30 Best Business Leaders of the Year 2019 30 Best Business Leaders of the Year 2019 | Page 21

“With over $2 billion
under management and
investments in over 250
Rami Kalish, Co-founder
companies, Pitango invests in core
technology across all stages, via two parallel funds:
Pitango VC and Pitango Growth.”
Pitango believes innovation,
technology, and entrepreneurship
are a means to make the world
a better place. The company’s
commitment is to entrepreneurs
who go far beyond the status quo
and have a world-changing vision.
And Pitango believes that diversity
and inclusion are key in building a
strong community of entrepreneurs.
The Israeli society is as strong as its
diversity and inclusion efforts, so is
the tech ecosystem, which should
endeavor as a whole to play a role
model in its inclusion efforts.
Pitango’s name reflects its ethos.
The Pitango is a fruit that grows
in abundance throughout Israel,
yet the ripest fruits are a challenge
to find. Just like finding the right
company takes a good eye for
opportunity, persistence and skill
– the sweetest Pitangos are hard to
find, hidden by dense foliage. Once
found, the effort is worth it.
Rami Kalish: An Aspiring
Entrepreneur
Rami Kalish is a Managing
General Partner and
Co-founder at Pitango. Prior to
founding Pitango, he held sales and
marketing positions at IBM and
senior executive roles at Orbotech.
He currently serves on the Board
of Directors of Avantis Team, Flash
Networks, ForeScout Technologies
and Neura.
Previously, he served on the
Board of Directors of several
portfolio companies that went
public on NASDAQ, including:
ITXC, CardGuard, VocalTec, Retalix,
Optibase, RADWARE and on
the Board of Optonol (acquired
by Alcon), Red Bend Software
(acquired by Harman), RocketPlay
(acquired by American Gaming
System – AGS) and SkyCure
(acquired by Symantec).
Rami is a member of the advisory
boards of the Technion (Israel
Institute of Technology) Yazamut-
Bronica Entrepreneurship &
Innovation Center, The Merage
Foundation for U.S.-Israel Trade
and The educational Center for
Tolerance and Peace of the Hebrew
Reali School in Haifa.
He earned a B.Sc. in Industrial
Engineering and Information
Science from the Technion Institute
of Technology.
SR
september 2019
21