--- title: "Who has led accessiBe" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/accessibe/leadership/ as_of: 2026-10-10 keywords: ["accessiBe","accessiBe Ltd.","accessiBe Inc.","accessWidget","web accessibility overlay","WCAG","Americans with Disabilities Act","FTC consent order","FTC Docket C-4817","K1 Investment Management","Shir Ekerling","Dekel Skoop","Gal Vizel","Robert Lopez","Parikh v. Accessibe","AudioEye","UserWay","National Federation of the Blind","Overlay Fact Sheet","Litigation Pledge"] --- # Who has led accessiBe **Question.** Who has run accessiBe since 2018, and what other businesses are its leaders connected with? **Answer.** The three co-founders ran accessiBe from 2018: Shir Ekerling as chief executive and later co-chief executive with Dekel Skoop, and Gal Vizel in marketing and revenue roles. Skoop signed the FTC consent agreement published in January 2025 as chief executive of both companies, and Robert Lopez, formerly of Justworks, succeeded Skoop in May 2025. Commercial profiles name Michael Farlekas, chief executive of the K1 portfolio company Onit, as chairman, although no company or official record in the file does. Before accessiBe, Skoop and Vizel founded the marketing boutique Ykey; Skoop is listed as chief business officer of Guardz. ## The founders' roles - Analysis: In May 2020 an Israeli business daily described the founders' roles as Shir Ekerling, chief executive, Gal Vizel, vice-president of revenue, and Dekel Skoop, vice-president of operations, and K1's announcement that month called Ekerling co-founder and CEO; in February 2021 another Israeli business daily gave them as chief executive, vice-president of marketing and vice-president of operations. Profiles on a commercial company-data platform date the roles more finely: Skoop chief operating officer from January 2018 to June 2022, co-chief executive from May 2019 to January 2024 and chief executive from January 2024 to May 2025; Ekerling chief technology officer to February 2019, chief executive from February 2019 to June 2022 and president from March 2024 to May 2025; Vizel chief marketing officer from March 2018 to March 2021 and chief revenue officer to January 2025. These are database entries, not company filings, and they do not fully match the press. [src-027] [src-015] [src-008] [src-101] [src-102] [src-103] - Analysis: An Israeli English-language daily still described Skoop and Ekerling as co-chief executives in August 2022, and in January 2023 an Israeli business site quoted Skoop as co-chief executive when the company announced a new vice-president of brand. Skoop signed the FTC consent agreement, published in January 2025, as chief executive of both accessiBe Ltd. and accessiBe Inc., and a nonprofit quoted Skoop as chief executive in April 2025. [src-026] [src-099] [src-042] [src-093] ## A new chief executive and the reported chairman - Analysis: On May 6, 2025 accessiBe announced Robert Lopez as chief executive, succeeding Skoop, who the company said would remain involved in its strategic direction and board. Lopez had most recently been chief revenue officer of Justworks; a company-data profile lists earlier service as general manager and managing director at Groupon from 2011 to 2014. He was still named chief executive in the company's August 2026 release and on a contact-data aggregator, which also listed Michael Farlekas and Michael Hingson among the company's decision makers. [src-004] [src-059] [src-032] - Analysis: Two commercial profile services describe Michael Farlekas as chairman of accessiBe, one as executive chairman since November 2024; no accessiBe statement, FTC document or registry extract in the record names him, and a registry card said to list him as a director could not be retrieved. ContextLogic Inc.'s 2024 proxy statement filed with the SEC says that Farlekas was chief executive of E2open, LLC from May 2015 to October 2023, has led the legal workflow software company Onit, Inc. since January 2024 and joined ContextLogic's board in April 2024 as lead independent director; a contact-data profile gives slightly different dates. K1 published Onit's January 2024 announcement that Farlekas would become its chief executive on March 1, 2024, with a comment from Mike Velcich as a K1 partner, and lists both Onit and accessiBe among its portfolio companies. When Farlekas left E2open in October 2023 the company said its board and Farlekas had mutually decided it was time for new leadership; a trade publication linked the departure to the company's continuing difficulties, a press characterisation, and no misconduct is alleged. [src-022] [src-043] [src-010] [src-078] [src-090] [src-117] ## Other officers - Analysis: In February 2021 accessiBe announced Michael Hingson, an author and speaker who is blind and survived the September 11 attacks, as its chief vision officer; his own website still described him in that role in October 2025, and a 2023 profile says he began his working life with the National Federation of the Blind. Marketing changed hands several times: Gal Vizel led it from 2018 to 2021 according to his profile, Yan Kotliarsky was quoted as vice-president of marketing in June 2020, Roy Gefen as chief marketing officer in May 2021 and Gil Magen as head of marketing in November 2021; in May 2023 Shir Ekerling wrote that the chief marketing officer had been replaced and previous campaigns discarded. [src-021] [src-037] [src-089] [src-076] [src-095] [src-113] [src-077] - Analysis: Yaniv Aronowich, then co-head of M&A at the Israeli law firm Arnon, Tadmor-Levy, represented accessiBe in its 2021 funding from K1 and later became its chief legal officer; an Israeli legal news site reported in May 2026 that he had served four years as vice-president for legal affairs before joining another law firm as a partner, and in March 2026 he signed accessiBe Inc.'s declaration of citizenship in the New York class action. An October 2024 release named the disability advocate Josh Basile as community relations manager and Sapir Yarden as lead of the Nonprofit Partnership Program. accessiBe also took in the founders of the Israeli company Routier, Gal Barkat and Niv Penso, and Penso is listed as its chief technology officer; the two secondary sources date this to July 2021 or June 2022 and differ on whether shares were bought or the team hired, and no transaction document is retained. [src-006] [src-110] [src-118] [src-084] [src-080] [src-011] [src-035] [src-113] ## The founders' other companies - Analysis: Before accessiBe, Skoop and Vizel founded Ykey, which a directory describes as a digital advertising and marketing boutique; company-data profiles list Skoop as its co-founder and marketing chief from 2016 to January 2019 and Vizel as co-founder and chief executive from 2016 to March 2019, and in 2022 Skoop said the founders had previously owned advertising and development agencies. The same platform lists Vizel and Ekerling among the founders of Diffi Technologies Ltd., an active Israeli company, without a founding date, registry number, holdings or any dealings with accessiBe. Skoop is listed as chief business officer of Guardz, an Israeli-American cybersecurity company whose entity Guardz Cyber Ltd. (company number 516588902) was incorporated in March 2022; Guardz gives no start date for Skoop and names Glilot Capital Partners and Phoenix, both accessiBe investors, among its own investors, the Phoenix entity being shown only by a logo. [src-023] [src-026] [src-104] [src-105] [src-122] [src-114] ## Sources - [src-027] Media source · src-027 - [src-015] Company statement source · src-015 - [src-008] Media source · src-008 - [src-101] Other source · src-101 - [src-102] Other source · src-102 - [src-103] Other source · src-103 - [src-026] Media source · src-026 - [src-099] Media source · src-099 - [src-042] FTC Agreement Containing Consent Order, In the Matter of accessiBe Inc. and accessiBe Ltd., File No. 222-3156, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, 2025-01-03 - [src-093] Company statement source · src-093 - [src-004] Company statement source · src-004 - [src-059] Other source · src-059 - [src-032] Other source · src-032 - [src-022] Other source · src-022 - [src-043] Other source · src-043 - [src-010] ContextLogic Inc. definitive proxy statement (Schedule 14A), 2024 annual meeting, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2024-05-09 - [src-078] Company statement source · src-078 - [src-090] Company statement source · src-090 - [src-117] Media source · src-117 - [src-021] Company statement source · src-021 - [src-037] Media source · src-037 - [src-089] Other source · src-089 - [src-076] Research source · src-076 - [src-095] Media source · src-095 - [src-113] Other source · src-113 - [src-077] Company statement source · src-077 - [src-006] Other source · src-006 - [src-110] Company statement source · src-110 - [src-118] Media source · src-118 - [src-084] Court record source · src-084 - [src-080] Company statement source · src-080 - [src-011] Other source · src-011 - [src-035] Other source · src-035 - [src-023] Other source · src-023 - [src-104] Other source · src-104 - [src-105] Company statement source · src-105 - [src-122] Corporate registry source · src-122 - [src-114] Other source · src-114