Senior Management Team

Erez Gavish

President and CEO

Erez Gavish co-founded the company in 1994 together with Dr. Benjamin Gavish, the inventor of the technology.

Mr. Gavish is the creator and driving force behind InterCure's business and its strategic product vision, as well as providing overall leadership for the company. With limited human and capital resources, he has managed to steer InterCure successfully through the processes of product development, clinical trials, regulatory approvals, and finance rounds. Under his leadership, the company turned into a highly attractive and valuable medical technology enterprise.

Mr. Gavish is a respected entrepreneur in Israel, particularly in the medical technology arena. He has advised several venture-stage healthcare companies on strategy and business models. Before founding InterCure, Mr. Gavish worked for five years as an industrial consultant for Yissum Engineering Systems Ltd. and Pomegreen & Co., where he specialized in employee compensation systems and enhancing productivity. He received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering with distinction from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, and received his M.B.A. in 1997 from The Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration at Tel Aviv University.

Brian Packard

Chief Marketing Officer

Mr. Packard brings a wealth of senior-level experience in consumer healthcare marketing and business development to InterCure.

He has spent his career in creating new markets and expanding brand growth within the pharmaceutical, OTC medicine and medical device industries. He has held sales, trade marketing and product/brand management positions with leading consumer healthcare companies including Procter & Gamble, Bayer and the Braun division of Gillette.

His brand experience includes both consumer and professional marketing of Alka-Seltzer, Aleve, ThermoScan and others.

Mr. Packard also served as the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Lifestream Technologies, bringing the first at-home cholesterol monitor to market via direct and retail channels.

Most recently, Mr. Packard served as the Business Director for the HeartStart Home Defibrillator, where he directed the domestic and international launch of the world's first home defibrillator. This brand garnered product, marketing and design awards including Best Product from USA Today, Business Week and Fortune Magazine and Best of What's New from Popular Science. Mr. Packard's expertise is in the creation of brand equity, consumer and professional awareness, and direct-to-consumer and retail distribution models for new-to-the-world consumer healthcare products.

Benjamin Gavish, Ph.D.

Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Benjamin Gavish is the inventor of InterCure's technologies. He co-founded the company in 1994, and is responsible for the company's research and development, patenting, regulatory applications, and the enrollment of the company's world-class Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Gavish has had numerous appointments, including the Katchalsky Postdoctorate Fellowship at the Weizmann Institute, a Fullbright Fellowship and Assistant Professorship at the University of Illinois, and an Allon Fellowship at the Hebrew University -- Hadassah Medical School. Throughout his career, he has concentrated his research activities in biophysics and biomedical engineering with a particular focus on protein biophysics, ultrasound biophysics, small blood vessels, blood rheology, and non-invasive monitoring.

Dr. Gavish is currently working on the mechanisms associated with the therapeutic effect of breathing exercises and on new characterizations of blood vessel properties using non-invasive measurements. He has numerous patents, mainly in biomedical engineering, and has published more than 40 scientific papers, mostly in leading science and technology journals. Dr. Gavish has served as the President and the Secretary of the Israeli Society for Microcirculation, is a member of the International, American and Israeli Societies of Hypertension, and the American Heart Association Council for High Blood Pressure Research. Dr. Gavish received his Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from Tel Aviv University in 1974.

Arik Kleinstein

Chief Financial Officer

Before joining InterCure, Mr. Kleinstein was the CFO of VideoCodes. Prior to that he headed the finance and operations of ECtel North-America. Before ECtel, Arik spent 5 years with Jerusalem Global, an Israeli technology Investment bank where he was CFO and a co-founder of Yazam, a global company that specialized in raising private equity for technology start-up companies.

Prior to Jerusalem Global, Mr. Kleinstein worked for Bank Tefachot, Israel's largest mortgage bank, as an assistant-director and investment manager for the bank provident funds.

Mr. Kleinstein served 5 years in an elite technology unit of the Israeli army where he led planning, budgeting, MIS and logistical teams.

Mr. Kleinstein holds a B.S. in Industrial engineering and management from Technion University and an MBA from Tel-Aviv University.

Ari Benami

Vice President of Operations

Mr. Benami brings vast experience in electronic retailing and logistics as well as an array of relationships with suppliers and manufacturers. He was a co-founder and Chief Information Officer for the first online grocery retailer, www.Netgrocer.com, in which he had built considerable expertise in supply chain management and technologies and a valuable experience in the food retailing industry. Prior to joining InterCure, Mr. Benami engaged in creating multiple internet properties such as an online stock photography service, a joint venture with Black Book Photography, Index Stock Imagery, and Exit 15 Corporation, www.exit15.com, which is Mr. Benami's most recent e-commerce venture.

As Vice President of Operations, Mr. Benami is responsible for the development of InterCure's technical and logistical infrastructure as well as the customer communication programs needed to enhance the company's overall conversion of visitors to customers.

Mr. Benami holds Bachelor and Master degrees in Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was a Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate School of the City University of New York's philosophy department.

Scot Dubé

Vice President of Sales

Mr. Dubé brings more than 30 years of medical device and consumer product leadership to InterCure and will be a driving force as InterCure launches RESPeRATE into retail channels.

Prior to joining InterCure, Mr. Dubé served as President of Microlife, USA, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Microlife Corporation, the Taiwanese-based international leader in the marketing and distribution of medical diagnostic products including blood pressure monitors, infrared and digital thermometers, peak flow meters and weight management devices. During his 10 years at Microlife, Mr. Dubé successfully re-engineered the U.S. business from an OEM manufacturer to a leading direct-to-retail brand, driving growth through Wal-Mart, Costco, Walgreens, CVS and other key retailers. Under his leadership, Microlife's blood pressure monitoring business grew 15 share points in one year, garnering the number two share in the category.

Prior to Microlife, Mr. Dubé served as national sales and marketing manager for Florida Medical Industries, directing sales and marketing activities for both consumer diagnostic and therapeutic medical products. Mr. Dubé also held sales and marketing positions of increasing responsibility at Becton Dickinson, Travenol Labs and Schering Laboratories.

Ariela Alter, Ph.D.

Director of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs

Dr. Alter joined InterCure, Ltd. as Director of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs in 1998.

As director of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs, Dr. Alter is managing InterCure's worldwide clinical studies as well as being responsible for the regulatory affairs of the company, overseeing the company's North American, European and domestic (Israeli) clinical affairs. In addition, Dr. Alter is extensively involved in the on-going scientific work of the company.

Previously, Dr. Alter was a staff associate of the Pharmacology Department at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia-Presbyterian University in New York where she studied the effect of hypoxia on heart myocytes. She was also involved in cellular immunology and experimental hematology research while a member of the research group at Sapir Medical Center Clinical Laboratories.

Dr. Alter holds a B.Sc. in biology from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and an M.Sc. from Tel-Aviv university. She received her Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University, where her major field of specialization was vascular biology, primarily concentrated on the atherosclerotic process. Her research looked at the factors affecting the involvement of vascular smooth muscle cells in an atherosclerotic process.

She is a member of Women Executive Managers in High-Tech Companies.

Ofer Ben Arad

Vice President of Products

Mr. Arad brings vast experience in product development and business development. Prior to joining InterCure, Mr. Arad was the founder and CEO of a Fixed-Mobile Convergence startup and held leading product and business development positions in several start up and public companies in the consumer, Internet, and IP Networking areas. As Vice President of Products at InterCure, Mr. Arad is responsible for New Product Development, R&D, Manufacturing, Logistics, QA, and overall operations of the InterCure Israel Site.

Upon receiving his B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering & Management from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Mr. Arad joined the Copperplate division of Leumi, Israel's second largest bank, and served as a Corporate Finance Officer focusing on corporations in the areas of Communications, Media, and Energy.

Mr. Arad received his M.B.A. from The Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business. During his M.B.A., he also studied at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business as part of the International Business Exchange Program and participated in the Wharton Recanati Global Consulting Program.