Our Mission Is

Alexey is a Managing Director of BIE. Alexey has over 12 years of experience in finance, management and business development, and contributes his vast expertise to the company’s activities and business management.. Mr. Pud is a certified public accountant in Israel and holds a BA in Economics and Business Management from Ben Gurion University, he is a graduate of Excellence program at Recanati Business School in Tel Aviv and owns an International Certificate in Corporate Finance from Columbia Business School.

Mr. Michael Mirilashvili, the world-renowned businessman and philanthropist, is a founder and owner of BIE, which is an investment arm in Israeli technological ventures and a controlling shareholder of Vertical Field, and serves as its President and Chairman. The vision and mission that motivated Mr. Mirilashvili to found BIE is to solve humanitarian challenges like water scarcity, food security and clean energy by investing and accelerating Israeli companies which make our world a better place. Mr. Mirilashvili devotes much of his time and resources to a wide variety of philanthropic activities. He is a president of Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, and the Vice President of the World Jewish Congress and has chaired several other renowned humanitarian organizations around the world.

Following his passion for nature, Guy Barness established the company in 2006 to develop unique outdoor and indoor living walls. With the know-how from this venture, Bar-Ness expanded the living wall solutions to improve and enhance human health and environmental aspects in the urban ecosystem.

Prof. Dickson Despommier is a microbiologist, an ecologist and Professor Emeritus of Public and Environmental Health at Columbia University. For 27 years he conducted research on cellular and molecular aspects of the host-parasite relationship and has lectured and taught courses on Parasitic Disease and Ecology. From one of these courses, in 1999, he founded the root for this idea of raising crops in tall buildings: vertical farming. In 2010, he published his widely received book: “The Vertical Farm: feeding the world in the 21st Century”. Vertical farms were first regarded as a utopia, but today there are hundreds scattered throughout the world. Vertical farms have many advantages including: organically farmed food (hydroponics and aeroponics), optimization of urban space, year round farming and the elimination of noxious agrochemicals. His idea was regarded as visionary at the time, but today it has become a beacon for all countries where food imports are high.

Prof. Itamar Lensky is a faculty member of Bar-Ilan University, head of the GIS and Remote Sensing Lab. Prof. Lensky’s interest is in atmospheric effects on the surface temperature and fluxes with implications on natural, agricultural and urban systems. He has co-authored more than 50 scientific publications. He is leading a research team exploring and monitoring the effects of vertical greenery systems on numerous aspects of the urban environment to assess the environmental, health and economic benefits of green walls.