Nachman Shelef

Nachman Shelef

Nachman was a General Partner at Benchmark Capital (www.benchmark.com) from November 2000 until May 2006. Nachman established, together with two additional partners, the Benchmark Israel funds to fund early stage technology companies in Israel. Benchmark Israel includes two funds and has $490M under management. Benchmark Israel was the first locally managed fund to be established by a first tier US venture firm in Israel. Nachman served on the Boards of Adimos, Atrica, AxonLink, FilesX, Mirage Innovations, TeraChip and Xeround Systems.

Prior to joining Benchmark Nachman served as Vice President Business Development at 3Com Corporation and was responsible for 3Com’s “Directed Startup” program which he created. The “Directed Startup” program incubated and spun out startups from 3Com. Atrica and Intransa are two industry pioneering companies that where created by this program. Nachman also served on the Board of Atrica.

Between 1994 and 2000, Nachman served as Vice President and General Manager of several 3Com organizations based in Santa Clara, Boston, and Israel, including the LAN ATM Division, Broadband Access Division, Enterprise WAN Division, Switching Systems Division, Core Systems Group and Voice WAN Group.

Nachman joined 3Com when the company acquired NiceCom, Ltd. in October 1994. This was the first acquisition of a HighTech startup in Israel by a multinational company. Prior to the acquisition, he founded and was President of NiceCom.

Nachman began his career by developing advanced communications and computer systems in the Israeli Defense Force between 1977 and 1985.

Industry Associations: Nachman is a member of the Information Technology Committee of the US - Israel Science & Technology Commission.

Other Affiliations: Nachman is on the Board of IVN – Israel Venture Network, a venture philanthropy network of high-tech entrepreneurs and executives from Israel and the U.S. with the goal of increasing Israel's national competitiveness by advancing its educational systems and by promoting other social programs. Nachman served on the Board of Trustees, Tel Aviv University - High Tech Management School (HTMS).

Education: B.Sc. Summa cum Laude in computer and electrical engineering from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and a Practical Engineer of Physics degree with Honors from the University of Tel Aviv.