Gil holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tel Aviv University.
Gil has been working with the founders of the company since 2015, a few years before Pentaxi was founded. He was active and a team member in a number of innovative aerial projects in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles. Gil was responsible for propulsion system design and performance analysis. He also took part in a prototype of a solar UAV and in eVTOL projects.
The Passion to Develop Tomorrow’s Solutions Today
Our focus, every day, is on creating a more connected world fueled by innovation and the desire for a resilient, enduring future.
We founded Pentaxi in 2018 to bring to that future to life with the world’s most advanced self-flying taxis and cargo aircraft. Since then, we’ve conducted more than 20 test flights.
Based in Netanya, Israel, our second location in Tokyo, Japan will open in May 2022.
The Experience to Define the Future of eVTOL Aircraft
While the concept of autonomous, unmanned, zero-emission aircraft is new to many, our founders and leadership teams are recognized international pioneers in the industry.
With over 250 years of combined experience, our team pioneered Israel’s aerial industries, developing and perfecting the autonomous air systems technology that supports over 60% of unmanned aircraft flying today.
Meet the Global Aviation Pioneers Leading Pentaxi
Eran Gross
Founder, CEO
Eran spent 10 years (2000-2010) in England as the Head of Business Development for Amdocs. While there he received his MBA at the University of Greenwich.
Upon returning to Israel, he successfully developed several real estate projects.
In 2013, Eran joined Shlomo Zach, a respected aeronautical engineer and pioneer in UAV development, to create a global engineering and design services company servicing flying vehicle manufacturers. The company developed several groundbreaking vehicles including a solar-powered version.
In 2018 Eran co-founded Pentaxi.
Yair Dubester
Founder, Chairman
Yair joined Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in 1975 after graduating from the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) as an electrical engineer.
He is a founder of the IAI’s Malat division, serving as CEO for seven years. During his tenure, several generations of autonomous aerial vehicles (UAVs) were developed, and the division grew to hundreds of millions of US dollars annually in revenue and over 1,000 employees.
Yair also served as CEO of UVision, which develops military UAVs. He continued his career as CEO of APG, a startup founded by IAI veterans, which designs solar-powered flying vehicles and provides engineering and outsourcing services to Israeli and international aviation companies.
In 2018 Yair founded Pentaxi with the vision of creating an eVTOL air taxi and transforming urban transportation.
Jacques Chemla
Founder, CTO
Jacques holds a bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and physics (University of Paris) and in aeronautical engineering (Technion).
He joined Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in 1980, working on several Lavi jet fighter and UAV systems, including Scout, Pioneer, Searcher, Hunter, Ranger, and Heron.
He also served as Chief of Engineering at the Malat division of the IAI; Head of Marketing and Business Development, managing its relationships with Airbus and Dassault; and Head of Business Development for IAI’s Civilian Department.
Most recently, Jacques has been a technical and business consultant for multiple startups, and in 2018 he joined Pentaxi as a consultant and ultimately an active partner.
Ori Tamari
VP business development
Ori has 25 years of experience in Israeli technology industries as a developer, entrepreneur, and manager.
He has led several startups to successful exits including acquisitions by Elbit Systems and French Dassault Systems.
Since 2010, Ori has acted as an international cyberspace consultant in technological, marketing, promotional, and business development capacities.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer sciences from The Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo and served as an operational helicopter pilot in the Israel Defense Force (IDF) before becoming an aviation instructor.
Initially joining Pentaxi in a consulting role, Ori officially joined the company as CEO in 2021.
Eli Katz
VP Aerial Platform
Eli holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion).
He served in the Israeli Air Force for 22 years, managing UAV technological projects, including the development and implementation of a drone system for the Israel Defense Forces.
In addition to acting as a UAV consultant to multiple aviation companies, he was a member of the think tank that defined and built the Pentaxi prototype before joining Pentaxi full time.
Michael Allouche
Director Certification & Regulation
Michael holds a master diploma of Aerospace Engineering from the “Grande École” Supaéro in Toulouse, France and has 45 years of experience in the aviation industry, including 10 years at Airbus Industries and 28 years at the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
He is an international expert in the certification of unmanned systems and is a member of several international organizations that formulate rules and regulations for UAVs including ICAO, EASA and JARUS.
Michael is the former co-chairman of EUROCAE WG-105 working group, in charge of establish standards for civilian Unmanned Aircraft Systems
In 2016 he received the Israel Aerospace Industries CEO award and in 2019 Eurocae granted him its Lifetime Achievement Award.
In addition to working with Pentaxi, Michael currently leads a course on certification of airworthiness for unmanned air systems (UAS).
Dr. Victor Weisberg
Senior Director, Aircraft Structure
Victor holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering (Technion) and a Ph.D. in Mechanics and Materials (University of Tel-Aviv).
He spent 45 years at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) designing aircraft, leading the group managing the structural strength and integration of composite materials for all flying vehicles produced by the IAI including civilian passenger planes.
In addition to working with Pentaxi, Victor has published dozens of academic research articles, lectures at Ben-Gurion University on composite materials and machine design and is an expert consultant on planning energy-absorbing chairs in helicopters, light planes, and racing cars.
Eyal Ben Shahar
VP Engineering
Eyal is a former Division Chief Engineer at the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
He holds a Master of Engineering (M.E) degree in system engineering and a BSc in Aeronautical & Space Engineering. Both from the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion).
Eyal has over 20 years of experience as a Flight Avionics and Flight Systems Engineer in leading complex and multi-disciplinary systems development.
As a Division Chief Engineer in IAI, he managed the R&D execution and led the Systems development of mega-scaled UAV and aircraft development programs.
Eyal manage a multiple cross-functional engineering teams from many different disciplines and external organizations: System Engineering, S/W development teams, Aircraft design, Mission system integration, Flight and navigation Systems, Ground facilities, C4I systems and more.
Gil Avrahami
Aeronautical Engineer
Yedidia Ben Tolila
Director, Flight Sciences
Yedidia holds bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering (Israel Institute of Technology).
His career includes work in aeronautical engineering for Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Advanced Technology.
As a flight control expert advisor during his tenure as CEO of Collator Systems, Yedidia led the development of smart guided weapon systems for Israel Military Industries (IMI) and the design and development of UAF automatic take-off and landing systems for Elbit.
He also served as Director of UAV Flight Sciences for Elbit Systems, and most recently as Director of Flight Sciences for Meteor Aerospace.
Ronen Cohen
CISO & Marcom
Ronen has 30 years of experience in the Hi-tech and telecommunications industry and Global Professional Services and Technical Operations in EMEA-APAC.
As an entrepreneur, he was a founder of CRMatrix and co-founder of several startups in the CRM and IS domain.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Tel Aviv University and LAHAV Executive Program Business Management – Recanati Tel-Aviv. CISO Certification from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and CDPSE from ISACA
Served as Airborne Communications and Navigation technician (IDF)
Advisory Board
Katsutoshi Doi
Mr. Doi joined the Pentaxi Advisory Board in April 2022, continuing his work since the mid-90s of supporting Israeli industry development and government presence in Japan.
He is also currently CEO of Tech Gate, Inc., a consulting and business incubation company based in Tokyo.
Previous to that, he spent 22 years as an executive with Sony Corporation, where he acted as a leader for business development, mid-long-term R&D strategy and director of the Business Incubation Center.
He was in various board and VP positions in several Sony-related ventures, curve-out ventures etc..
Yaniv Garty
From 2017 to 2023, Yaniv Garty was a Vice President at Intel and the General Manager of Intel Israel –
Israel’s largest Hi-Tech employer and Intel’s largest operation outside the US. Before returning to Israel
from the Bay Area, Yaniv held multiple positions within Intel since its acquisition of Envara Inc. in 2004.
He initially served as Chief Operating Officer of Intel’s Broadband Wireless Division (WiMAX/4G and
WLAN solutions), and from 2011 to 2018 as the General Manager of the Wireless Connectivity Solutions
business unit, a worldwide organization responsible for delivering wireless connectivity technologies and
products.
Prior to Intel’s acquisition of Envara, Yaniv had multiple engineering, business, and managerial positions
in different companies, including Serconet, Optibase, and Orckit Communications. Before, Yaniv was an
engineer with the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Yaniv also serves as the Chairman of the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce since 2018, a voluntary
organization of more than 230 Israeli and multinational companies.
He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in electrical engineering from Tel Aviv University in Israel. He obtained
his MBA from the university’s Recanati Business School, where he also held a lecturer position.
Prof. Meir Feder
Meir Feder is a Jokel Chaired Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University. He is also the head of the newly established Tel-Aviv university center for Artificial intelligence and Data science (TAD). In addition, he is a Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is an internationally renowned authority in the field of Information Theory, Signal Processing, Prediction and Learning, published well over 200 papers and holds over 50 patents.
Parallel to his academic career, he is closely involved with the high-tech industry. He founded 5 companies, among them Peach Networks (Acq: MSFT) and Amimon (Acq:LON.VTC). Recently, with his renewed interest in machine learning and AI, he co-founded Run:ai, a virtualization, orchestration, and acceleration platform for AI infrastructure.
Prof. Feder is an IEEE Life fellow. He received several academic and professional awards including the IEEE Information Theory Society best paper award, the “creative thinking” award of the Israeli Defense Forces, and the Research Prize of the Israeli Electronic Industry, awarded by the President of Israel. He received the 2020 Scientific and Engineering Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (OSCAR), and was announced as the principal inventor of the technology that attained the 73rd Engineering Emmy Award of the Television Academy.
Avi Levinson
Avi is a seasoned CEO of several companies in the automotive industry managing turnover of more than 50M$ at companies like: New Feldman, China motors and the vehicle group of the Balilios Family ( Superbus golden dragon etc…) to name a few,
Avi has also held several high managerial positions in Delek vehicle group importer of Ford and Mazda.
Avi holds MA in finance and an MBA Ben Gurion university
Ben Volkow
Ben Volkow is an established serial entrepreneur and experienced Executive with over 15 years’ experience as CEO and Chairman.
Ben founded Otonomo in Dec 2015 and has served as Otonomo’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman ever since, taking the company from foundation to NASDAQ and building it into the Mobility data market leader with over 100 paying customers and partnership with 12 Automotive OEMs.
Before that as founder and CEO Ben led three successful companies in the data and software space to successful Exits to the likes of Cisco and F5.
From 2012 to 2015, Mr. Volkow served as a Business Unit General Manager at F5 Networks (Nasdaq: FFIV), which he joined after the acquisition of Traffix Systems., where he was Founder and CEO.
Mr Volkow is also a LP in number of leading Venture capital firms and active investor in the industry. In 2021 Mr Volkow was chosen and recognized by the Automotive Hall of Fame due to his contribution to the Automotive industry.
Mr. Volkow studied Computer Science at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo.
Major Milestones
Since the 1970s, Israel has been a global superpower in developing unmanned aerial vehicles. Pentaxi is founded on that expertise and continues to define the industry today.
–Yair Dubester, Pentaxi co-founder
Career - Calling All Pioneers
We’re on a mission to create a more resilient, connected world with a different kind of energy solution and are building a team to bring that vision to life.
If you share our passion for developing fully autonomous, zero-emission aircraft, want to make the world a better place and are ready to be part of a winning team, join us.