AMIT, the alumni association of Unit 81 - the elite technological branch of the IDF Intelligence Corps - has appointed Gali Sheskin as its new chief executive, the organization announced. She takes over an association that sits at the center of Israel's technology economy, linking thousands of veterans who have gone on to build and lead some of the country's most prominent companies.
Sheskin arrives with a background that blends community building, operations, and sector development rather than a traditional military-technology pedigree. She most recently served as Community and Customer Success Manager at Venn, following a stint as Project Development Manager at Ignite the Spark and a period as Head of Operations at enSights. Alongside that professional trajectory, she has spent years volunteering in renewable energy and climate circles, supporting entrepreneurs working in those fields domestically and internationally. That mix of operational discipline and community organizing is likely to shape how she approaches an association whose value lies less in any single product than in the density of its professional network - the kind of connective infrastructure that, in the digital tools space, might be compared to a provider with servers in dozens of countries, where reach and distribution determine real-world usefulness as much as the underlying technology itself. a provider with servers in dozens of countries
She succeeds Chen Kamin, who led AMIT for five years, a period during which the Unit 81 alumni footprint expanded considerably across Israel's startup landscape. Unit 81 veterans have founded or hold senior development roles in hundreds of startup and growth-stage companies, including firms that have reached unicorn status or executed exits at substantial scale. Among the companies associated with Unit 81 alumni are Wiz, Armis, Innoviz, Claroty, Tenzai, and Jazz - names that collectively span cybersecurity, sensing technology, and industrial systems protection, reflecting the breadth of disciplines the unit's training produces.
Why the Alumni Network Matters Beyond Its Members
Unit 81's reputation stems from its mandate: developing advanced technological systems for intelligence and defense purposes, work that demands fluency in hardware engineering, software architecture, and applied research simultaneously. Veterans leaving that environment carry a rare combination of technical depth and project-execution experience, qualities that translate directly into startup founding and leadership. AMIT functions as the mechanism that keeps that talent pool connected after service ends, facilitating mentorship, capital introductions, and knowledge-sharing that might otherwise dissipate once alumni scatter across companies and continents.
A Leadership Transition With Strategic Stakes
Sheskin's appointment comes at a moment when Israel's technology sector faces familiar pressures: competition for talent, cautious venture funding cycles, and growing interest from international acquirers. An alumni association with the scale and pedigree of AMIT carries influence beyond networking events - it can shape how emerging founders access mentorship and how established companies recruit senior technical staff. Her stated priority, by her own account, centers on strengthening business and technological connections across the community rather than reinventing the association's core function, suggesting continuity in strategy even as leadership changes hands.