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Sadara Ventures
100 Al-Kawthar Street, Third Floor
Al-Bireh/Ramallah
Palestine

For all inquiries, please email:
info@sadaravc.com

Team

Team

Sadara’s managers combine longstanding involvement in software development, management, and outsourcing, and in venture capital – in the West Bank, the US, and Israel.

Management

Saed Nashef
Founding General Partner

As Founding General Partner at Sadara, Saed brings experience in establishing and operating software companies, and in building effective technology teams, both in startup and established business environments. He co-founded and was CTO of Equiom Inc., a software consultancy and project outsourcing firm with operations in Washington and Colorado. Since returning to the region in 2007, he founded Equiom-MENA, a Ramallah-based software outsourcing firm, which he managed for some four years. He also was a board member of G.ho.st, a cloud computing software company whose R&D center and other key managers were in Ramallah. During his time in Palestine, Saed has developed an extensive network of contacts in the local software and related sectors. Prior to founding Equiom in 2004, Saed led the development of key service infrastructure at Fidesic, a venture-backed Internet start-up. Before that, he spent 6 years with Microsoft in various software engineering and leadership roles in the development organization. In June 2010, Saed served as a member of the U.S. Presidential Delegation to the Palestine Investment Conference in Bethlehem. He was also a West Bank delegate to the U.S. Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship held in April 2010 in DC. In July 2009, Saed was selected to join the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Program at the Center for Venture Education in Palo Alto. He is now a graduate of Class 14, and the first Kauffman Fellow in the Arab Middle East region.

Yadin Kaufmann
Founding General Partner

Founding General Partner Yadin Kaufmann has been involved in venture capital since 1987, when he joined the management of Athena Venture Partners, a US/Israel venture fund that was the first venture capital fund in Israel. He co-founded Veritas Venture Partners, an early-stage venture fund management company, in 1990. Yadin has served on the boards of numerous high-technology companies, including Gilat Satellite Networks, Class Data Systems, Mercury Interactive, and Escape Rescue Systems, among others. He also co-founded an Internet company and a publishing company. Yadin also founded and is Chairman of Tmura - The Israeli Public Service Venture Fund, which solicits donations of equity from early-stage companies and donates the proceeds from exit events to education- and youth-related charities. Yadin is a native of New York and a member of both the New York and Israel bars. He has experience in commercial law and served as a law clerk to a justice of the Supreme Court of Israel. Yadin received his B.A. from Princeton University, M.A. from Harvard University, and J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review. Yadin is Chairman of the Princeton Alumni Schools Committee in Israel. Yadin received the Israel High-Tech Award from the Israel Venture Association in 2006 for his contribution to community service through his work with Tmura, and was chosen by The Marker, Israel’s leading financial magazine, as one of the “Top 100 Influencers” in the Israeli economy in 2011. Yadin began working on Sadara in 2007.

Advisors

JOY MARCUS
Venture Partner, DFJ Gotham Ventures

Venture Partner, DFJ Gotham Ventures Joy Marcus joined DFJ Gotham Ventures as a Venture Partner in May 2011. She recently led the firm’s seed investment in Dailyworth, a digital media company focusing on the financial lives of women. Prior to joining DFJ Gotham Ventures, Joy was General Manager, US for video website Dailymotion, from its US launch through its acquisition by Orange (France Telecom) in January 2011. During her tenure, Joy more than quadrupled the site’s US audience and made it a partner of choice for content owners and advertisers. [read more http://www.dfjgotham.com/bio_marcus.html]

Walid Abu-Hadba
Corporate Vice President, DPE, Microsoft

Corporate Vice President, DPE, Microsoft Walid Abu-Hadba is Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE) group, where he leads efforts to build a vibrant solutions ecosystem through evangelism, community engagement and audience marketing. Prior to leading D&PE, Abu-Hadba was Vice President of Enterprise Specialist Sales (ESS) in the Enterprise and Partner Group (EPG) at Microsoft, where he defined and executed strategies for the specialist team that helps customers meet their business needs using advanced technologies. Abu-Hadba holds bachelor's degrees in systems engineering and business administration, and a master's degree in business administration.

Dr. Usama Fayyad
Executive Chairman, Oasis 500

Executive Chairman, Oasis 500 Dr. Usama Fayyad is Executive Chairman of Oasis 500, a regional early-stage fund and entrepreneurship initiative based in Jordan. He is also Chairman of d1g.com, a new generation Internet community and rich media content sharing site focused on Arabic Speaking online audiences. In the U.S. he is the Chairman and CTO of ChoozOn, a platform for fully personalized deal discovery and social shopping for deals. Until September 2008, Fayyad was Yahoo!’s EVP of Research & Strategic Data Solutions. As the industry’s first chief data officer, he was responsible for Yahoo!’s global data strategy, architecting Yahoo!’s data policies and systems, prioritizing data investments, and managing the Company’s data analytics and data processing infrastructure. He also founded and managed the Yahoo! Research organization globally. Yahoo! Research is the premier scientific research organization to develop the new sciences of the Internet, on-line marketing, and innovative interactive applications. [read more http://fayyad.com]

Dan Ciporin
Venture Partner, Canaan Partners

Venture Partner, Canaan Partners Dan Ciporin is committed to building innovative businesses that make the Internet a more engaging place for consumers. Dan joined Canaan’s Connecticut office in 2007 to invest in emerging leaders in online advertising and digital media in the New York corridor, as well as in communications infrastructure companies that deliver interactive content to connected consumers. Dan brings two decades of executive-level operational experience to Canaan. He was the former Chairman and CEO of Shopping.com, the pioneer in online comparison shopping, where he oversaw growth from zero to over $100 million in revenues in just five years, culminating in the company’s IPO in October 2004 and later acquisition by eBay in 2005. Previously, Dan served as chairman of the Internet Lab, a US-Israeli incubator for early-stage consumer Internet startups, as Senior VP of MasterCard International, where he was responsible for the marketing and product management of all online global debit products, and as a strategy consultant for both Mars and Co. and Corporate Value Associates. [read more http://www.canaan.com/team/partner/daniel-ciporin]

 
Seth Levine
Managing Director, Foundry Group

Managing Director, Foundry Group Seth’s career spans venture capital investing as well as operational, transactional and advisory roles at both public and private companies. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, Seth began his venture capital career at Mobius Venture Capital. He currently serves on the boards of CrowdTap, Federated Media Publishing, Integrate, LinkSmart, Medialets, SideTour, Spanning Cloud Apps, StockTwits,Trada and Triggit for Foundry Group. Seth previously served on the boards of AdMeld(acquired by Google in 12/11) and Lijit (acquired by Federated Media Publishing 9/11). [read more http://foundrygroup.com/team/sethLevine.php]

Debu Purkayastha
Principle New Business Development, Google

Principle New Business Development, Google Debu is Principle New Business Development at Google with a wide mandate spanning several key strategic focus areas across EMEA, India & other regions. Till very recently Debu was Google’s Principal – Corporate Development spearheading its M&A and Investment efforts in EMEA & other regions including the acquisition of ITA Software (travel search), Gizmo5 (VoIP), Phonetic Arts (text to speech), Green Parrot Pictures (video image processing), Zynamics (security software), Quiksee (video mapping) amongst several others. Debu also sits on the Boards of Fon (WiFi) & Mobile Planet (mobile apps) and the Advisory Board of Sadara Ventures (VC Fund). Prior to Google, Debu headed Sabre’s Corporate Development/M&A team in EMEA & in a (distant) past life was a Technology M&A Banker with Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup in Wall Street, Silicon Valley & London. Debu has a MBA from London Business School & is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Sam Jadallah
Managing Partner, GreyHawk Holdings LLC

Managing Partner, GreyHawk Holdings LLC Sam Jadallah is Managing Partner of GreyHawk Holdings. He holds board seats with CallTower and Dydacomp. Prior to GreyHawk, Sam was General Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV). Prior to MDV, Sam was Managing Director of Internet Capital Group where he led the west coast and Asian operations and served as a member of ICG’s senior management team and acquisition committee. Before that Sam spent 12 years at Microsoft where he was a corporate officer and Vice President, Worldwide Enterprise Sales. Sam’s primary focus was leading the SMB and Channel efforts for Microsoft, worldwide. During his time, he led building the Microsoft Certified, Microsoft Open License, Microsoft TechNet and Microsoft Premier Support brands. Working directly for Steve Ballmer, he served as general manager of Worldwide Business Strategy and led Microsoft.com during its early growth years. Sam serves on the board of trustees for his alma mater, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.