Carmel Vernia
Carmel's professional career started with Intel Corp in the US. He then served in different executive positions at Comverse Technology (NASDAQ: CMVT), lastly as Chief Operating Officer of the company. Carmel joined Comverse when it was a startup company, and was part of the team that grew the company into a multinational corporation with thousands of employees. He then served as Chief Scientist for the Government of Israel, and later as Chairman of Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ: TSEM). In recent years Carmel acts as a private investor in early stage technology companies in Israel, mainly through Startup Factory - an Angel Club he founded and led. Carmel is an engineer, with a B.Sc. degree from the Technion in Haifa, Israel, and a M.Sc. degree from the University of California, Davis.
Carmel takes part in a number of philanthropic activities, primarily with social entrepreneurship programs in Jaffa.
Carmel is a long time photography hobbyist, starting as a teenager with a home black-and-white darkroom, and is currently active, among others, in underwater photography.