Itzhak leverages over three decades of mergers, acquisitions, and initial public offerings experience, as an entrepreneur, investment manager, and acquirer. As the former executive vice president of Global Business Development for Nielsen (until 2014), he was responsible for strategic business development initiatives and mergers and acquisitions that enhanced Nielsen’s capabilities. Itzhak deployed over $3 billion of investments for Nielsen, in over 30 ventures, ranging in size from $500,000 investments to over $1.3 billion, and serves as an advisor to Nielsen.
Prior to joining Nielsen, Itzhak executed multiple start-up-to-sale successes. He was co-founder and chairman of Trendum, a leader in Internet search and linguistic analysis technologies. In 2005, he led Trendum’s acquisition of BuzzMetrics, an online word-of-mouth research leader, and negotiated its 2006 acquisition of Intelliseek. Itzhak served as chairman of the combined entity, BuzzMetrics, which was subsequently acquired by Nielsen in 2007 at a $110 million valuation. Following the acquisition, Itzhak served as the Chairman of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, the Executive Vice President of Global Product Leadership and the Executive Chairman of Nielsen’s Online division.