Ariel is a serial entrepreneur with over two decades of experience managing media, communications, and technology ventures. He’s led two successful M&As, and he possesses a wide range of expertise: general management, sales, marketing, product development, business development, and more. Ariel has played a leading role within a number of successful start-ups as well as large global organizations. Prior to setting up HIRO and managing it, he founded Valis and served as a CEO. Valis provided the first-ever location-based community service, which was launched with Vodafone global and Orange. The company attracted financial backing from Pitango, AOL, and Time Warner. Ariel was recognized as one of the ten most promising entrepreneurs in Israel and named “Innovator to Watch” in Variety (a U.S. entertainment magazine). Ariel has a B.A. in Philosophy and Humanities from Tel Aviv University.