Orna Berry

Orna Berry (1949– ) is the Corporate Vice President and the General Manager of the EMC Center of Excellence in Israel. She is an entrepreneur with an academic background; she is a former Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour,^[1] the Chairperson of the Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Oceania Chamber of Commerce, and the Chair of the Managing Committee of the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Jaffa. She has been extensively involved in investment in various Israeli high-tech companies, and has helped market a number of successful high-tech Israeli brands to the world. Berry is considered one of Israel's leading business figures.^[2]

Early life

Berry was born in Jerusalem, in 1949, to Raissa and Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto. She was raised in Zahala in Tel Aviv, but spent some of her early life in France. Prior to beginning her education, Berry was drafted into the Israeli Air Force, where she served as an officer for the flying school, from 1967 to 1970. Berry studied mathematics and statistics, and graduated from Haifa University in 1975. Berry received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, during which time she was a fellow at RAND Corporation, and received her M.A. and B.A. degrees in Statistics and Mathematics from Tel Aviv University. Berry calls her time at the University of Southern California, “a great example of globalization, my global education”.^[3] Her academic research illustrated, for the first time, how distributed programs could run faster than was previously thought possible. Using this research she would help pioneer what would later become international standards in data transfer.

Early career

Berry was employed by the System Development Corporation, which later became Unisys after a successful merger with Sperry Corporation. It was here that she pioneered her work in data networks and local area networks (LAN). The technology that Berry worked on would later find its way into the US Air Traffic Control System. She returned to Israel in 1987 to work for IBM. Under IBM she was involved with hardware simulations on different Intel-chip architectures. After two years, she joined Fibronics and helped lead multiple projects relating to LAN standards and group architectures.

In 1993, Berry co-founded Ornet Data Communication Technologies with several colleagues from Fibronics. During the founding of Ornet, she served as a technical manager of an industrial project at Elbit, and performed consultation work for Intel. Ornet paved the way in developing high-speed switches for local area networks. The new switches, based on Ethernet technology, doubled the speed of data transmissions. Berry's role was critical in setting up Ornet. She raised venture capital and built the emerging company's global infrastructure. The technology developed by Ornet was revolutionary at a time when the World Wide Web was accessible mainly through slow dial-up telephone lines, with Berry herself estimating that the data solution created by Ornet, "multiplied the bandwidth fifty times".^[4] With Ornet's global presence burgeoning, Siemens became interested in purchasing it, and Berry was involved in managing the sale to Siemens, in 1995. This was the first time that an Israeli start-up company would be sold to a European company.

Government service

With her position in the Israeli tech industry sealed, Berry began to work for the government as a chief scientist in Israel's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor in 1997. She was the first woman to hold this post. It was during this time that Berry, "transformed the nature of Israeli society relative to technology,"^[5] through the initiation and implementation of government policies favorable to technological innovation. During this time, she managed a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars and provided grants for both established corporations and start-ups. She was also the Chairperson of the Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. BIRD is a matchmaking service between Israeli and American companies in the field of Research and Development^[5] which helps foster the relationship between US and Israeli start-ups and other companies.

Later career

After leaving government service, Berry served as a venture partner of Gemini Israel Funds. One of Gemini's greatest successes was the development of PrimeSense. PrimeSense created the technology used in the bestselling Xbox Kinect. Berry contributed to the success of PrimeSense by bringing in the new CEO and opening the doors to potential customers and partners. The technology was eventually sold to Microsoft. Berry resigned as Chairperson of PrimeSense in 2010, but remains on the board. Recently, Berry joined EMC as the Vice President and manager of their Centre of Excellence in Israel. Berry's appointment was announced along with a major restructuring of the company. Berry has been responsible for strategy and implementation of all activities within Israel and, "committed to finding more opportunities for EMC to expand its presence in the market through new partners, ties with academe and other initiatives relevant to EMC's strategy”.^[6]

Berry has three children, who she proudly says are, "her greatest partners," and four grand children. She has two brothers, Daniel and Ram Tsiddon. She currently lives in Israel.

References

1. ^ "Research and Development - Chief Scientist". Israeli Ministry of Industry Trade and Labor. 2011. http://www.tamas.gov.il/NR/exeres/B3F78073-454A-48D5-A8BA-6D088DDECCD5.htm. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
2. ^ Friedlin, Jennifer (April 20, 1997). "Woman on a Mission". Jerusalem Post. 
3. ^ Orna Berry. Orna Berry watermark iPhone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5La9_kZCoxA. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
4. ^ Senor, Dan; Singer, Saul (2010). Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. Council on Foreign Relations. p. 159-161. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "What is BIRD". BIRD Foundation. http://www.birdf.com/Index.asp?CategoryID=22&ArticleID=79. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
6. ^ Shelah, Shmulik (December 1, 2010). "Orna Berry to head reorganized EMC operations". Globes. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000605176&fid=1725. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 

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