Dov Moran

Biography

Born in Ramat Gan, Israel, a town near Tel Aviv, Moran obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (with honors) at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. He served in the Israeli Navy for seven years and was commander of its advanced microprocessor department. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Moran was an independent consultant in the computer industry.

Entrepreneurship

Moran formed M-Systems in 1989, a pioneer in the flash data storage market. The company invented the USB flash drive (DiskOnKey), the FlashDisk (DiskOnChip) as well as several other innovative flash data storage devices. Under Moran's leadership, M-Systems grew to $US1 billion revenue within 18 years, and at the end of 2006 it was acquired by SanDisk Corp (NSDQ: SNDK) for $US1.6 billion This still ranks as the third largest acquisition in Israel's history.

After the sale of M-Systems, Moran founded Modu, a company with a new modular phone concept, which eventually sold its patents to Google in 2011. These patents are the basis for Google's modular phone project, called Project Ara .

During his time at Modu, Dov was also the chairman of Tower Semiconductor, a developer and manufacturer of semiconductors and integrated circuits. During his tenure, he turned the struggling company around towards profitability. Moran was also chairman of Biomas, a developer of innovative pharmaceuticals.

In 2011, Moran founded Comigo, a company with a vision of revolutionizing the TV viewing experience. The company developed a multi-screen platform for Pay TV operators. Moran is acting as the chairman of the company.

In the course of his entrepreneurial work, Moran has filed more than 40 patents.

Investments

After several years of successful angel investing, Moran founded Grove ventures, a $US100 million venture capital fund primarily investing in cloud computing, big data and Internet of things (IoT). His portfolio of companies include:

Awards

Moran is the recipient of multiple industry awards:

In 2003 he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, and "CEO of the Year" by the IMC.

In 2007, the IVA (Israel Venture Association) awarded Dov Moran the Israeli Hi-Tech award as Entrepreneur of the Year.

In 2012 Moran was awarded the prestigious Edward Rheine Award for inventing the USB Flash Drive. In 2013, he was named "Doctor Honoris Causa" from Moscow State Technical University of Radio Engineering, Electronics and Automation.

In the same year he had the title Honoris Causa conferred on him by Israel’s Academic Center of Law and Science, in the company of other notable leaders such as former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Minister of Education Rabbi Shai Piron and Canada’s Former Minister of Justice and State Attorney, Prof. Irwin Cotler.

Again in 2013, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by Geektime. Its "Geek Awards" are an annual competition to recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups, entrepreneurs and investors of the year in Israel.

In 2015, he received the Johnson Information Storage Systems Award for pioneering contributions to storage systems based on Flash memory.

Public sector and community involvement

Moran perceives education as the grounding for innovation. As such, he mentors Israeli entrepreneurs, assisting in converting research and innovation to business. He lectures extensively in universities and schools and sits on the advisory board of Tel Aviv University Momentum Fund. In addition, Moran has invested in Learni, which brings technology into everyday learning system, and enables rich digital textbooks, in a managed interactive classroom environment.

He is an active member of the Korean Israel Business Forum, having spoken at a number of conferences, and in 2014, was asked by the Korean government to spearhead a project aimed at growing innovation in Seoul, the capital of Korea.