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In addition to his position as Chairman of the Board, Israel Niv also serves on the board of PGSP (Pacific Graduate School of Psychology) - an academic institution affiliated with Stanford-and is advisor to several start-ups, as well as the investment group Silicon Ventures.
In 1998 Israel co-founded and was named chairman of Optonics, which he later sold to Credence Systems in late 2002. He then served as a President and General Manager of their Diagnostics and Characterization Group (DCG). Israel also co-founded Opal Inc., a semiconductor equipment company, in December 1986. He served as the Vice President of Research and Development and later as the General Manager & Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. He served on Opal's Board of Directors beginning in 1994 and was part of a three-person team that took Opal public in 1995. He was named a Vice President at Applied Materials when it acquired Opal in late 1996. Prior to Opal, Israel was a senior physicist at Optrotech (currently Orbotech), the world leader in PCB and FPD inspection.
Israel received his B.Sc. in Chemistry, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. | 