About the Panelists


Jacques Benkoski
Venture Executive
USVP 		A native of Belgium, Jacques joined USVP as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in early 2005 and became a Venture Executive in 2006. Jacques focuses on fostering USVP position as an active investor in the Israeli market and bringing a top Silicon Valley firm to work directly with Israeli entrepreneurs and venture investors. In addition, Jacques is working with several USVP companies and currently serves as executive chairman of Synfora and Certess and advises several portfolio companies such as ClearShape Technologies, LightSpeed Logic and Kilopass. more...



Jim Kupec
Chief Operating Officer
eSilicon 		Jim Kupec is responsible for the company's overall operations management. Mr. Kupec is focused on the development, design, operations and quality of eSilicon's products and services. Mr. Kupec brings more than 20 years of senior management experience in semiconductor development and operations to eSilicon. Kupec's prior experience includes president of UMC USA, with worldwide marketing, sales and field engineering responsibilities for UMC's silicon foundry operations. more...



Simon Napper
President and CEO
Synfora 		Mr. Simon Napper, President and CEO, joined Synfora in May 2003. From 1999 to 2002, Simon was the CEO of InnoLogic Systems, an EDA company in the formal verification market. At InnoLogic Systems, Simon drove the initial company positioning and sales. He was responsible for setting up the sales channel and focusing product direction. From 1996 - 1999, Simon was VP of Marketing for Aisys, where he was responsible for positioning, product strategy and lead generation. Prior to Aisys, Simon was Vice President of Marketing for EPIC Design Technology. more...



Daniel Rubin
General Partner
Alloy Ventures 		Daniel I. Rubin joined Alloy Ventures in 1999. He received a BA in Physics from Pomona College (1982). In 1991 he was a co-founder of Artisan Components and the initial VP of Sales and Marketing. He was the VP of Business Development through their initial public offering in 1998. Prior to Artisan Components Mr. Rubin worked at Ultratech Stepper in many roles including Director of Product Marketing and Managing Director of Asian Operations. Dan is a director of CiraNova, Ensenda, Molecular Imprints, Nexsil and Gradient, and a board observer at Ellie Mae and Integrated Materials, Inc. more...


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