Kiosite delivers an innovative suite of services to match talented individuals to meaningful career and public service opportunities on a more transparent, more accurate, and more efficient basis. As a result, our work improves the lives of individual job seekers, the productivity of business, and the efficiency of both universities and government.
Rooted in more than 50 years of research and development, the company is headquartered in St. Louis with research and development, and affiliate offices in Princeton and Tel Aviv.
Backed by an impressive set of investors and strategic partners, our senior management and advisors bring significant experience to the company across a wide variety of disciplines, including product development, entrepreneurial leadership, talent acquisition, government relations, and academic research.
Senior Management
Michael Novack Founder and Chief Executive Officer
As the company’s founder, Michael is responsible for the initial concepts behind the company's products and services--and he has seen those ideas continue to evolve as the company has grown. Focused on ongoing improvement, Michael plays a regular role in shaping products to ensure that the company remains true to its mission and adds value to job-seekers and employers on an ongoing basis. Dubbed a “Wiz Kid” by the St. Louis Business Journal and named a “30 Under 30,” Novack has extensive entrepreneurial leadership experience and regularly presents on a variety of business, hiring and development-related topics. Prior to his work with Kiosite, Michael worked as a technology consultant through a firm he founded, IndeCorp & Company. He serves as an advisor or director at a variety of non-profit and corporate boards in St. Louis, New York, and Israel. Michael attended the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis.
Doris LyonsChief Operating Officer
With more than 35 years of business leadership, Doris has an extensive background in organization and process redesign, leading companies to higher customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and stakeholder profits. Experienced in TQM, Six Sigma and Lean disciplines, Doris personally trained under the leadership of Dr. Deming. Most recently the Chief Operating Officer at Maritz Loyalty Marketing, Lyons was instrumental in re-engineering the organization, regaining customer trust and supporting new product development—growing the business every year while reducing employee turnover. Prior to Maritz, she led the growth of Business Response from $350,000 to $30,000,000. A recognized authority in performance improvement, customer care, and employee engagement, Lyons regularly addresses audiences on these topics.
Lina Dreyfus WallaceDirector, Client Success
With a background in talent management, Lina leads the company’s efforts to ensure that clients get the most possible value out of their use of our platform and services--managing significant data and key relationships. Lina has worked with a variety of companies and non-profit organizations to improve their talent management functions and leverage human capital through improved measurement and execution. Lina has designed curriculum, managed client relationships, and overseen a variety of functions, including talent acquisition, individual development, and succession strategy. Lina holds a PHR (professional in human resources) Certificate and a Bachelor of Science, with distinction, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is actively involved in the community--recently raising funds for the American Cancer Society with the St. Louis Half-Marathon.
Scientific Leadership
Peter Arcidiacono
Peter Arcidiacono is a professor of Economics at Duke University, where he focuses on labor economics and applied econometrics, among other areas. A graduate of Willamette University, Arcidiacono received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. In addition to shouldering his responsibilities at Duke, Arcidiacono brings his expertise to the National Bureau of Economic Research as a Research Associate. He has published in the International Economic Review, the Journal of Econometrics, and the Journal of Public Economies, among others, and serves as an Editor on the Journal of Labor Economies.
Gidon Naftali
Gideon Naftali, a senior specialist in applied psychology, led the foundation of the Department of Behavioral Sciences within the office of the Israeli Prime Minister. A student of Daniel Kaneman, a pioneer in behavioral economics and a Nobel Prize will, Naftali has extensive experience in the development of assessment systems and in the recruitment of staff for sensitive positions. Naftali is also an authority on organizational development and applied scientific research, and has published in numerous scientific journals. He serves as a consultant to a variety of firms, assessing candidates and business systems with a particular emphasis on security. A member of the “Society of Personality Assessment,” Naftali holds a master’s degree and resides outside of Tel Aviv, Israel.
Juan Pantano
Juan Pantano is an assistant professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis, where he focuses on and researches in the fields of labor economics, development economics and empirical industrial organization, among others. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from UCLA and is a graduate of Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His teaching centers around the Economics of Law, and Structural Microeconomics. Professor Pantano has presented at a wide range of organizations, including, recently, at the University of Pennsylvania and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Advisors and Directors
David Elfasi
David Elfasi founded Etgar Human Resources Ltd. in 1987 and has served as the CEO and President of the company since then. He is a social entrepreneur with a deep involvement in community life, education and welfare. David was raised and educated in the suburbs of Haifa, Israel and received a B.A. in Economics from Ben Gurion University. He is a passionate musician and folk dancing choreographer. David currently resides in Israel with his wife and four children.
Doron Ephrati
Doron provides significant experience in strategy, marketing, and management throughout a variety of industries at varying stages of corporate growth. Ephrati co-founded and manages Head-On Business and Marketing Navigation, one of the most significant Israeli-based strategic planning, business, and marketing consulting firms. Head-On provides its clients with joint strategic planning and customized teams that accompany clients at every level of implementation. Additionally, Doron is the director of strategic business development at Etgar, and has played a key role in structuring and executing against the relationship between our companies.
Herb Greenberg
As the Founder, President and CEO of Caliper, Dr. Greenberg is often credited with spearheading the idea that winners in this world are those individuals fortunate enough to be in situations that play to their specific strengths. This belief that underlying personality and drive frequently matter even more than past experience was detailed in Greenberg's now-famous 1964 Harvard Business Review article. Under Herb's leadership, Caliper has touched over 25,000 companies worldwide—helping them to hire more effectively and improve the productivity of their entire teams. Greenberg received his Master's in Psychology from City College of New York and earned a Ph.D with highest honors from New York University.
Michael Lowenbaum
An accomplished attorney, Michael Lowenbaum is recognized as a leading collective bargaining negotiator who handles between 20 and 30 separate sets of contract negotiations each year. He also devotes a considerable amount of time representing employers before the National Labor Relations Board and maintains an active nationwide employment discrimination litigation defense, employer training and litigation avoidance counseling practice at his partnership in Clayton, Missouri. Lowenbaum’s labor experience works to ensure that the company’s services are at the forefront of relevant law. Lowenbaum received his B.S. from Tulane University and holds a J.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Jack Oliver
Jack Oliver founded Bryan Cave Strategies LLC, a lobbying and strategic services firm, in 2005 and is currently Senior Policy Advisor at Bryan Cave LLP in St. Louis, Missouri. Jack also serves as a director of eHealth, Inc. and senior advisor for Barclays PLC. Called “Bush’s Brigadier of Bucks” by Time Magazine in 2003 and ranked one of “40 under 40” by the St. Louis Business Journal, Oliver has raised and managed millions for political candidates and social action awareness. He has been actively involved in several political campaigns, including those for Senator Jack Danforth, Senator Kit Bond, Senator John Ashcroft, and Congressman Jim Talent. Oliver holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and a J.D. from the University of Missouri.
Philip Pfeffer
Phil brings a set of remarkably deep business experience to Kiosite. After serving as Chairman and CEO of Ingram Distribution Group where he grew revenue from $36 million to $12 billion, Phil served as President of Random House and went on to become CEO of Borders Group. He currently serves as President of Treemont Capital, an independent investment firm, and chairs or sits on the board of directors of several public and private companies including, Mailnet Services, Essex Technology Group and Pure Safety. A St. Louis native, Mr. Pfeffer resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
Ted Price
Ted has been a leader in the United States intelligence community—serving as the Director of Personnel, Director of Counterintelligence, and Deputy Director for Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency. Following his service, Ted joined Lehman Brothers in December 2001 as head of Global Security, and later served as Chairman of Lehman Brothers India. Before joining Lehman, Price was Senior Managing Director, Head of Crisis Management Group for The Kroll-O'Gara Company. He is currently a special advisor to Pegasus Capital and T&M Protection, holds a degree from Yale University, and served in the United States Marine Corps.
Mr. Rubin serves as Chairman and Minister of Tea at The Republic of Tea, a national leader in the specialty foods industry with a major retail presence nationwide. The co-author of six books on the entrepreneurial life, he is widely known for coining the term “zentrepreneur” to describe someone who not only creates a business, but a way of life. A business innovator, Mr. Rubin brings experience and expertise specifically through his entrepreneurship, unique perspective and relationships in the restaurant and retail sectors. Ron maintains a permanent residence in Clayton, Missouri.
Jon Staenberg
Jon has been working with venture backed companies for more than a decade, and has participated in over 100 deals. In this capacity he has started his own company, worked full-time in other companies, and consulted to over 50 startups. After working in marketing at Microsoft for six years, he joined Virtual i-O as vice president of sales and marketing. During the last eight years, he has been engaged in every aspect of the startup lifecycle for a variety of Silicon Valley and Seattle-based startups.