By Michael Matias, CEO of Clarity and Forbes 30 Under 30 alumWe’re not easing into the AI era—we’ve been thrown into it. That’s how Ron Peled, founder of Sola and former CISO at LivePerson, described the current moment: “The Big Bang already happened. Now we’re just trying to contain the blast.”Ron’s clarity around AI’s impact on cybersecurity is jarring—and refreshing. He doesn’t talk about threat vectors or dashboards. He talks about control. About complexity. About what breaks when the world adopts generative AI faster than the security stack can respond.Like many of the leaders I’ve spoken with—Dorit Dor at Check Point, Tsion Gonen at Protego, Elik Etzion at Elron—Ron sees AI as both threat and tool. But what makes his voice unique is his insistence on simplicity. “The era of bloated, ‘luxury’ cybersecurity products is over,” he said. “What teams need now is focus. Precision. Clean UX. Solutions that don’t overwhelm—just work.”That perspective echoes something Tom Mes told me about CISOs today: they don’t have the luxury of managing theoretical risk. Their job is to enable the business without drowning in alerts or friction. In that sense, Sola’s approach reflects a growing pattern—cybersecurity as a minimalist, embedded experience.But Ron takes it further. He doesn’t just want cleaner tools. He wants community-based security. “Everyone talks about shared defense,” he said. “Almost no one builds for it.” He sees this as the next evolution—not more tech, but more collective action. A model that looks more like a neighborhood watch and less like a gated compound.It’s a mindset I’ve come to share at Clarity. Whether we’re tackling deepfakes or phishing automation, the organizations moving fastest are the ones who build for people, not just systems. The ones who remember that cybersecurity is, at its core, a coordination challenge.Ron also spoke to the evolving role of the CISO. No longer just a gatekeeper, the modern security leader needs to be what he calls “a productively paranoid operator”—someone who sees what’s coming and builds guardrails without becoming the roadblock.That term stuck with me: productively paranoid.Because that’s exactly what AI requires. The attacks are faster. The tools are more accessible. And the stakes—for privacy, for resilience, for trust—have never been higher.As our conversation wrapped, Ron returned to the urgency. “Organizations don’t want partial solutions,” he said. “They want defenses that move at the speed of the threats.”In that sense, the mission is simple: Build security tools that scale with AI, not lag behind it. Architect for clarity, not complexity. And never forget—the Big Bang already happened.The question now is: who’s ready to build the shield?About Michael Matias:Michael Matias is the CEO and Co-Founder of Clarity, an AI-powered cybersecurity startup backed by venture capital firms including Bessemer Venture Partners and Walden Catalyst. Clarity develops advanced AI technologies protecting organizations from sophisticated phishing attacks and AI-generated social engineering threats, including deepfakes. Before founding Clarity, Matias studied Computer Science with a specialization in AI at Stanford University and led cybersecurity teams in Unit 8200 of the Israel Defense Forces. Forbes Israel recognized him early on, naming him to the exclusive 18Under18 list in 2013 and the Forbes 30Under30 list thereafter. Matias authored the book Age is Only an Int and hosts the podcast 20MinuteLeaders.

In the age of AI agents, cybersecurity is shifting from focusing on identity to addressing agency. Autonomous agents, which act and reason like humans but operate at machine speed, are being created on the fly. Traditional identity management tools—like user directories and group policies—are ill-equipped to handle these ephemeral, unpredictable entities that can take action and disappear before a human can even react.

CyberArk’s SVP and Head of AI, Data & Research, Avihay Nathan, describes this as an unprecedented challenge. His team is tackling it with a three-part framework:

• Secure from AI: Defending against new AI-driven threats.

• Secure with AI: Using AI to augment human defenders and reduce alert fatigue.

• Secure of AI: Protecting organizations from the AI systems they themselves are deploying.

Many companies are overwhelmed by the rapid adoption of agents without understanding what data or systems these agents can access. This creates a trust crisis, and they are now looking to security vendors for solutions.

CyberArk is mapping out a new agent lifecycle, from discovery (how many agents spun up?) to observability, access control, behavior monitoring, and governance. The key insight is that securing these agents requires understanding their context: what data they touch, what tasks they perform, and why they act in a certain way. An agent's behavior is often "zero-shot," meaning it can act without a history, so context is the only way to anchor and secure its actions.

To build this new vision, CyberArk underwent its own transformation, shifting from a traditional company to an AI-native startup mindset. This involved creating a centralized AI and data group with full ownership and educating the entire organization on the importance of data.

Avihay believes the proliferation of agents will continue as companies prioritize productivity. The new security promise is not just to block threats, but to enable innovation—helping organizations adopt these powerful new technologies both confidently and safely.

Years before deepfakes hit the mainstream, Akis Papadopoulos was already sounding the alarm. From early GAN breakthroughs to today’s ultra-realistic, low-res media threats, he’s led research at the intersection of AI, media forensics, and public trust. In this episode, he explores why detection alone isn’t enough—and how explainability, user experience, and civic responsibility must shape our response to synthetic media.

In this episode, Oded Blatman shares his transition from a developer to a Chief Information Security Officer, revealing the complexities of protecting digital assets against nation-state threats. From establishing cutting-edge security operations in Israel's defense sector to pioneering cybersecurity measures in the blockchain space, Oded discusses the evolving nature of cyber threats and the critical role of innovation and proactive defense strategies in safeguarding information.

Dennis is a noted high-technology entrepreneur, executive, and board director.  He has founded/co-founded over a dozen different companies, taken some public, been a CEO of both public and private companies, a venture capitalist, a consultant, and a professional board member – 67 fiduciary corporate boards, including ten public companies. Mr. Cagan’s book The Board of Directors of a Private Enterprise, released in 2017, is the authoritative perspective on the widest range of private company governance issues.

Alon Girmonsky is a serial entrepreneur, a passionate software engineer and the CEO and Co-founder of UP9, a new startup in the field of microservice software reliability. Alon has spent over a decade building developer products and companies. Alon’s previous company, BlazeMeter was acquired by CA technologies, where Alon served as Vice President and Business Unit Executive until the acquisition of CA technologies itself by Broadcom.

Chana Kanzen is the CEO of JI (Jewish Interactive) - a global non profit that delivers online education to over 300,000 kids in over 100 countries. Passionate about improving the quality of education, Chana manges a global team in 4 continents, an international board and has initiated projects being used across the world. Chana regularly lectures and has spoken at Oxford University, Google HQ London /Tel Aviv, Apple HQ NY/London and regularly writes educational features in the Jewish press.

Dr. Yael Benvenisti is the CEO of Mediterranean Towers Ventures, the first and only fund investing exclusively in technologies for aging well. She is the chairperson of technologies for aging well group in the society of electrical and electronics engineering in Israel and represents Aging2.0, an international organization dealing with technology and aging. She was selected in 2019 and 2020 as one of Israel’s top influencers on the longevity spaces.

Jordan is an investor, military veteran, and author from Los Angeles, California. After college, Jordan spent five years in the US Marine Corps as an infantry officer, serving two combat tours overseas in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Currently, he is a Director and the Head of Talent at Schmidt Futures, a new company founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. He holds degrees from Yale Law School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Princeton University.

Andy is the Senior Vice President of Sales at Bill.com (NYSE: BILL), which he helped scale to a successful IPO. Previously he founded and sold Caring.com, the nation’s leading online destination for those caring for aging loved ones. Andy grew the company to a profitable business with a team of 150 people. He held various sales and marketing leadership positions at SuccessFactors, Intuit, Instill, Peapod and SC Johnson Wax, and earned an MBA in marketing from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Ginny is currently a Director of Executive Recruiting at Google where she leads non-technical executive recruiting, as well as diversity for leadership hiring, and internal mobility for senior Googlers. Previously she was a Partner at Spencer Stuart and co-founded and led their global Diversity Practice for 12 years. She is the host of the Fifth Dimensional Leadership podcast and is the author of Career Mapping: Charting Your Course in the New World of Work.

Ron did his Bachelors and Masters degrees in EE, at the Technion. He was one of the first employees in Annapurna Labs, a semiconductor startup that was acquired by Amazon Web Services in 2015. After the acquisition, Ron relocated the California, to work closely with the AWS team. More recently, Ron initiated and lead the AWS Inferentia development, a Machine Learning accelerator that provides the best inference price/performance in the cloud.

Lior is the head of Shibolet's Hi-Tech and Venture Capital practice and a senior member of the firm's management committee. He brings 25 years of experience and has earned an outstanding reputation in leading high-end transactions and recognized as a leading expert in venture capital and strategic investments, and in the structuring and establishment of venture capital funds. Lior has vast experience working with the international market, extensive connections in the United States and Europe, and about 15 years of experience working in China.

Michael is a growth leader with a proven track record of building and scaling successful customer-focused global operations for B2B startups. She is the COO at Hyro, an innovative startup focused on supercharging digital experiences with Conversational AI, where she is leading the company's commercial efforts. Previously she was VP at MCE Systems and then moved to Spot, where she helped increase the organizations’ revenue by 30% Q over Q.

In the latest episode of 20 Minute Leaders, if you guessed Shahar Sorek, you're absolutely correct! Shahar took us on a wild ride through his journey from martial artist and actor to gaming entrepreneur extraordinaire. He spilled the beans on founding a successful gaming company, then switched gears to join Overwolf as CMO and Investor Relations Officer. We geeked out over the gaming industry's evolution, with Shahar dropping truth bombs about the rise of user-generated content (UGC) and the crucial role of third-party creators. From epic collaborations with studios like Wildcard for Ark Survival Ascended to empowering creators to make a living from their craft, Shahar's passion for gaming and community-building shone through. It was a rollercoaster of insights, laughs, and a whole lot of gaming goodness. So grab your controller and tune in for a dose of gaming inspiration! 🎮✨ #GamingIndustry#Entrepreneurship#20MinuteLeaders#GamingCommunity#GamingInspiration#GamingEntrepreneur

Bing works with Colliers International, a full service global commercial real estate firm. His focus currently is investment sales and helping firms with leasing and facility needs. Previously, he served a private investment fund as its acquisitions officer, sourcing numerous opportunistic acquisitions exceeding a total of $225M. He was also a national real estate consultant, with an aggregate value of commercial real estate transaction history of over $800,000,000.

Sergio is the co-founder of dLocal, a leading payments solution for global companies selling into emerging markets. He previously founded several companies, including Uiotel, Metrocall, JetNumbers and Astropay. He was a sales executive for Oracle and a researcher at IBM. Sergio is an active angel investor in early-stage tech startups and holds an MBA from INSEAD and an MSC from the technion.

Rona is a founding partner of TLV Partners, currently focusing on Cloud Computing, AI and Cyber Security. She led the investment and is on the board of various companies that span over a dozen exit events, including Varonis (NSDQ: VRNS), Skycure, Puresec, and SalesPredict. Previously, Rona was a General Partner at Pitango and Evergreen, and was head of the enterprise software sector at both funds. Her journey began as a successful entrepreneur herself, in the gaming industry.

Giddy is the CTO of Adesto Technologies, bringing more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor market. Previously he was a member of the advisory board of Think Silicon and Sansa Security (both acquired) and Centipede Semi. He was VP of Marketing at MIPS Technology (acquired Feb 2013) and VP of Architecture for Symwave. Gideon holds over 30 issued patents and BSEE, MSEE and MBA degrees.

Josh is a public interest entrepreneur working at the nexus of community activism, technology, and social justice. He co-founded New Cycle Capital and was CEO of Lex Machina, sold to LexisNexis, which pioneered Data/AI for law. He also founded www.fullcirclefund.org to fund non-profit organizations working to build a better Bay Area. Josh earned a joint MBA and Law Degree from Stanford University in 1999. He is presently a candidate for the California State Senate.

Rabbi Joey Felsen, Founder and Executive Director of the Jewish Study Network, hails from Toronto, Canada. A skilled educator, Rabbi Felsen teaches classes at the JCCs in Palo Alto and Los Gatos, as well as a host of other venues.  He is the founding Board President of Meira Academy and a recipient of the prestigious Grinspoon-Steinhardt National Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.

Shiran is responsible for Super-Pharm’s (Israel’s largest pharmacy chain) brand development, trend forecasting, and brand hunt. She previously worked for April Cosmetics and Revlon headquarters in New York, after which she transitioned to a packaging company providing to all leading beauty brands. Shiran holds an MA in Media Studies and Media Managements and a BA in Communications. She is a proud mother of 3.

Stav is a partner at Labs/02, a stage fund and Incubator backed by the leading equity crowdfunding platform OutCrowd, India’s Reliance Industries, the Hebrew University and the Israel Innovation Authority. Previously she was an entrepreneur focused on building startup accelerators and co-founder of SifTech, the first entrepreneurship center and accelerator program in greater Jerusalem. She also founded Jnext, which aims to strengthen and empower the technological ecosystem in Jerusalem.

Jacob is a financial expert with over 25 years of experience in driving the hyper growth of multinational enterprises, guiding global operations and supporting expansion into international markets, leading major corporate mergers, optimizing financial operations and overseeing corporate governance and compliance. He scaled multiple enterprises, raised over $750 million in venture capital and completed over $1.5 billion in acquisitions.

Benny is the CEO and Founder of OPSWAT, a cyber security company that provides critical infrastructure protection (CIP) solutions for over 1,500 customers across a wide range of industries, including energy (protecting most US nuclear power generation and research facilities), financial services, government agencies, healthcare, transportation, networking, and telecommunications. Benny bootstrapped OPSWAT and has transformed the company into a global operation with 300+ employees and 10 offices without any external capital investment.

Embark on a journey with Oren Kandel as he navigates the thrilling ups and downs of transforming the world of video content creation through AI. From early setbacks to achieving a groundbreaking $1M ARR in record time, discover the resilience and innovation driving the future of digital storytelling. #20MinuteLeaders

Dana Look-Arimoto is the Founder and CEO of Phoenix⁵, a leadership and executive coaching company that helps corporations and leaders transform at an accelerated rate. She is a 2018 SIA Global Power 150 for Women in Staffing, coach, international speaker, author of Stop Settling, Settle Smart, and the host of the “Settle Smarter” podcast. Dana is using her knowledge from leading teams and companies for two decades in the staffing industry to evangelize her new mindset, method, and movement to redefine work-life balance.

Cecile is the Head of Impact & Sustainability at Pitango Venture Capital, Israel’s largest VC, where she is responsible for adapting the worlds of ESG and the SDGs to the framework of mainstream venture capital. Previously, she was the Founder and Managing Partner of Impact First Investments, Israel's first impact investing company, and was one of the initiators of the Al-Bawader private equity fund, the first investor in Arab-founded startups.

Sandor is the CEO of Network Bankers, a tech-enabled investment bank matching capital providers and capital users through a global network of over 30,000 CEOs. Through the founding and leading of two successful investment banking businesses and a real estate management group, as well as board member of publicly traded companies, he led the advisory process on over $20B of M&As. Sandor holds an MBA from Stanford Business School and a Masters in AI from Stanford.

Itai founded Duda, a professional website builder for web designers, agencies and SaaS platforms. He started the company from his garage in Mountain View, CA, with his high school friend, Amir Glatt, who is now CTO. Duda currently has over 800,000 websites hosted on its platform. Previously Itai held business development, product and engineering positions at companies such as SAP and Amdocs.

Amy is the CEO of The B3 Method Institute and Drishtiq Yoga, a keynote speaker, and corporate board member. She is the author of the book, Business, Balance & Bliss: How the B3 Method Can Transform Your Career and Life, and the host of the Breaking Beliefs podcast. Her speaking programs encompass one-of-a-kind topics on digital transformation, mindfulness, leadership, employee engagement, company culture, change management and innovation.

Dr. Eliaz is a serial entrepreneur with a track record of steering companies to success and acquisition by big pharma. He is the Founder and Managing Director at Elrom Ventures. Previously he was VP of Innovative Branded Products at Teva and CEO of NasVax (TASE: NSVX) and Immcure Therapeutics, VP Product at Intradigm (acquired), Rinat Neuroscience (acquired by Pfizer) and Alza (acquired by J&J). Rom received his PhD from the Weizmann Institute and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Yaron is currently Silicon Valley Bank Director of Enterprise Architecture and a former Chief Architect (Revenue Systems) at VISA. He has held leadership positions in software companies, architecturally leading multi-million dollar foundational initiatives, involving highly distributed systems processing billions of transactions, and spearheading the reimagination of next-gen technical and functional landscape for key financial institutions.  Avid traveler and someone who takes it one day at a time.

Orit Balicer Tsur is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of a new startup in stealth mode, focusing on the future of work. Her previous startup was acquired back in 2015. Previously she worked as a PM for Lyft, building new shared rides experiences. She started her career as an architect and moved to high-tech "only for a couple of years" that lasted over a decade. Yet she claims nothing has changed - it was always about creatively building stuff that people need. Orit is also a proud mother of four boys.

Jake Flomenberg is a Partner at Wing and focuses on next-generation infrastructure, SaaS, and security investments. Since joining Wing at the start of 2019 he has led 4 investments – including SiMa.ai and 3 stealth artificial intelligence related SaaS companies.

Ron started his career with a PhD in Semiconductor, after which he joined RCA Labs as part of the CMOS development team. He advanced to be the Director of Marketing for Motorola’s 6800 microprocessor, followed by being the General Manager for General Electric’s XRay division. His journey continued as he became the President of Diasonics' MRI Business and Senior Vice President of Toshiba Medical Systems. Today he is the Founder and CEO of EchoPixel’s Interactive Mixed Reality business.

Liat Hayun shares her unexpected journey from aspiring aeronautics engineer to cybersecurity visionary, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of navigating the tech world. Her story is a testament to the power of curiosity and the impact of embracing unforeseen paths in shaping a secure digital future.

Sophie is recognized as a Certified Specialist Attorney in Immigration and Nationality Law by the State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization. She is recognized by TechCrunch as a Verified Expert Lawyer and was recently named to the list of Top 10 Immigration Attorneys in California. She authors a weekly TechCrunch immigration advice column (Dear Sophie) and is the host of the podcast ‘Immigration Law for Tech Startups’. Her firm, Alcorn Immigration Law, is the fastest growing immigration law firm in Silicon Valley.

Zack is the CEO of the OFJCC, where under his leadership they launched the Center for Social Impact, the Architects of the Jewish Future Series, and the Zionism 3.0 Project, which is creating a new paradigm for Israel-World Jewry relations. He is a writer, speaker and thought-leader on issues of modern American Judaism and Zionism. Previously he served as the Pacific Northwest Director for AIPAC. He holds a MA from Claremont Graduate School, a BA from Yale University and has studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem as well as Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Fatima is the CEO and co-founder of Quill Inc., the world’s first one-stop marketplace where podcasters can find pre-vetted expert freelancers. As a member of the National Speakers Bureau, Fatima has spoken at various events around the world on media and tech trends. In addition to being a commentator for BNN Bloomberg, she is a frequent contributor to publications including the Huffington Post. In recent years she has won two Top 30 under 30 awards and one of Flare Magazine’s Top 100 Women.

Shiran’s day job is the program managing director at DRIVE TLV and runs the commercialization program called fastlane. However, in the evenings she propels forward females in various aspects. Shiran was a managing partner of Yazamiyot, Israel’s leading community of over 5,000 members, and a volunteer at Saleet, an organization helping women at risk, working to integrate them into the hi-tech industry.

Hadas Bergman is an MBA candidate at Harvard Business school and moved to Cambridge from Tel Aviv last summer. In her prior life, she was the manager of the Digital & Service Design practice at TASC, an Israeli consulting firm, was the 3rd employee at IT Central Station, a B2B Enterprise IT startup, and served in the Intelligence Corps of the Israeli Defense Force.

Neil was a former VP and CFO of Ford Mobility and VP and Treasurer for Ford Motor Company. He joined Ford in 1982.  In 1991, he joined the Treasurer's Office and held numerous positions in corporate treasury culminating in becoming VP Treasurer in 2007.  In July 2016 he took on the role of CFO for Ford Mobility, a newly created subsidiary.  Neil retired from Ford after 36 years at year-end 2018.  Since retiring, Neil has taken on the roles of independent director at Karamba Security, has joined the advisory board of OurCrowd, and has joined the board of BNP Paribas USA, Inc.  Neil is also on the non-profit board of Kids Kicking Cancer, whose mission is to ease the pain of very sick children while empowering them to heal physically, spiritually and emotionally.

Gadi Bashvitz in the President & Chief Customer Officer at NeuraLegion. A fast growing application security company providing application security from build to compliance. Originally from Israel and having grown up in a number of countries Gadi started his hi-tech career in product management. He has been in the US for the last 17 years and has been leading sales, customer success and marketing organizations throughout that period. Gadi has been part of some amazing success stories including Verint, Merced Systems and Nice Systems.

Liraz Margalit, PhD, is a Social Psychologist who specializes in Behavioral Design and Decision Making. She integrates Neuropsychology and Behavioral Economics perspectives to analyze User behavior and deliver actionable insights for business stakeholders. She is a lecturer at the IDC and a worldwide keynote speaker.  She is a recipient of the Online Business Excellence prize and her research papers and studies can be found in top business magazines such as Entrepreneur, TechCrunch and Forbes.

David is VMware’s Chief Research Officer, where he leads the research & innovation activities that are accelerating and extending VMware’s technology leadership. Previously he was Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, Partner at New Venture Partners, VP of Platform Strategy at Amazon (and CEO of its A9.com subsidiary), VP and Director of Research at Intel and DARPA’s Chief Scientist and Director of its Information Technology Office. Along with all that, he was also a faculty member at MIT and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.

Meagen is the CMO of TripActions, previously CMO of MongoDB and on the board of G2, TinyPulse and Reactful. Before joining MongoDB, she was VP of Demand Generation at DocuSign. Named Top 25 for B2B Marketing Influencers, Meagen has advised over 25 tech companies such as Branch.io, Chorus.ai, Sendoso, CoreOS, Accompany, TinyPulse and SumoLogic, seven of which were acquired in the past two years. She has an MBA from Yale SOM.

In a digital era where privacy is paramount, the founders of Mine share their journey of empowering individuals with control over their personal data. Celebrating five years of innovation, they delve into the evolution of data governance, highlighting the balance between technological advancement and user consent. Discover how Mine is shaping a future where privacy and transparency coexist.

Shachar Peled is a foreign affairs multimedia journalist, currently the Europe Correspondent for Israel’s News 13 and a contributor to Haaretz newspaper. She’s a former CNN producer and writer, and was a launch team member of media startup i24news, the first-ever multi-language international news channel in the Middle East. She’s a staunch advocate of social issues, from gender equality to human rights, and has focused her storytelling on these topics.

Tal is a General Partner at Disruptive Ventures, a privately held venture fund run by investment professionals equipped with extensive global technology and media relationships. He also serves as a board member in various technological companies as Beamr, Anodot, Co-Cycle, Speed Up and Taylor Brands. Previously Tal founded and led companies such as S.E.A (IPO), Orca Interactive (acquired), Belnsync (acquired) and Dotomi (acquired) and helped found Sosa, a global network of tech innovation hubs.