Following-up from the previous episode of the show on Israeli wines, the 109th episode of The Jewish Drinking Show features Jacob Ner-David on the Israeli winery he co-founded, Jezreel Valley Winery.
Ner-David is a 20+year veteran of serial entrepreneurship and technology innovation with deep connectivity in the Israeli and American venture scene. Ner-David is the co-founder and CEO of Vinsent, a venture formed to positively disrupt the global wine industry, and a partner in VinoVentures, a wine-trading fund. He is the chairman of the award-winning Jezreel Valley Winery, which he co-founded in 2011. Jacob currently serves as Executive Chairman of OneSpace, a mixed reality theme park developer. In 2015, Jacob served as a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, helping to build a new service line focused on early stage companies. Jacob has served as an advisor to Harmony Labs, a NY based incubator focused on big data and media influence. For the past 20 years, he has focused on the early stage tech sector as a serial entrepreneur, serving as CEO in many cases, including Ambient (NASDAQ IPO), Delta Three (NASDAQ IPO), NomadIQ (Acquired by NASDAQ listed company), 2bAnwhere, DoubleFusion, and – most recently – Zula, Inc — along the way creating over $1 Billion in shareholder value. Ner-David is active as an angel investor, advisor, and board member to many companies and has served as an advisor to VC funds. He created and managed a $10 million seed fund, Jerusalem Capital, that was active from 2006-2010. He has volunteered intensively in the public sector, including as founding board member of PresenTense (promoting social entrepreneurship), Digital Jerusalem, Aspen Institute Middle East Strategy Group, Breaking the Impasse (initiative of the World Economic Forum), and worked closely with two mayors of Jerusalem on regional economic development. He has lectured at the Hebrew University and the Technion, as well as guest lectures in many other fora. He received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. from City University of New York, and was an Isaacs Scholar at Mansfield College, Oxford University. Ner-David is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. He is the life partner of Rabbi Dr. Haviva Ner-David; together, they are the parents of Michal, Adin, Meira, Hallel, Nachum, Mishael, and Shefa. He enjoys hiking, mountain-biking and long-distance running (has completed over ten marathons).
In addition to being available in video format below, the episode is also available on podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you prefer listening to podcasts: