Management Team
Management Team
Jamil Mazzawi
President and Chief Executive Officer
Jami Mazzawi has over 25 years’ experience in the semiconductor and EDA industries across Silicon Valley, Israel, and Europe. He has held engineering, sales, and managerial positions at Ornet Data Communication, Verisity, Rambus, Sun Microsystems, Jasper Design Automation, and now Optima. With a successful track record developing, promoting, and selling disruptive technologies that include advanced verification solutions and leading automotive development products, Jamil authored seven patents in related fields. Jamil is also the director and co-founder of the Nazareth Startup Company Forum (NSCF) promoting Arab-owned startup companies in Israel. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the Technion, Israel and an MBA from San Jose University, CA.
Nael Qudsi
Director of Engineering
Nael Qudsi is responsible for Optima Design Automation’s engineering team, developing the next generation of Functional Safety fault analysis technology as well as streamlining related methodologies. Prior to Optima, Nael held both technical and management positions at Jasper Design Automation, later acquired by Cadence Design Systems. There he worked on advanced formal technologies, including safety analysis products, as part of the popular JasperGold formal tools. As a research assistant Nael leveraged his expertise in parallel multithreaded compilers and automated Boolean optimization methods. Nael has also worked as a cyber security consultant for multiple organizations. Nael holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Haifa University in Israel.
David Kelf
Board Advisor, Marketing
Dave Kelf advises on all marketing and business development activities for Optima. Dave is well known in the EDA and semiconductor industries, having served as VP marketing for multiple successful small EDA companies including Breker Verification systems, OneSpin, and Novas (Spingsoft). Kelf was president and CEO of Sigmatix, Inc., a successful wireless IP provider. At Cadence Design Systems he was responsible for the Verilog and VHDL verification product lines. As vice president of marketing at Co-Design Automation and then Synopsys, Kelf oversaw the successful introduction and growth of the SystemVerilog language. Kelf also held engineering positions at Plessey and Nortel. Dave holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Computer Systems from Salford University, Manchester UK, and a Master of Science degree in Microelectronics from West London University, plus an MBA from Boston University, USA.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 850104.