Sunnyvale, Ca., USA - October 26, 2010, Sunnyvale, Ca., USA - Commtouch, a provider of Internet security solutions, announced that Gideon Mantel, CEO and chairman, will retire on January 1, 2011, and be succeeded as CEO by Ido Hadari, current COO.
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Mr. Mantel will be succeeded as chairman of the board by Lior Samuelson, a director of Commtouch.
Mr. Mantel co-founded Commtouch in February 1991 and currently serves as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Mantel has been a member of the board of directors since the company's inception in 1991.
Mr. Mantel has more than ten years of leadership experience in the messaging industry. As one of the pioneers in email development, Mr. Mantel has led Commtouch to its dominant position as the leading provider of outsourced email and messaging services worldwide.
Before founding Commtouch, Mr. Mantel was Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Financial Leverages Ltd., an Israeli investment fund, where he led the strategic direction of the company and managed its Initial Public Offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Mr. Mantel also served as Chief Financial Officer of The Gali Group, one of Israel's largest consumer products companies. Mr. Mantel holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University.
Mr. Hadari joined Commtouch in 2008, served as Vice President of International Sales & Business Development, and since November 2009 as Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Hadari has more than ten years of business management and sales experience, most recently prior to Commtouch at Interwise, an enterprise voice and web conferencing provider that was acquired by AT&T.
At Interwise, where he worked for eight years, Mr. Hadari held various senior business development and channel management positions with responsibilities for regional sales in Europe and Asia, and global strategic alliances. He holds a BA magna cum laude in Business Administration and Economics from Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Mr. Samuelson is the founder and managing partner of Mercator Capital, a merchant bank specializing in advising and investing in the technology and telecom sectors. During his extensive career, Mr. Samuelson served as chairman, CEO and board member of several companies in technology, telecom, financial services and management consulting.
In 2008, Mr. Samuelson was the chairman of Deltathree (DDDC); from 1997 to 1999, he was the president and CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers Securities. Prior to that, he was the president and CEO of The Barents Group, a merchant bank specializing in advising and investing in companies in emerging markets. ■