Zvi Kamil

Zvi Kamil, the founder of Aerotel, is the embodiment of Israel's entrepreneurial spirit. He was educated at the Haifa Technion and the Weizman Institute of Science and continued post-graduate studies at Argonne National Laboratories and France's CEN Saclay. Mr. Kamil has had a long and varied career in high technology.

About 1970 Kamil moved to Beta Engineering and Development, Ltd., a subsidiary of Gerber Scientific Instruments, where he was appointed Vice President of Research and Development.

In 1976, Kamil took a temporary position in the Ministry of Communications, he was appointed him Director and Chief Scientist of its Telecommunications Research Center.

Returning to the private sector, in 1978, Kamil moved over to Elscint, a medical equipment manufacturer. As Director of Development for the company's Radiology Division, including MRI Imaging Systems, he was an integral part of a team of extraordinarily talented individuals who catapulted the company to success, competing with corporate giants like Johnson and Johnson and Siemens.

Aerotel's first endeavor, in the late 1980's, was commercialization of a system for prepaid telephone calls, a technology Kamil had invented as a solution to the many problems encountered with coin-operated public phones.

The telecommunications industry, however, was not yet receptive to prepaid calling, so Aerotel, utilizing yet another Kamil patent, focused on pulse-to-tone conversion equipment. In 1993, when interest in prepaid calling began to develop, Aerotel initiated discussions with several of the larger telecommunications companies, and subsequently concluded its first license agreement with Bell Atlantic. Negotiations are now proceeding with many industry players, as Aerotel pursues its objective to license the Kamil patent as broadly as possible.

Throughout his professional career, Kamil has also displayed a strong commitment to higher education and public service. He has taught graduate courses at the Technion, the University of the Negev, and Tel Aviv University. On a voluntary basis, he also advises Israel's "incubators," which serve high tech entrepreneurs, by providing assistance in a wide variety of areas, from lab and office space to secretarial services and financing. Kamil lives with his wife in Tel Aviv, where they raised five children.