# Yaron Golan **CEO & CTO** — Hong Kong, Hong Kong > Technology and innovation executive with 20+ years building genomics platforms and leading scientific teams. Architect of the GeneCards Suite used by 5M+ researchers worldwide. Career Archetype: **Launchpad Navigator** (HS-DG) — One of the first Launchpad Navigators on Saywise ## Links - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/yarongolan ## Experience ### Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer; Chief Technology Officer (prior to 2016), LifeMap Sciences, Inc. (2012-05 – 2021-01) Hong Kong, Israel, China · Created and commercialized TGex, a clinical genomics platform used for 100,000+ clinical cases. The platform helps clinical geneticists find disease-causing variants from sequenced exomes or genomes and produce clinical reports. Deployed in US cloud, in-country in China, and behind hospital firewalls for paediatric and rare-disease services at HKU/Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong Children's Hospital, Beijing Children's Hospital, Shanghai Children's Medical Center and others across Europe. Extended interpretation beyond the 2% of the genome covered by exomes to ~20%, adding structural and copy-number variants and non-coding regulatory regions. Made clinical cases fast and repeatable with exomes fully annotated in under five minutes and phenotype-driven ranking placing causal variants first. Built the Greater China go-to-market through partnerships with Shanyi, Illumina and direct hospital deployments. Led a joint bid with Accenture for the Hong Kong Genome Institute's genomic data platform. ### Vice President, Research & Development, Koala Technologies, Ltd. (2006-07 – 2007-11) Israel · Led R&D for Tournamino, an early online prediction-market platform built around real-world event outcomes. The model was later popularized by Polymarket and Kalshi. ### Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Xennex, Inc. (2002-12 – 2012-05) Boston, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong · Founded and led Xennex, the technology company behind GeneCards, built on a scientific collaboration with the Weizmann Institute of Science (2003–2025). Built an Israel-based team of software engineers, curators and bioinformaticians. Designed and implemented GDPR and HIPAA programmes and security controls for patient data. Oversaw infrastructure security, access controls, backup and disaster recovery for multi-terabyte data environments. Built LifeMap Discovery (2011–2015), a research database of embryonic development and stem cells published in PLoS ONE. Turned GeneCards from an academic database into a self-sustaining commercial platform with enterprise licences from top-tier pharma and biotech, scientific-advertising business and usage-analytics system for pricing. Sold Xennex to LifeMap Sciences (then a BioTime subsidiary) in May 2012. ### Chief Technology Officer, e4eNet, Inc. (2000-04 – 2002-10) Greater Boston Area · - Created an innovative platform for online collaboration in the electronic manufacturing. Our solution connected OEMs, FABs and EMS in an effort to enhance product time to market and reduce overall product development costs. The platform was based on Lotus Domino and Java with a MIL-C grade security standard and had top tier OEMs and manufacturers as customers including IBM, Cisco, EMC, Celestica and others. - Managed a 15 person R&D team which included 3 development teams, QA, UI, technical writing and IT. - Lead product specification development and deployment throughout product lifecycle. - Created innovative data hub-and-spoke based data synchronization platform with MIL-C grade security. ### Project Manager; Vice President R&D, e4eNet subsidiary, Valor Computerized Systems, Inc. (1999-07 – 2004-09) Israel, Hong Kong · Worked on enterprise engineering and manufacturing software for the global electronics industry. Led the e4eNet B2B collaboration venture, whose technology and team were acquired by IBM in 2002. Created a patented part-management solution for electronics manufacturing by translating Fortune 500 customer requirements into product specifications. Conceived and built an innovative electronics-manufacturing collaboration platform with a 30-person team of developers, IT and customer-support engineers. Invented the security scheme allowing competing manufacturers to share design data safely and led the effort to make an open exchange standard the industry norm. Designed and led a 30-person-year mission-critical hardware and software electronics-intelligence system. ### Software Team Leader, Israel Defense Forces — Intelligence Corps (Unit 8200) (1995-02 – 1999-07) Israel · Led software team within the Intelligence Corps. ## Education ### Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurial Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - School of Business and Management (2011-09 – 2011-06) ### Bachelor's Degree in Computer and Information Sciences, General, The Open University of Israel (2009-09 – 2009-06) ### Graduate in Computer Programming, School of Computers, IDF (1995-09 – 1995-06) ### Ben Zvi ## Projects ### GENIE AI research harness for biomedical question answering · An AI research harness that answers plain-language questions by querying the GeneCards Knowledge Graph and live literature. Rather than relying on language-model memory, it grades every finding by evidence and cites sources so researchers can verify answers. ### GeneCards Knowledge Graph Map of human biology with 200M+ facts · Built a knowledge graph connecting genes, variants, diseases, symptoms, proteins, pathways, drugs, clinical trials and literature. Each fact carries its source and evidence strength, enabling both scientists and AI systems to trust and trace information. ### LifeMap Discovery Research database of embryonic development and stem cells · Built BioTime's research database focusing on embryonic development and stem cells. The work was published as a scientific contribution in PLoS ONE. ### GeneCards Suite Integrated knowledgebase of human genes and diseases · Turned an academic database from the Weizmann Institute into a self-sustaining commercial platform used by over 5 million researchers globally. Licensed by Novartis, Amgen, GSK, Sanofi and Genentech. Built from 190+ curated sources covering genes, diseases, pathways, variants, function and expression. ### TGex Clinical Genomics Platform Clinical exome and genome interpretation for rare-disease diagnosis · Created a clinical genomics platform for variant interpretation used across Greater China and Europe. Deployed at HKU/Queen Mary Hospital, Beijing Children's Hospital, Shanghai Children's Medical Center and others. Made clinical cases fast and repeatable with exomes fully annotated in under five minutes. Extended interpretation beyond exomes to structural variants and non-coding regions, improving causal variant identification. ### e4eNet Collaboration Platform B2B collaboration and data-sharing for electronics manufacturers · Built an innovative electronics-manufacturing collaboration platform enabling competing manufacturers to securely share design data. Invented a novel security scheme allowing data exchange while protecting competitive interests. Led industry standardization efforts for open data exchange. ## Skills Data Engineering, Software as a Service (SaaS), Executive Management, Artificial Intelligence (AI), .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, Software Project Management, Application Development, Product Innovation, Business Strategy, Information Technology, JavaScript, Team Leadership, HTML, Agile Methodologies, Software Development, Development Management, Business Development, Product Management, Leadership, .NET, Management, Databases, Biotechnology, Start-ups, Bioinformatics, Enterprise Software, Genomics, Life Sciences, Project Management, Full-Stack Development, Design, Business Driven, Computer Science, Engineering, Microsoft Azure, SQL Azure, C#, .NET Framework, jQuery, Agile Project Management, Knowledge Graphs, Clinical Genomics, Variant Interpretation, Data Governance, GDPR, HIPAA, Enterprise Licensing, Large-Scale Data Platforms, Board-Level Communication, Go-to-Market Strategy, Team Building, Patent Filing, Scientific Publishing, Python, Software Architecture, Cloud Infrastructure, Data Security, Electronics Manufacturing, Prediction Markets ## Credentials - **Genome analysis and knowledge-driven variant interpretation with TGex** - **GeneAnalytics: An Integrative Gene Set Analysis Tool for Next Generation Sequencing, RNAseq and Microarray Data.** - **LifeMap Discovery™: the embryonic development, stem cells, and regenerative medicine research portal** - **MalaCards: an integrated compendium for diseases and their annotation** - **GeneCards Version 3: the human gene integrator** ## AI Fluency - **Claude** — My daily driver for coding, testing and deployment (https://claude.ai) - **Grok Bot** — My operating partner for running my company - **ChatGPT** — My strategic thought partner (https://chatgpt.com) ## Q&A ### [What kind of work energizes you?](https://saywise.com/q/1b01f09b2021) - Solving user needs with technology. It's not about creating the most sophisticated technological solution—it's about providing your users with the simplest, easiest way to achieve their goals or solve their needs. That focus on what users actually need, to predict what they will find useful - that's what got 5 million researchers in academia and pharma to adopt GeneCards and use it as their daily driver. (https://saywise.com/s/c9893e0f6d8d) ### [What AI tools do you use the most?](https://saywise.com/q/10c2b363a976) - I use a combination of AI tools for strategy, operations, sales, customer support, development, testing and deployment - and also as a PA in my personal life. Today, it's mostly Grok Bot, Claude and Codex. I also built our own proprietary harness for biomedical research based on our knowledge graph, which we use to demonstrate our products' capabilities and identify business opportuntiies. (https://saywise.com/s/2f7f3b1306ac) --- Source: https://saywise.com/member9861 (last modified 2026-10-06T00:05:37.844Z)