Eric Benhamou’s professional and personal accomplishments center on the creation and intelligent deployment of information technology towards improving the performance of businesses and non-profits and the quality of life of individuals around the world.
Eric Benhamou is CEO and founder of Benhamou Global Ventures, LLC. Benhamou Global Ventures, started in 2003, invests and plays an active role in innovative high tech firms throughout the world. He was an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD from 2004 till 2010. He is now a visiting professor at IDC Herzliya‘s Arison School of Business.
He served as chairman of the board of directors of Palm, Inc. from 1999 until 2007 and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. from 2001 until 2003. Benhamou served as chief executive officer of 3Com Corporation from 1990 until 2000. Mr. Benhamou also served as chairman of the board of directors of 3Com Corporation until its sale to HP in April 2010. In 1981, Mr. Benhamou co-founded Bridge Communications, an early networking pioneer, and was vice president of engineering until its merger with 3Com in 1987. Before joining Bridge Communications, he worked four years at Zilog, Inc., serving as project manager, software engineering manager and design engineer.
In 2003, Mr. Benhamou was appointed to the Joint High Level Advisory Panel of the U.S.- Israel Science and Technology Commission by U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans. In 1997, former President Bill Clinton appointed Mr. Benhamou to the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee which advises the President on research and development focal points of federal programs to maintain United States leadership in advanced computing and communications technologies and their applications.
In 2010, Mr Benhamou was awarded the National Leadership Award in Business of the Merage Foundation for the American Dream. In 2007, he was awarded the David Packard Civic Entrepreneur Award presented by Joint Venture Silicon Valley. The Packard Award is presented annually to a person who brings an entrepreneurial, cross-boundaries, problem solving approach to Silicon Valley’s challenges. Mr. Benhamou was inducted in the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame in 2006. In 1998, Mr. Benhamou was recognized by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the Foreign Investor Jubilee Award. That same year, Benhamou received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which pays homage to the immigrant experience, as well as individual achievement to U.S. citizens from various ethnic backgrounds. In 1998, he became a Fellow of the International Engineering Consortium. He is a graduate of the American Leadership Forum, which seeks to revitalize leadership within communities across the nation. In 1997, Benhamou received the Medaille Nessim Habif from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, Paris. In 1992, he received the President’s Environment and Conservation Challenge Award, the United States’ highest environmental award.
Mr. Benhamou currently serves on the board of Cypress Semiconductor as Chairman, and on the board of Silicon Valley Bank as Chairman of its Governance Committee. Previously, he served on other public boards including Real Networks and Voltaire. He currently also serves on the board of directors of privately held companies, Finjan,ConteXtream, Purewave, Tigo Energy, and SwiftTest. He also serves as Chair of American Friends of Arts et Métiers (AFAM). In addition, he serves on the boards of the Stanford University School of Engineering and Ben Gurion University of the Negev. He is the chairman of the Israel Venture Network, a venture philanthropy organization for a stronger Israeli society. He is a strategic advisor to Israel Cleantech Ventures. and the Institute for the Future.
Mr. Benhamou, 57, holds honorary doctoral degrees from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Widener University,Western Governors University and the University of South Carolina. He has a Master of Science degree fromStanford University’s School of Engineering and a Diplôme d’Ingénieur and a doctorate from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, Paris.
