Management Team

BENNY ARBEL, FOUNDER & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
	Benny Arbel, founder and Chief Executive Officer of MyThings, is responsible for the strategic direction of the company as well as day-to-day operations to build the business successfully. Prior to founding MyThings Benny was Associate Vice President for multi-billion dollar NASDAQ-100 company Comverse, where he established and ran the Content Management Unit for the company's entertainment and new media solutions. Benny is a seasoned executive and has held several professional titles including founder and CEO of fast growing international, Internet and telecommunications companies, founder and COO of EverAd Inc. and co-founder and Vice President Business Development of Netline Limited. Benny began his career as a senior IP and commercial solicitor in Israel. Benny’s favourite thing is his home entertainment centre.
KEN BOUCHE, VICE PRESIDENT OF TRACE
	Ken Bouche joined the MyThings team to lead the development of the Trace database that will give consumers, businesses and law enforcement access to tremendously improved information regarding stolen property.  Ken came to MyThings after 23 years with the Illinois State Police where, as their CIO, he focused on strategically improving information sharing to reduce crime, prevent terrorism, and improve the practice of justice. Ken served as the chairman of Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative, an advisory committee to the U.S. Attorney General where he was a national leader in improving America's information sharing capacity and implementing post 9/11 intelligence reforms.  Ken received a Master's degree in public administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ken’s favourite things are his Harley Davidson WideGlide motorcycle and his scuba gear.
YOAV CHERNOBRODA, VICE PRESIDENT OF ENGINEERING
	Yoav Chernobroda is responsible for the development of the technology behind MyThings. Yoav oversees the R&D centre and spends his days (and sometimes nights) making sure the wheels behind the engine are rolling. Yoav has accumulated more than 20 years of experience managing engineering organisations and architecting software products in various publicly-traded companies such as NetManage Inc., Sun Microsystems, Emblaze Systems and Comverse, and also as VP R&D of EverAd. Yoav holds a BA in computer science. Yoav’s favourite things are his books about medieval history.
ANAT AMIBAR, VP OF PRODUCT MARKETING
	Anat Amibar is responsible for defining MyThings.com and bringing it to the market. Anat brings product management and marketing experience from Yahoo! where she led strategic product initiatives for their Travel and Shopping properties. Before Yahoo!, Anat was Dir. of Product Development for FareChase, a price-comparison engine for online travel, which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2004. Anat holds an MBA from the College of Management in Tel Aviv. Anat’s favourite things are her music CD collection and her Classic Wusthof Knife Set.
DAVID KIASHEK, VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, EUROPE
	David Kiashek is responsible for MyThings Business Development and Sales in Europe. His primary focus is customer acquisition through retail channels. David has been instrumental in creating many partnerships, including Tesco, ASDA (Wal-Mart), Casio, Currys, Goldsmiths, Halfords and Jessops to name a few. David brings strong business acumen to MyThings. He founded and led a successful global jewellery manufacturing and distribution business for over 20 years. David’s company was subsequently acquired by Swarovski, at which time David was retained by Swarovski to run their UK operation at Alpha Jewels in London. Subsequently David was appointed Managing Director (Gérant) of Swarovski in Casablanca Morocco, where he was responsible for building the company from start-up to a world class centre for Silver Jewellery products. David began his career at Kigu Ltd, rising to Production Director and then Sales Director positions. David holds Bachelors of Science degree in Engineering from Hertfordshire University David’s favourite things include his vintage MG as well as running a historical website for Vintage Powder compacts.

Board of Directors

STEVE ROSENBLUM , PIXMANIA

Steve Rosenblum is Co-Founder and CEO of PIXmania.com (Europe’s largest business to consumer etailer) and a member of the Executive Committee of the DSG International Group. He is also a General Partner at Dotcorp Finance Private Equity Fund, which invests in early stage and growth stage Internet companies worldwide. Steve holds a Bachelors of Commerce from Concordia University in Canada, and a Masters of Commerce from the Sorbonne in Paris. Steve currently serves as Chairman of the Board for MyThings.

RINA SHAINKSI , CARMEL VENTURES

Rina Shainski is a seasoned executive with over twenty years experience leading business development and R&D in several high-growth companies. She is a recognized thought leader in the mobile software space. Prior to joining Carmel in 2000, Rina served as VP Business Development, responsible for IT investments, at Clal Industries and Investments, one of Israel’s largest investment and holding companies. She also held several management positions in Tecnomatix (1989-1996), including VP Business Development and Director of R&D, and made key contributions to several acquisitions on behalf of the company. Rina holds an M.Sc. in Computer Science from Weizmann Institute, Israel, a B.Sc. in Physics from Tel Aviv University, Israel and an IEP from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. Currently Rina serves on the Boards of Directors of C-nario, SnapMyLife, Skybox Security, Kontera, Nexperience, Picapp and mFormation.

PROFESSOR TOM BYERS, STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Stanford University Professor Tom Byers is focused on high-technology entrepreneurship education, and is founder and faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP). Tom is also a faculty director of the AEA/Stanford Executive Institute, a general management program for technology executives, and a published author. Previously, Tom lectured at the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley. Tom has a range of business experience including executive vice president of Symantec Corporation and founder/president of Slate Corporation. Tom started his professional career at Accenture. Tom holds a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He also earned a PhD in Business Administration (Management Science) at UC Berkeley.

KAJ-ERIK RELANDER, ACCEL PARTNERS

Before joining Accel Partners, Kaj-Erik Relander was President and CEO of Finnish telecommunications company Sonera Corporation and before that Director at SITRA, a Finnish Technology investment company. Kaj-Erik has served on the Board of Directors at a variety of international companies including Ledstiernan (based in Sweden), Helmet Capital Fund, F-Secure, A-Company, H&B Advisory Board, Printing Network of Europe, Kreatel (in Sweden) and Axiomlab (in the U.K.) as well as TietoEnator, SmartTrust, Turkcell (in Turkey), VoiceStream Wireless (in the U.S.) and Zed. Kaj-Erik has a Master's degree in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration and an MBA from the Helsinki School of Economics and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

PROFESSOR ELI TALMOR, LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL

Eli Talmor, a professor at London Business School and Academic Director of its Private Equity Institute, specialises in new ventures and private equity. He has consulted extensively to corporations internationally, and has been a director of European and American publicly traded corporations. He has since co-founded two technology incubators with over 40 start ups. Professor Talmor serves on the advisory board of ETV, Europe's leading venture lender, and was on the Board of Governors of London Business School. Professor Talmor holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BSc (Cum Laude) from the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology.

EHUD (UDI) ZAIDMAN

Entrepreneur and co-founder of MyThings, Udi Zaidman is also the owner and CEO of the Wagonmark chain of jewellers and pawnshops in the London area.

Advisory Board

RICHARD ELLIS

Richard Ellis served with the Metropolitan Police for 30 years where he was a member of the International and Organised Crime branch at New Scotland Yard. In 1989 he set up the Art & Antiques Squad which he ran until he retired from police service in 1999, to become the General Manager of Christie’s Fine Art Security Services and then Managing Director of “Trace”, running a database for stolen art and antiques together with Trace Magazine. An independent art risk consultant since 2002, he lectures extensively on cultural property crime and is a member of UNESCO’s panel of experts on the protection of cultural property. He is a director of Art Resolve and The Art Management Group and is an executive member of the Council for the Prevention of Art Theft.

ROBIN REED

Robin Reed began her executive search career in 1984 and 20 years later has been part of recruiting technology leaders and executives for over 250 start-ups. Along the way, many of her placements helped to make history. Her clients are mostly start-up companies, funded by top tier VCs. Some of these start-up companies became Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Apple, Netscape, Amazon, Ebay, Intuit, Palm, Yahoo!, and Google. Robin helps young companies design their internal recruiting engines, and create differentiating strategies for talent acquisition. In 2000 Robin joined forces with Susan Shay to create Reed Shay & Company.

SHASHI SETH

Shashi Seth is an experienced product and strategy leader in the Search and e-Commerce industries. As Head of Monetization at YouTube, Shashi is developing the monetization strategy for YouTube. Before that, Shashi served as Product Lead for Search at Google, where he was responsible for personalisation and commmunity efforts. At eBay, Shashi was the driver of eBay's global product strategy and was Group Product Manager for the eBay Platform—initially evangelizing the product, then delivering the external interfaces that created eBay's far-reaching ecosystem. Shashi also brings considerable retail and entrepreneurial skills to MyThings based on his earlier experience with Gap, Conexo, and MediaMagic.