Gil has spent most of his life between Israel and other countries, and since 2000 he has lived in the US.
Gil attended the MBA Program at The Wharton School, where he graduated with Honors. He then worked for the Boston Consulting Group in New York advising Fortune 500 companies, before joining Yahoo!’s Corporate Development group in 2005.
He spent the next 4 years working on strategy & acquisitions, including managing the relationships with the Israeli ecosystem of investors, entrepreneurs and startups. During this period, he led the acquisition of Yahoo!’s first Israel-based startup (FoxyTunes) and helped to open the company’s first R&D center in Haifa. He then spent 2 years as VP of Operations Management, before leaving during the summer of 2011 to dedicate himself to his new venture, UpWest Labs.
Outside of work, Gil enjoys going to live music performances, with the Coachella Music Festival being the highlight of his year.
He is also an avid sports fan and will pretty much watch anything that has a ball and/or timer involved. A sure way to tease him is by asking how his favorite Israeli soccer team is doing in the league (often, the answer is “horribly”).
He claims to enjoy backpacking (and likes to tell stories of his trips to China and Chile), but he simply does not hike enough to make this a credible hobby.
gil ben-artzy 