About Cylus
Our Mission
Cylus was founded to help mainline and urban railway companies avoid safety incidents and service disruptions caused by cyber-attacks.
Cylus offers solutions that are specifically designed to address the unique requirements and needs of the railway industry, enabling to detect cyber threats in signaling and control networks, trackside and onboard, facilitating an effective response before harm happens.
Led by veterans from the Israel Defense Forces’ Elite Technological Unit together with top executives from the railway industry, Cylus combines deep expertise in cybersecurity and rail.
Leadership
Amir Levintal
CEO
Amir Levintal is the CEO and co-founder of Cylus. Prior to co-founding Cylus, Amir served as the Director of the Cyber R&D Division of the Israel Defense Force’s Elite Technological Unit. With over twenty years of experience in cyber defense management and deployment, Amir has led highly skilled teams in the development and deployment of complex cybersecurity, software, and hardware projects. Amir received his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Tel-Aviv University. He has held pivotal roles in teams awarded the coveted Israel Defense Prize for exceptional technological breakthroughs, and proudly received high military honors for extraordinary achievement and exceptional contributions to national security.
Miki Shifman
CTO
Miki Shifman is the CTO and co-founder of Cylus. Miki is a veteran leader in the development of complex cyber security projects, with over ten years of experience in software engineering, research, and management. Prior to co-founding Cylus, Miki served as a cyber researcher and an R&D leader in the Cyber R&D Division of the Israel Defense Force’s Elite Technological Unit. He led teams awarded the Israel Defense Prize for exceptional technological breakthroughs and received high military honors for extraordinary achievement and exceptional contributions to national security.
Gonen Vardi
VP Sales
Gonen Vardi is VP Sales at Cylus. Gonen is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience in sales leadership, entrepreneurship, and management of strategic governmental projects. Prior to joining Cylus, Gonen served as Head of Sales at CyberX (acquired by Microsoft), where he led sales activities across Europe, APAC & Emerging Markets. Prior to that, Gonen held Vice President roles in multiple Enterprise Software and Offensive Cyber companies. Gonen holds a MSc in Industrial & Business Engineering and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering, both from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.
Serge Van Themsche
VP Strategic Partnerships
Serge Van Themsche is VP Strategic Partnerships at Cylus. Prior to that, he held several key positions in multinational corporations. At Bombardier Transportation, he assumed several roles, including VP Europe Middle East and Africa System Division, Business Development Senior Director Western Europe, and Head of product line management Service (VRM & Security). Prior to that, he worked as International Distribution Account Director at Schneider Electric. Serge earned a Bachelor degree from HEC Montreal and is a graduate of advanced executive courses at INSEAD and Stanford. Fluent in several languages, Serge has a wealth of experience in managing international and cross-cultural projects.
Mag. Christian Kern
Advisor
Christian Kern was Chancellor (Prime Minister) of the Republic of Austria and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). Prior to joining politics for three years, he spent more than 20 years in business and held several executive and C-level positions in the rail and energy industries in Austria, Turkey, Italy and France.
In 2010, he was appointed CEO of the Austrian Federal Railroad Group (ÖBB), one of the leading logistics, infrastructure and passenger transport groups in Europe. In 2014, he was elected Chairman of the Community of European Railways (CER) based in Brussels.Currently, he is a Partner and Director of Blue Minds Company, Vienna.
Christian holds a Master's degree in Communication science from the University of Vienna.
Board
Yoram Oron
Chairman
Yoram Oron founded Vertex Ventures in 1997 as part of the Yozma Program together with Vertex Venture Holdings. Vertex Ventures Israel invested in Morecom (sold to Liberate), Tradeum (sold to VerticalNet), Vision Tech (sold to Broadcom), Actimize (Sold to NICE), dbMotion (sold to Allscript), Waze (sold to Google), CyberArk (IPO in Nasdaq) and Solaredge (IPO in Nasdaq), Heptagon (acquired by AMS) and Argus Cyber Security (acquired by Continental).
Prior to founding Vertex Ventures Israel, Yoram was Chairman of Telegate from its inception in 1993 until its acquisition by Terayon in 1999. Previously, Yoram was President and CEO of Aryt Industries, and Co-Founder and CEO of Reshef Technologies.
Yoram graduated with an MBA from Tel Aviv University, Israel and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
Zohar Zisapel
Board Member
Zohar Zisapel is considered one of the fathers of the Israeli high-tech.
In 1982, together with his brother, Yehuda, Zohar founded RAD Data Communications. In the course of 33 years, under the RAD Group umbrella, approximately 40 companies were established, of which eight underwent IPOs, 10 were sold and 10 closed. Four of these companies – Silicom, RADCOM, Radware, and Ceragon – are still traded on Nasdaq in the U.S.
From 2009 Zohar started investing in start-ups in the field of cybersecurity. Altogether seven cybersecurity start-ups have been established of which three were acquired. In 2014 Zohar also started investing in automotive technologies. Four start-ups were formed, one of which has already been acquired.
Zohar holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in electrical engineering from theTechnion. He also holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Tel AvivUniversity.
Zvi Limon
Board Member
Zvi Limon has been an investor in public and private technology companies since 1990. His activity has been mostly focused on companies in three main areas: Communications, Internet and Semiconductor.
Zvi has co-founded and is a General Partner of Magma Partners Venture Partners.He had previous experience in management consulting at Bain & Co. in London and at Shaldor Ltd in Israel. In the early 80s he worked in the Silicon Valley and later in Investment Banking at Rothschild Inc. in NY. Over the years he has served on the Board of Directors of many private and publicly traded companies.
Zvi holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BA in Economics and Business Administration from Bar Ilan University.
Eran Gartner
Board Member
Eran Gartner is Chief Executive Officer of Pandrol, and a member of the Delachaux Group Executive Committee based near Paris, France.
Eran has over 20 years’ leadership experience in rail with Bombardier Transportation from 1992 until 2012. His positions included VP Strategy from 1999, VP Operations for Propulsion from 2001, President of Metros in 2003, VP Operations for Mainline & Metros from 2004. From 2008-2012, Eran was President of Systems, where he led development and market entry of the 3rd generation driverless transit solutions, including the high-capacity INNOVIA Monorail 300.
From 2014-2019, Eran served as CEO of Megalim Solar Power Ltd during the construction phase of the iconic 121 MW solar-thermal power station in the Negev desert.
