9 years. Prior to that he served as the Chairman and CEO of Accenture in Brazil (Accenture do Brasil Ltda.) a company he worked at for nearly three decades.
He is a member of the Board of Governors of Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and VP of Chamber of Commerce Brazil-Israel. Mario holds a B.Sc. in Industrial and Mechanical Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.
Daniel Allen
Daniel Allen is currently the Managing Partner at Corona Investment Partners.
Prior to Corona he was a Principal at Bain Capital.
Daniel holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an AB from Harvard University.