Pentera Leadership

Meet the leaders who care
about your security validation
just as much as you do.

Always available for you.

Executive Leadership & Board of Directors

Dr. Arik Liberzon
Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Arik Liberzon
Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Founder of Pentera, Arik is a seasoned cybersecurity expert who held a significant role in a notable Cyber Warfare unit. He and his team performed penetration tests on national mission-critical systems and strategic asset networks. After mastering penetration testing and Red-teaming, as well as software engineering, Arik converted his expertise into software, and in 2015, he co-founded Pentera with Arik Faingold. Arik holds a B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from the Technion Institute of Technology, a Masters of Business Administration from Tel Aviv University, and a Ph.D. in Finance from Ben-Gurion University.
Amitai Ratzon
Chief Executive Officer
Amitai Ratzon
Chief Executive Officer
Amitai has been leading Pentera as its CEO since January 2018 from a stealth-mode startup into the global unicorn and category leader it has become. To date, Amitai has led three funding rounds with Awz Ventures and The Blackstone Group (Round A), Insight Partners (Round B), and K1 Investment Management and Evolution Partners (Round C).

Amitai has over 20 years of go-to-market experience, leading companies from conception to early revenue, then on to tens of millions in ARR, across various geographies and industries. Before his pivotal role at Pentera, Amitai showcased his leadership in senior global sales positions at prominent fintech companies like SuperDerivatives (2005-2012), now part of ICE (NASDAQ: ICE). Later, at Earnix, as the VP of Sales, Amitai was instrumental in establishing and scaling the global sales team from 2012-2016.

Amitai holds an LL.B and a BA in Business Administration from the Reichman University in Israel and an International Executive MBA from Kellogg-Recanati, awarded jointly by Tel Aviv University in Israel, and Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.
Ran Tamir
Chief Product Officer
Ran Tamir
Chief Product Officer
Ran has over 21 years of experience in cybersecurity product management, holding leadership positions at Palo Alto Networks, Checkpoint, RSA, and BMC Software, among others. With his expertise in endpoint protection, mobile security, and identity management and authentication, he has guided security products from inception to mass-market adoption. Ran holds a B.Sc in Computer Science and an MBA, both from Tel Aviv University.
Aviv Cohen
Chief Marketing Officer
Aviv Cohen
Chief Marketing Officer
Aviv, an Engineer turned Chief Marketing Officer, is a speaker, cartoonist, and author with over 20 years of experience in product and marketing management. He joined Pentera as one of its first employees, helping grow it into a global brand and market leader. Before Pentera, Aviv developed the Earnix’s brand and founded its Excelerate Insurance Summit and CEO Forum. He has also held significant product and marketing roles at Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), and Amdocs (NASDAQ: DOX). Aviv holds a B.Sc in Electronics and Computer Science from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Bar-Ilan University.
Morgan Jay
Chief Revenue Officer
Morgan Jay
Chief Revenue Officer
Morgan leads Pentera’s Global Sales, Sales Engineering, Customer Success, Channel Management, and Revenue Operations teams around the world. He brings over 15 years of extensive sales and sales management experience from various technology companies. Before Pentera, he spent 5 years at Imperva, a renowned cybersecurity company acquired by Private Equity Thoma Bravo for $2.1B in 2018. Morgan has also directed sales teams across the US and EMEA at several other software vendors. Notably, he earned the Global Leader of the Year Award 2020 at Imperva for his exceptional sales leadership capabilities.
Tzurit Golan
Chief People Officer
Tzurit Golan
Chief People Officer
Tzurit is a seasoned HR executive with over 25 years of experience in human resources management for global technology companies. Before joining Pentera, she served as SVP at Fyber (acquired by Digital Turbine) and as VP of Human Resources at RRsat. In her role as Chief People Officer at Pentera, Tzurit drives success by implementing a global people strategy, focusing on leadership and talent development, enhancing employee experience, strategic reward planning, and spearheading various organizational development initiatives. She holds a B.A. in Behavioral Science from the College of Management and an M.A. in Organizational Sociology from Ben Gurion University.
Sivan Harel
SVP Sales, EMEA
Sivan Harel
SVP Sales, EMEA
Sivan, a global leader in cybersecurity, excels in consultative sales to C-level executives and in leading field sales teams. Since joining Pentera as a Regional Sales Director in 2018, she has spearheaded exponential growth, elevating Pentera to a market leader in Automated Security Validation. Sivan brings 15 years of experience from customer-facing sales and leadership roles at companies like Earnix, Hewlett-Packard, and Comverse. Her diverse background and comprehensive skill set in cybersecurity allows her to offer valuable thought leadership to organizations worldwide.
Scott Merkle
Scott Merkle
VP Sales, Americas
Scott Merkle
VP Sales, Americas
Scott is a seasoned sales leader with over 25 years of experience in cybersecurity and enterprise sales. As Pentera’s VP of Sales for the Americas, Scott drives the company’s growth strategy across the region, leading efforts to strengthen customer and partner relationships and deliver impactful security solutions. Before joining Pentera, Scott spent six years at Ping Identity, where he managed the company’s largest region to top performance. His career includes leadership roles at Webroot, OverWatchID, and BrightPoint, where he specialized in sales strategy, business development, and channel management. Scott’s expertise and customer-centric approach make him a key asset in expanding Pentera’s reach and impact in the cybersecurity industry.
Ortal Vardi
VP Legal Affairs
Ortal Vardi
VP Legal Affairs
‌‌As Pentera's first lawyer, Ortal joined the company in 2020 as Director of Legal Affairs, establishing the legal department and leading several funding rounds. Ortal's past experience includes AppsFlyer, Raved, Magriso, Benkel & Co. She graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelor of Law degree.
Shiran Bar-Lev
VP Finance
Shiran Bar-Lev
VP Finance
Shiran joined Pentera in 2019 as a Finance Manager and has since built the finance department from scratch, managing ongoing accounting analyses and reporting to investors and leadership. She has played an integral role in Pentera's funding rounds and previously held instrumental roles at Kela and KPMG. Shiran was selected by Globes to the 40 under 40 Israel Young Leadership in 2023 and earned her B.A. in Accounting and Business Administration from the Hebrew University.
Natalie Levy
VP Revenue Operations & Business Applications
Natalie Levy
VP Revenue Operations & Business Applications
Natalie is a highly experienced business leader with over 10 years of experience in all phases of the Business Lifecycle. In 2020, she joined Pentera as Head of Revenue Operations. Natalie drove Pentera’s go-to-market operations from startup to scaleup by establishing data-driven, predictable, and streamlined business processes and accelerating revenue growth. She has managed revenue operations at AppsFlyer and Telit after spending four years with the Foreign Trade Administration of the Israeli Ministry of Economy & Industry, promoting Israel’s international trade. Natalie was recognized as one of the Top 100 Revenue Operations Leaders in 2022 by The Modern Sale and Collective[i].
Chen Tene
VP Customer Operations
Chen Tene
VP Customer Operations
Chen joined Pentera in February 2018, as a Security Researcher. He is responsible for running all technical activities with customers, establishing the Architecture and Solutions teams, and leading the Customer Operations group. Before Pentera, Chen was a White Hat Hacker leading pentesting and red team exercises for enterprises.
Alex Spivakovski
VP of Research & Cybersecurity
Alex Spivakovski
VP of Research & Cybersecurity
Alex joined in April 2018 as one of the first cyber researchers at the company. Reporting to the CTO, Arik Liberzon, he has been pivotal in enhancing the attack capabilities of the Pentera platform and continues to lead Pentera’s Research Labs. With nearly a decade of experience in cyber offense and defense, Alex has held positions in a prominent cyber defense unit, including cybersecurity R&D member in a red team group and a CERT leader in an IR and Threat Hunting branch. He holds both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Engineering from the Technion Institute of Technology.
Omer Gafni
VP Applications
Omer Gafni
VP Applications
Omer joined Pentera in February 2018 as a Software Engineer, bringing a decade of service in a renowned Air Force. He is currently responsible for developing all concrete products and modules - existing and new. In his previous positions at the company, he managed Pentera’s Global Customer Operations team and, in 2021, led the development of Pentera Surface, the company’s first SaaS product. This innovation broadened the scope of the security validation platform to include external-facing assets, enabling the validation of their related security measurements.
Alex Barenboim
VP Attack Automation
Alex Barenboim
VP Attack Automation
Alex joined Pentera in December 2017 as a Software Engineer, playing a pivotal role in the evolution of the company’s product development processes and the engineering team. He has been instrumental in recruiting and mentoring, contributing significantly to propelling the team forward. Before Pentera, he was a Senior Software Engineer at Datorama, a company later acquired by Salesforce, and served in a technology unit of a major Air Force, where he received a special award from the Commander-in-Chief. Alex holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science and an MBA from Tel Aviv University.
Adi Bar-Lev
VP Brand & Communications
Adi Bar-Lev
VP Brand & Communications
Adi joined Pentera in 2021 to establish its global brand and market recognition, bringing to life the company's customer advocacy and community motion. A four-time Vice President of Marketing, Adi has built effective marketing operations from scratch and accelerated growth for software and cyber startups over the past 18 years and has led successful marketing operations for enterprise software solutions. Luminate Security (acquired by Symantec), Cybellum (acquired by LG), and Earnix were among the companies where Adi led marketing operations before joining Pentera in 2021.
Maayan Sella
VP Demand Generation
Maayan Sella
VP Demand Generation
Maayan joined Pentera in 2019 as the Marketing Director to build the Digital, Content, and Operations teams from the ground up, generating a qualified sales pipeline and growing the company with the Sales teams. Since joining, she has played a significant role in the company's success, assuming responsibility for all demand generation activities, including Field, Channel, Digital, and Marketing Operations. Maayan brings 10 years of marketing experience, building cybersecurity startup marketing for growth. Before Pentera, Maayan worked with several cybersecurity startups, setting up effective marketing strategies.
Uri Eisner
VP Sales Development
Uri Eisner
VP Sales Development
Since joining Pentera in 2020 as Head of Sales Development, Uri has grown the SDR department into a global operation, with teams across the world, that contributes more than 50% to the company's revenue. Uri has worked in sales and sales development for more than 20 years, managing inside sales and sales development teams at a variety of startups, including Workiz and Sisense.
Alon Katz
VP AppInfra
Alon Katz
VP AppInfra
Alon, a seasoned Software Engineer, has been a key member of Pentera, heading the application infrastructure division and unifying the engineering aspect of the platform. He was the company’s first Frontend engineer, managing client-facing development singlehandedly for three years and acting as the company’s Global IT specialist during its early-to-mid-stage days.

Alon’s expertise spans across multiple development technologies, including Mobile and Desktop apps and Cloud environments at scale. Before joining Pentera, Alon built early-stage startup tech stacks in Image Processing, AI, cloud-scale, smart cities, and cloud-scale construction marketplaces. He also founded two startups in the Influencer, Social Marketing and Travel for Disability fields. Alon holds a B.Sc in Computer and Software Engineering from the Technion and is a proud father to three young children, Guy, Tom, and Leann, with his wife, Emilya.
Jannis Utz
VP Global Sales Engineering
Jannis Utz
VP Global Sales Engineering
Jannis, in his role as Vice President of Global Sales Engineering at Pentera, is dedicated to leveraging his over 20 years of international sales and technical management experience to continue Pentera's growth. Having progressed through various roles within Pentera, Jannis significantly expanded the company's footprint in the EMEA and APAC regions. His prior positions at Recorded Future, Tenable, Qualys, and indevis IT-Consulting and Solutions GmbH have provided him with a deep understanding of sales engineering and cybersecurity, essential for leading Pentera's expansion in global markets.
Dr. Arik Liberzon
Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Pentera
Dr. Arik Liberzon
Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Pentera
Founder of Pentera, Arik is a seasoned cybersecurity expert who held a significant role in a notable Cyber Warfare unit. He and his team performed penetration tests on national mission-critical systems and strategic asset networks. After mastering penetration testing and Red-teaming, as well as software engineering, Arik converted his expertise into software, and in 2015, he co-founded Pentera with Arik Faingold. Arik holds a B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from the Technion Institute of Technology, a Masters of Business Administration from Tel Aviv University, and a Ph.D. in Finance from Ben-Gurion University.
Amitai Ratzon
Chief Executive Officer at Pentera
Amitai Ratzon
Chief Executive Officer at Pentera
Amitai has been leading Pentera as its CEO since January 2018 from a stealth-mode startup into the global unicorn and category leader it has become. To date, Amitai has led three funding rounds with Awz Ventures and The Blackstone Group (Round A), Insight Partners (Round B), and K1 Investment Management and Evolution Partners (Round C).

Amitai has over 20 years of go-to-market experience, leading companies from conception to early revenue, then on to tens of millions in ARR, across various geographies and industries. Before his pivotal role at Pentera, Amitai showcased his leadership in senior global sales positions at prominent fintech companies like SuperDerivatives (2005-2012), now part of ICE (NASDAQ: ICE). Later, at Earnix, as the VP of Sales, Amitai was instrumental in establishing and scaling the global sales team from 2012-2016.

Amitai holds an LL.B and a BA in Business Administration from the Reichman University in Israel and an International Executive MBA from Kellogg-Recanati, awarded jointly by Tel Aviv University in Israel, and Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.
Yaron Ashkenazi
Founder & Managing Partner at Awz Ventures Inc.
Yaron Ashkenazi
Founder & Managing Partner at Awz Ventures Inc.
Yaron founded Awz Ventures, a Canadian hub for venture capital investments in leading-edge Israeli cyber security, intelligence, and physical security technology companies. He serves as a director on the board of 15 technology companies, is a lawyer by profession, and a former officer in the Israel Security Agency.
Thomas Krane
Managing Director at Insight Partners
Thomas Krane
Managing Director at Insight Partners
Thomas's focus areas include cybersecurity, DevOps, IT automation, and education technology. Thomas was recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Venture Capitalist in 2019.
Adam Fletcher
Senior Managing Director, Chief Security Officer at Blackstone
Adam Fletcher
Senior Managing Director, Chief Security Officer at Blackstone
Adam Fletcher is responsible for all aspects of cyber and physical security across Blackstone as well as managing a small portfolio of investments in leading early-stage cybersecurity companies.

Richard Seewald
Founder and Managing Partner at Evolution Equity Partners
Richard Seewald
Founder and Managing Partner at Evolution Equity Partners
Richard is responsible for all aspects of the firm’s global activities and strategic direction. He leads investments in cybersecurity, enterprise software and data analytics and brings over three decades of investment, operational and entrepreneurial experience to his role. Richard is a member of the firm’s investment committee.
Christian Grant
Senior Vice President at K1 Investment Management
Christian Grant
Senior Vice President at K1 Investment Management
Christian Grant is responsible for sourcing and executing on new growth capital and buyout investments within B2B software and is an active Board member for K1’s portfolio companies.

Thank you for the recognition.

Join our cyber community.

Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest security tips and news.