Evogene today announced the appointment of Ofer Haviv as President and Chief Executive Officer. Previously, Haviv was the Company’s Chief Operating and Financial Officer. Dr Hagai Karchi, who co-founded Evogene in 2002 with Dr Rafi Meissner and has served as CEO since that time, has been appointed Chief Scientific Officer.

In addition, the company announced a number of changes to its Board of Directors.  Martin Gerstel, chairman of Compugen Ltd, the parent company of Evogene has been appointed Chairman, Leon Recanati, Chairman and CEO of GlenRock Israel has been elected a director, and Professor Ilan Chet, President of the Weizmann Institute, has been appointed as a special advisor to the Board.

Mr. Gerstel stated, “We are extremely pleased to be adding these distinguished leaders to the Evogene family. This is another important step which, along with the financing also announced today, helps position the Company to obtain the maximum future value from our broad technology base and our four lead programs”.

Mr. Ofer Haviv said: “I want to thank Hagai for providing the leadership in establishing an excellent foundation - in terms of research directions, scientific talent, technologies and initial projects – on which I am confident we can now build a substantial, and unique, multidisciplinary plant biotechnology company.  I very much look forward to his continuing contributions as we aggressively pursue this opportunity.”

Dr .Hagai Karchi said: “Having lead the development of the company and its technologies since founding it together with Dr Rafi Meissner, moving forward I believe it is appropriate for me to concentrate on our technologies and products, the areas where I believe I can have the most impact. Having worked closely with Ofer for the past few years, there is no doubt in my mind that he is the right person to lead Evogene as we begin to focus on commercializing our initial programs.”

Evogene is a biotechnology company focused on developing high-value commercial products based on plant genomics.  The company is merging state-of-the-art predictive computational biology and molecular biology with the most advanced breeding technologies.  Evogene’s current product development portfolio is focused on:  improving abiotic stress tolerance and yield in key crops such as corn, soya, cotton and canola; enhancing fiber development in cotton; improving nitrogen use efficiency and plant manufacturing of therapeutic proteins. Evogene was founded in 2002 by Drs. Hagai Karchi and Rafi Meissner as a plant biotechnology spin-off of Compugen Ltd (Nasdaq: CGEN).

Mr. Martin Gerstel

Mr. Gerstel has served as the chairman of Compugen Ltd since August 1997. Prior to relocating to Israel in 1994, Mr. Gerstel was co-chairman and CEO of ALZA Corporation, which he helped found in 1968. Mr. Gerstel is also the co-founder and co-chairman of Itamar Medical, chairman of Keddem Bioscience, and serves as a director of Symyx Technologies, Yissum Ltd, Yeda Ltd and the Foundation for the United States National Medals of Science and Technology. He is a member of the Board of Governors and the Executive Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University, and is an advisor to the Burrill Life Science Funds and the board of the Israel-U.S. Bi-national Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. Mr. Gerstel holds a B.S. from Yale University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Dr Leon Recanati

Dr Leon Recanati is the founder and CEO of GlenRock Israel, a private Equity group.  Until May 2003, Leon was CEO and Chairman of IDB Holding Corporation, one of the largest investment groups in Israel. Also, Leon was Chairman of Clal Industries and Investments, Discount Investment Corporation, and Azorim Investment Development and Construction. Until 1997, Leon was chairman of Delek Israel Fuel Corporation and Super-Sol, in addition to several other positions in a variety of operating companies in Israel.
Born in Israel, Leon is the third generation of the Recanati family – a driving force in the Israeli economy and Israeli society since pre-statehood days. Leon received his BA and M.B.A. from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Technion Institute of Technology and Tel Aviv University.
Leon’s personal involvement in organizations and diverse causes has earned him a reputation as one of Israel’s outstanding community leaders. He is Chairman of the Board of the Israel National Museum of Science in Haifa, Vice Chairman of the Israel Cancer Association, and Chairman of Tel-Aviv University’s Development Committee. He also is an active member of the Board of Governors of Tel-Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Technion, Weizmann Institute, The Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy at Ben-Gurion University, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Jewish Agency, and Chairman of Tapuah – The Israeli Society for the Advancement of the Information Age. 

Professor Ilan Chet

Since 2001, Professor Ilan Chet is the President of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Since 2000, he is a member of the Advisory Panel of NATO Science Program and since 1998, a member of the External Advisory Group (EAG) to the European Union Research. He is chairman of the Rothschild Prize Committee and Chairman of the Committee for scientific research prizes of the national lottery of Israel.

Form 1992 to 2001, VP of R&D of the University of Jerusalem; from 1984 to 94; Visiting Professor at numerous Universities; from 1986 to 89, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture; from 1983 to 86, Director, Otto Warburg Center of Biotechnology in Agriculture; from 1981 to 83, Head of the Dept. of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew Univ. 1978, Professor of Microbiology; 1975, Assoc. Professor of Microbiology; 1972, Sr. Lecturer in Microbiology

Prof. Chet holds a PhD, Hebrew Univ. Jerusalem (1968); an MSc (Hons), Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem (1964) and a BSc (Hons), Faculty of Agriculture (1962).

Evogene completes $1.75 million private placement

Evogene Ltd. announced today that it has received $1.75 million in new capital from its existing as well as new investors from Israel, France and North America. 

Ofer Haviv, President and CEO stated: “We are pleased to benefit from the continuing support and confidence from our current investors and are pleased to welcome the new investors to Evogene.  We believe that this additional investment will help us in establishing Evogene as a leading developer of plant agro-biotechnology traits and to speed up the development of our unique plant platform for the production of therapeutic proteins”.