Joseph (Yossi) Vardi (1942- )(Hebrew: יוסי ורדי), is one of Israel's first high-tech entrepreneurs. For over 40 years he has founded and helped to build over 60 high-tech companies in a variety of fields, among them software, energy, Internet, mobile , electro-optics and water technology.
Biography
Joseph Vardi was born in Tel Aviv. He studied at the Technion in Haifa, graduating with a B.Sc in industrial management engineering. He went on to earn an M.Sc in Operation Research and a D. Sc. (his thesis received the Kennedy-Leigh award). Vardi began his entrepreneurial career in 1969, at the age of 26, as co-founder and first CEO of Takam, one of the first software houses in Israel (later sold to Tadiran and then absorbed into Ness Technologies). In 1970, he was appointed Director General of the Ministry of Development and the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure. He served as chairman of Israel Chemicals of Mifaley Tovala, of Harsit and Hol Zach, and a member of the board of Israel Electric Corporation, Dead Sea Works, Dead Sea Bromine, Dead Sea Periclase, Haifa Chemicals, Chemicals and Phosphates, and others. He also chaired the Oil Explorations Concessions Council and Fertilizers Development Council. He was sent to the U.S. to serve as the Director of the Investment Authority in North America, and Consul For Economic Affairs of the State of Israel in New York. In that capacity he took part in the creation of The Bi-national Industrial Research and Development Fund (BIRD-F). He acted as an advisor to the Israeli mission to the U.N.. Upon returning to Israel, he served as the first Director General of the Ministry of Energy. Vardi also chaired the Israel National Oil Company, and was a member of the board of Oil Refineries Ltd. During his tenure, Israel discovered and developed oil fields in the Gulf of Suez. Vardi co-founded Alon oil, International Laser Technologies, Granite Hacarmel and other companies. Vardi is a co-holder of a patent on instant messaging on telephones.
He is married to Talma and the father of Arik (co-founder of ICQ,) Oded and Dani.
Investment Strategy
Vardi is an early stage "angel." Since 1996 he has been active in founding young internet companies and internet startups. In 1996 he became the founding investor of Mirabilis (company) - the creator of ICQ, which is the first instant messaging application that was released to the web. Among the companies he invested in, or helped to build are Answers.com (went public), Gteko (sold to Microsoft), Airlink (sold to Sierra Wireless), Tivella (sold to Cisco), Scopus (went public), CTI2 (sold to Audiocodes), Foxytunes (sold to yahoo), Tucows (went public), and Starnet (sold to IAC/InterActiveCorp). Among his other investmenets are: Wibiya (a web search engine aggregator,) SeeToo (a social viewing site,) Come2Play (a social gaming site,) fring, speedbit, Cellogic (developer of a widget engine for mobile platforms), BloggersBase (a discovery platform for premium UGC) and many others.
Mirabilis, which practically had no revenues, was sold to AOL just 19 months after it released its product for over 400 million dollars. The sale inspired a whole generation of young Israelis to open start ups. According the Forbes: "...Overnight, a new phrase "the Mirabilis Effect," became popular as young Israeli entrepreneurs yearned to copy the company's success".
After retiring from the civil service, Vardi served on the boards of Amdocs,Maariv, Elite, Scitex, Bezeq, Arkia, Elisra, Hamashbir Hamerkazi and others, and assisted Ormat Industries to identify and develop its geothermal activity. He is a member of Amdocs advisory committee. In recent years Vardi is active in fostering a culture of innovation and creativity in Israel and abroad. He founded Kinnernet, an annual, three days gathering of creative people from all over the world at the shores of the Lake of Gallilee; together with Dr Hubert Burda he is co-chairing the annual DLD (Digital, Lifestyle, Design) conference in Munich; together with Sir Martin Sorrell he is co-chairing the annual Stream Unconference in Greece, he also co-hosting ICUC - internet cowboys UnConference ) in Jackson hole, Wyoming.
Quotes
"Investing in the Internet is similar in a way to investing in a farm. A farmer sows his seeds and 180 days later, he harvests. With start-up investments you sow your seeds and the harvest could take two or three years, but in the end it will always come. Perhaps that's what confuses the investors. They see wagon-loads of produce and they run to sow, but they cannot see when the harvest will come."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yossi_Vardi
