Team

CEO

Tomer Kariv

Tomer is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pontifax. He serves as an active board member of many of the funds’ portfolio companies, assuming a special responsibility for strategic planning. Among other positions, Tomer serves as the chairman at Eloxx Pharmaceuticals, a board member in Cathworks, Keros Therapeutics, Ocon Healthcare, ARMGO, Abcuro, and V-Wave. During the 10 years prior to establishing Pontifax, he held senior management positions at top Israeli financial institutions, playing a key role in investing in, nurturing and managing technology-driven startups. Tomer holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Ran Nussbaum

Ran is a managing partner and co-founder of The Pontifax Group. The fund runs more than 50 portfolio companies around the Globe. Ran’s work revolves around constant and active involvement in companies, providing them with strategic and business development oversight. In the past Ran served on Kite pharma BOD (sold to Gilead), cCAM Therapeutics (sold to Merck), and ArQule (ARQL) (sold to Merck) . he also chaired Ocon Medical, Nasvax, Spearhead and Biomedix. Currently, Ran sits on many of Pontifax’s portfolio companies including Eloxx Therapeutics (ELOX), UroGen (URGN), and Prevail Therapeutics. Ran also serves as Keros’ chairman of the board.

Asaf Shinar

Asaf joined Pontifax in 2007, bringing over 15 years of experience managing finances and operations at Israeli and multi-national VC firms. Prior to joining Pontifax, Asaf was the CFO of Neurone Ventures Fund, which invested in all stages of development in the telecom, enterprise, and life sciences sectors. Asaf serves as a director in Otic Pharma, EyeYon Medical, Hairstetics, Ocon Healthcare, ForSight Vision6, and Sweetch. Asaf holds a B.A. in Accounting & Business Management and a CPA from the College of Management.

Ohad Hammer

Ohad joined Pontifax in 2009 and is involved in identifying as well as evaluating new investment opportunities. Ohad focuses on early-stage projects and oversees scouting, due diligence, and company formation. He also supports development and business development activities within our early-stage portfolio companies. Ohad serves as a director in Metabomed, Pi Therapeutics, Eyevensys, and Precirix (formerly Camel-IDS). Ohad obtained his M.S. in Biology from Tel-Aviv University and writes about small and mid-cap biotech stocks on his blog: www.orf-blog.com.

Silvia Noiman, Ph.D.

Dr. Silvia Noiman is a serial entrepreneur and leading executive with over 30 years of experience in the Life Science Industry. Prior to joining Pontifax, she was Founder and Senior Vice President at Predix Pharmaceuticals, bringing a small early-stage drug discovery company from inception to a $500M publicly-traded multi-product company (EPIX). Silvia founded many of Pontifax’s portfolio companies, including cCAM Biotherapeutics (acquired by Merck),  Eloxx Pharmaceuticals (ELOX) where she served as CEO and board member, and Imel Biotherapeutics where she is currently serving as chairperson and CEO.  Silvia holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Tel Aviv University and Post Doc from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Momi Karako

Momi joined Pontifax in 2018, bringing over 16 years of experience managing venture debt funds. Prior to joining Pontifax, Momi was a General Partner in Viola Credit, a leading Israeli venture debt fund, which initiated more than 100 debt transactions in mid to late-stage technology companies in various sectors. Momi served as a director in several technology startups and currently is an investment committee member at Shaked Partners Debt Fund and a director at Migdalor Credit Fund. Momi is a CPA, holds a B.A. in Accounting & Economics from the Tel-Aviv University, and an MBA from the New York Polytechnic University.

Lina Kaminski, PhD

Lina Joined Pontifax in 2021 as a research analyst, involved in identifying and evaluating new investment opportunities. Prior to joining Pontifax, Lina was an equity research analyst at Canaccord Genuity and JonesTrading in New York, where she focused on rare disease and gene therapy biotech companies. Lina obtained her PhD from Ben Gurion University, studying glycosylation in Archaea, and completed four years of a postdoctoral fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where she researched persistence mechanisms in Tuberculosis.    

Goozy Hartog, PhD

Goozy Joined Pontifax in 2022 to co-manage our venture debt fund. In addition to managing and sourcing pipeline deal flow Goozy also manages Pontifax’s venture debt portfolio and leads business development initiatives. Prior to joining Pontifax Goozy spent 5 years at Medison Ventures filling various strategy, investment and BD roles. Goozy also spent 2 years at the Boston Consulting Group NYC and Tel Aviv offices, focusing on engagements with global pharmaceutical companies. Goozy obtained his PhD in Neurobiology from the New York Medical College, studying the biochemistry of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.