Investment strategy
Vardi is an early stage "angel".[3] Since 1996 he has been active in founding young internet companies and internet startups. In 1996 he became the founding investor of Mirabilis (company) – the creator of ICQ, which is the first instant messaging application that was released to the web. Among the companies he invested in, or helped to build are Answers.com (went public), Gteko (sold[4] to Microsoft), Airlink (sold to Sierra Wireless), Tivella (sold to Cisco), Scopus (went public), CTI2 (sold to Audiocodes), Foxytunes (sold to yahoo), Tucows (went public), wibiya (sold to Conduit), The Gift Project (sold to eBay), Epals (went public), and Starnet (sold to IAC/InterActiveCorp). Among his other investments are: Come2Play (a social gaming site), Fring, speedbit,[5] Cellogic[6] (developer of a content discovery platform for mobile publishers, and of the deeplink.me mobile deep linking platform), BloggersBase[7] (a discovery platform for premium UGC), Wefi and many others. Mirabilis, which practically had no revenues, was sold to AOL just 19 months after it released its product for over 400 million dollars.[8] The sale inspired a whole generation of young Israelis to open start ups.[9] According to Forbes: "...Overnight, a new phrase "the Mirabilis Effect," became popular as young Israeli entrepreneurs yearned to copy the company's success".[10]
After retiring from the civil service, Vardi served on the boards of Amdocs, Maariv, Elite, Scitex, Bezeq, Arkia, Elisra, Hamashbir Hamerkazi and others, and assisted Ormat Industries to identify and develop its geothermal activity. He is a member of Amdocs advisory committee.
Cultivating Culture of Innovation and Creativity
In recent years Vardi is active in fostering a culture of innovation and creativity in Israel and abroad. He founded Kinnernet, an annual, three days gathering of creative people from all over the world at the shores of the Sea of Gallilee; he is the chairman of 4YFN (4 Years from Now), the startup event organized by Mobile World Capital Barcelona; together with Dr Hubert Burda he is co-chairing the annual DLD (Digital, Lifestyle, Design) conference in Munich; together with Sir Martin Sorrell he is co-chairing the annual Stream unconference in Greece, he also co-hosting ICUC – (Internet Cowboys UnConference) in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He talks about this heavily in the Shaping Business Minds Through Art Podcast.[11]
Public sector
After leaving the government, Vardi continued to be involved in the public sector. He is the co-chair of the European Union – Israel Strategic Business Dialogue. He chaired a number of government-appointed commissions and committees, among them the Public Commission for the Regulation of the Electricity Sector, the Public Commission on Raising Venture Capital in the Stock Exchange and others. He also took part in the formation of Yozma. He served on the Advisory Council of the Bank of Israel, and israel Securities Authority, and on the board of directors of the Development Corporation for Israel (State of Israel Bonds). He serves on the board of governors of the Technion. He was the chairman of the Jerusalem Foundation,[12] was member of the council and the executive committee of the Open University of Israel and the board of trustees of the Hebrew University and Weizmann Institute.
Peace negotiations
In his capacity as the Director General of the Ministry of Energy, Vardi led the negotiations in regards to the oil part in the peace agreement with Egypt. While in the private sector Vardi was asked to serve as special advisor to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Finance, for regional cooperation, and to head the economic negotiations with Jordan. He also participated in the multi-lateral talks with the Palestinians, and served on the Israeli delegation to the Wye Plantation talks with the Syrians.[13]
In 2013, Vardi was one of a group of Israeli and Palestinian business figures who launched Breaking the Impasse (BTI), a forum in favor of advancing a diplomatic solution.[14][15] BTI is supported by the World Economic Forum.[14]
International activities
Vardi acted as an advisor to the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program on issues of energy policy and strategy in the developing world. He is a member of the World Economic Forum, serves as an advisor on Middle-Eastern economic affairs to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. and on the Future Trends Forum of The Bankinter Foundation of Innovation. He serves on the advisory board of Blackberry Ventures, and served on the Research Visionary Board of Motorola, and on the advisory board of 3i, was advisor to the CEOs of AOL, Amazon.com, Allied-signal, Siemens-Albis and others.
