Primary Job Title Co-Founder & CEO Primary Organization Israel’s Tech Transfer Organization
Location Jerusalem, Yerushalayim, Israel Regions Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), Middle East Gender Male Also Known As Raphael Hofstein
Investor Type Investment Partner
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Rafi Hofstein joined MaRS Innovation as President and CEO in June 2009. He is currently member of the board of directors of Life Science Ontario and of Clinical Trials Ontario, as well as a member of the Organizing Committee of the Public Policy Forum on Venture Capital and Innovation (part of the Quebec City Conference) and part of the Ontario
Health Innovation Council (OHIC).
Hofstein received his PhD and Master of Science degrees in Life Sciences and Chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. His Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Physics is from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Awards he received while completing post-doctoral training and research at the Harvard Medical School in Boston in the Departments of Biological Chemistry and Neurobiology include the Hereditary Disease Foundation Fellowship in 1982-83, and the Chaim Weizmann Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1980-82.
During the 1980s, he held the roles of scientific director of Biotechnological Applications Ltd., and manager R&D and chief of Immunochemistry at the International Genetic Scientific Partnership, organizations that were pivotal in developing Israel’s world-leading biotechnology sector.
Hofstein was scientific director of the Israeli office of Ecogen Inc., a subsidiary of Monsanto, for over six years before assuming the role of vice-president, Business Development for Ecogen in Langhorne, Pa.
From 1997 to 1999 Hofstein was president of Mindsense Biosystems Ltd., an Israeli company that develops neuropsychiatric immune assays. From 1999 to the present, he has held the position of president and CEO of Hadasit Ltd., the technology transfer company of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem. Later on, Hofstein joined Medica Ventures, a lead VC in Israel and served for 10 years as the president and CEO of Hadasit, the commercialization company of Hadassah, the largest teaching hospital in Israel.
Hofstein was the founder and served as chair of Hadasit BioHolding Ltd., a publicly-traded holding company (10 start-ups under management) on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) since 2005. Other directorships held on TASE publicly-traded companies include: Bioline RX (drug development); Exalenz (medical devices); and Evogene (agri-bio).
He has also served as chairman of BIOMED, Israel’s annual biomedical conference, from 2005 to 2007. In addition, Hofstein is a co-founder and board member of ILSI, the Israeli Life Science Industry Organization, and a co-founder and executive in Israel’s Tech Transfer Network (ITTN).