Source: Wikipedia

Yehuda Zisapel (born April 12, 1942; Hebrew: יהודה זיסאפל) is the founder and president of the RAD-Bynet Group, a leading pioneering association of Israeli companies active in the development, production and marketing of innovative solutions for the data communications industry, and Chairman of RAD Data Communications.

Early life

Zisapel was born in Tel Aviv, one of three children of immigrant parents from Poland who owned and ran a shoe store on Herzl Street, then one of the city’s main arteries. He received a public education and received his B.Sc and M.Sc in electrical engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and also earned an MBA from Tel Aviv University.

Bynet Data Communications

The RAD-Bynet Group grew out of Bynet Data Communications, a privately-held distributor of data communications products that Zisapel founded in 1975. Bynet represented major international vendors and was the first to introduce cutting-edge technologies into the Israeli market. Today, the Bynet Group is comprised of eight companies active in both Israel and Eastern Europe in such fields as system integration, cabling, testing, outsourcing, and software development.[2]

The RAD Group

In 1981, Yehuda, together with his younger brother, Zohar, established RAD Data Communications, the first of the RAD Group companies. In the years following its launch, several dozen additional independent hi-tech companies were opened, each one focusing on a specific niche within the data communications industry.

The Group’s management philosophy, which encourages a democratic and creative organizational environment, as well as a culture promoting young entrepreneurs, is one of the factors that have contributed to its outstanding success and its having been named as one of “The 29 Best Business Ideas in the World.”  This atmosphere has been credited with attracting excellent professional staff to RAD Group companies. Moreover, a study undertaken by researchers the Tel Aviv University has called the RAD Group “the mother of Israeli hi-tech,” given that over 110 start-ups have been founded by former RAD Group employees.

The member companies of the RAD-Bynet Group employ over 4,500 employees and surpassed $1.2 billion in sales in 2011. Their products are marketed in over 160 countries around the world. Among the Group’s clients are Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, British Telecom, China Telecom, Cisco Systems, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, France Telecom, Hutchison, Huawei, Motorola, Nokia, Orange (telecommunications), Siemens, Telefonica, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and hundreds of other carriers, service providers, mobile operators, and vendors, as well as leading manufacturers, transportation networks, banks and financial institutions, public utilities, and institutes of higher education.

The RAD Group is comprised of both private and public companies. Those that have undergone initial public offerings on NASDAQ or the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange are Silicom Connectivity Solutions Ltd. (1994); RiT Technologies Ltd. (1997); RADCOM Ltd. (1997); Radware Ltd. (1999); RADVISION Ltd. (2000); Ceragon Ltd. (formerly Giganet, Ltd., 2000); and Radview Software Ltd., (2000).

Over the years, five of the Group’s companies have been acquired by other large datacom leaders. LANNET Data Communications was acquired by Madge Networks (1995) and later by Lucent (1998); ARMON Networking by Bay Networks (1996); Radnet by a consortium comprised of Siemens and Newbridge Networks (1997); Radlinx by VocalTec (1998); Radwiz by Terayon Communication Systems, Inc. (1999); RADLAN by the Marvell Technology Group (2003); RND by USR Electronics (2003); and RADVISION by Avaya (2012).

Awards

In 1994, Yehuda and Zohar Zisapel were awarded the Entrepreneur’s Award from Tel Aviv University’s School of Business Administration. The citation stated that “the award is given in recognition of the important contribution to entrepreneurship in Israel, for their remarkable innovative entrepreneurship in the areas of development, production and export of products providing solutions to data communications problems and for their technological entrepreneurship which serves as a model in Israel and the world.” In 2005, Yehuda and Zohar were presented with the Israeli Hi-Tech Award by the Israel Venture Association (IVA). In 2011 he and his brother were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Israel Association of Electric and Electronic Engineers. In addition, the Technion has conferred on Yehuda Zisapel an honorary doctorate for outstanding achievement.

Biotechnology sector

Beyond the RAD Group, Zisapel has also taken on a prominent role in the development and promotion of Israel’s emerging biotechnology sector. In December 1991, he and his wife, Nava, a professor of biochemistry with a specialty in neuro-biochemistry, founded Neurim Pharmaceuticals, a drug discovery and development company. The Zisapel brothers also founded RAD BioMed Incubator Ltd., an Israeli bio-medical accelerator.

Community involvement and philanthropy

Under the auspices of the Technion Alumni Association, which he chaired for six years, Zisapel initiated two important mentoring projects that make use of Technion alumni as tutors and mentors for underprivileged youth in cities and communities throughout Israel. The program, known as “From 3 to 5,” is geared towards youth from the periphery of the country and is designed to upgrade mathematics skills to enhance their future prospects for education and career opportunities as well as the country’s manpower base for hi-tech industries. The “City of Excellence” program has similar objectives for youth whose school system lacks the resources required for excellence.

Zisapel was elected Chairman of the Israel Association of Electronics and Software Industries in January 2008. He spearheaded the Association’s adoption of “Ofakim High-Tech” – a project designed to expand and develop Israel’s science and technology manpower pool by recruiting students among decommissioned Israeli army soldiers from the country’s periphery and lower income strata. The purpose of this initiative is manpower development for hi-tech industries and narrowing the country’s socio-economic gap.

Each year Zisapel provides dozens of scholarships for outstanding university students majoring in engineering and computer science who otherwise would be unable to finance the full costs of their tuition.

Yehuda and Zohar Zisapel also contributed $5 million to the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa to establish the Sara and Moshe Zisapel Nano-Electronics Center, named in memory of their parents.

 

Making Dreams Come True

“I’ve been given the most wonderful gift: to be able to make my dreams come true and give back to my community. I feel like shouting out ‘thank you’ to everyone who has made this possible,” says Salam Nasser, 19, from Kfar Samia in the Galilee.

A gifted student and one of nine children, he dreamed of studying mechanical engineering at Technion. His goal, when he graduates, is to open a large factory to provide employment for his community. “Education in science and technology can accomplish what politics hasn’t,” Nasser says.

Nasser is one of 250 students studying at Technion through the three-year-old NAM program (Hebrew acronym for Outstanding Arab Youth) to foster educational excellence among Arab youth in northern Israel. Israeli industrialist Eitan Wertheimer is the initiator and financial supporter of the program that is headed by Brig.Gen. (Res.) Avner Barzani.

The program has two tracks: in the first, students are selected after undergoing testing and personal interviews. They study math, physics, English and scientific writing in a one-year all-expenses-paid preparatory program at Technion and live on campus. If they pass their exams, including the psychometric entrance exam, NAM provides full scholarship and free dorms until they complete their degrees. The second track is for students already studying at Technion who have achieved academic excellence at the end of the first semester and can then receive full tuition and living expenses.

“Young people leaving their friends, family, and villages for the first time can find the pressures quite overwhelming,” says NAM project coordinator Shirley Yogev. The group support and encouragement provided by Technion Center for Pre-university Education staff leads many of the students to proclaim that they now have a second father and mother at Technion.

NAM at Technion is the only program of its kind in Israel. Shaed Taha, 21, from Nazareth, is studying Biotechnology and Food Engineering. “The idea is we academics in the Arab sector are the future entrepreneurs and we can play a vital role in our society,” she explains.

Electrical Engineering student Abdullah Hussein is also 21 and joined NAM after volunteering for a year as a counselor in an Israeli youth movement and then working for two years to earn the money for Technion studies. His funds were nearly depleted after the first semester and he applied for NAM. He also feels the need to give back to the community and voluntarily helps other NAM students from his village, Fureidis.

Wertheimer and Barzani are also behind another innovative program at Technion’s Center for Pre-university Education that finances and supports ultra-Orthodox Jews. Twelve young men out of a class of 30 have been accepted to Technion after an intensive pre-university program where they learned math, science and English. According to one of the students, “We didn’t receive a general education before coming here; we didn’t study physics, nor English. We studied only Torah, Talmud, Mishna and Bible.” A Technion degree is a first step to integrate these young men into the Israeli workforce and to enable them to support their families.

Two further new programs at the Center for Pre-university Education include one in cooperation with the Israeli Defense Forces to help fill the lack of Army doctors by preparing suitable students for acceptance to Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine.

The Ofakim [Hebrew for “Horizons”] program initiated by Technion alumnus Yehuda Zisapel and supported by the Ministry of Defense, trains demobilized Jewish and Druze soldiers from the periphery to be accepted to engineering programs at Technion.

Prof. Shimon Gepstein, head of the Center says, “These exciting new programs have enabled a growing number of highly talented young people from diverse communities to realize their potential through a Technion education.”