Founders, executives, directors and advisers of Q Cyber and NSO

analysisAccording to the 2021 NGO report, NSO Group Technologies was founded by the businessmen Niv Carmi, Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, whose first initials make up the name NSO, with the venture capitalist Eddy Shalev as an initial investor; the European Parliament report likewise gives 2010 as the year the group was founded by Hulio, Lavie and Niv Karmi, the spelling of the name varying between sources for the same person. NSO Group told the report's authors that Carmi was no longer affiliated with the group, and Israeli business press reported in 2025 that he had left NSO after less than a year. ^{1 2 3}

analysisA profile on a company-data site lists Shalev Hulio, who appears in Luxembourg and UK records as "Shalev Holy", as NSO's co-founder and vice-president of marketing from December 2009, its chief executive from March 2016 and a partner of the investment firm Founders Group. According to the European Parliament report he stepped down as chief executive in August 2022 and was replaced by Yaron Shohat, after which NSO, according to press cited in the report, changed policy to focus only on NATO members. A company-data profile records Shohat as NSO's former chief operating officer; he was also reported to be chief executive of Q Cyber Technologies, testified as NSO's chief executive in August 2024 and, according to press in January 2026, stepped down after the 2025 change of ownership. No register record of Shohat's offices was retained. ^{4 5 3 6}

analysisAccording to the European Parliament inquiry report, after public pressure over NSO's hiring of the private intelligence firm Black Cube against its opponents, Shalev Hulio, NSO's former chief executive, admitted to hiring Black Cube in at least one situation in Cyprus; the admission itself is not retained. ³

analysisAfter leaving NSO, Hulio co-founded the cyber-defence and artificial-intelligence company Dream (Dream Security) with former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Gil Dolev, the brother of NSO Group president Shiri Dolev. The European Parliament report dates its launch to October 2022, whereas Israeli press gives 2023, and records that its early investors included Adi Shalev, also an early NSO investor (the records do not show whether this is the Eddy Shalev named among NSO's first investors); Israeli press reported in June 2026 that Dream had raised $260 million at a valuation of $3 billion. Lavie also co-founded the Tel Aviv cyber-risk company Orchestra Group, founded in 2009 according to a company-data profile; in a 2017 press interview Lavie and his investment partner Issac Zack said Orchestra was being financed by their investment firm Founders Group, whose chief executive was Hulio. ^{3 7 8 9 10}

analysisNiv Karmi later founded Polus Tech in Zug, Switzerland, in 2016, with investment from Elta Systems of Israel Aerospace Industries, according to Israeli business press. Swiss commercial-register data list him as a board member of POLUS Tech. (Switzerland) Ltd and as president of the board of Therian Labs Technologies AG, a Zug company whose purpose includes selling software solutions in Asia, in particular Indonesia. A Swiss arms-export monitoring site reported that Therian Labs received Swiss export permits for Indonesia worth CHF 4.84 million in 2022 in the dual-use category 5A001.f, covering mobile interception and jamming equipment; the permit records themselves were not retained. These are Karmi's own companies, not NSO or Q Cyber companies. ^{2 11 12 13 14}

analysisFrancisco Partners Management, L.P. is a US investment adviser registered with the SEC (CRD 160272) that advises private funds; its Form ADV, read from a company-data site's copy, states that it managed about $47.05 billion of fund assets at 31 December 2025. Eran Gorev is a partner and president of Israel at Francisco Partners, which he joined in 2014, according to the firm's website; a company-data profile lists him as NSO's chairman from 2014 to 2019, and Luxembourg register publications, as summarised by an aggregator, list him as a manager of OSY Technologies between publications of 16 December 2014 and 12 April 2019 and of Q Cyber Technologies S.à r.l. from its registration in January 2016 until a publication of August 2019. ^{1 2 3 4}

analysisUnder Francisco Partners' ownership, according to the firm's statement to the 2021 NGO report, NSO's business ethics committee reviewed all potential sales and blocked tens of millions of dollars of sales that would otherwise have been legally permitted; Novalpina described it as a committee of NSO's board with three NSO executives and four external members, which media reports said included Daniel Reisner of the Israeli law firm Herzog Fox & Neeman. After the 2019 buyout it was replaced by a governance, risk and compliance committee which, according to NSO Group, is a board-level committee appointed by OSY's board that oversees investigations into credible allegations of misuse. These are the statements of Francisco Partners, Novalpina and NSO Group. ⁵

analysisAccording to the European Parliament report, citing press, Jeremy Bash, a former chief of staff at the CIA (2009–2011) and the US Department of Defense (2011–2013), was hired through his firm Beacon Global Strategies to advise NSO through Francisco Partners and was reportedly one of eight members of the business ethics committee with a vote on proposed sales, a count that differs from the seven members in Novalpina's own description above; Beacon ended its work with NSO after the group pursued sales to Saudi Arabia. Bash served on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board from 2022 to 2025, according to an encyclopedia entry, and a sanctions and PEP data service lists him as a politically exposed person, with no sanctions or crime topics. US press reported in 2017 that, according to his financial disclosure forms, Michael Flynn received $40,280 in 2016 as an advisory board member of OSY Technologies; Francisco Partners' general counsel told another publication that Flynn was paid a little more than $40,000 by OSY and less than $100,000 by Francisco, had served in a relatively limited advisory role and that the firm routinely engages consultants to understand the industries it invests in. Flynn's lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. ^{6 7 8 9 10}

analysisNSO Group announced in April 2020 that it had appointed Asher Levy, chief executive of Orbotech from 2013 to 2019, as executive chairman, an appointment approved by the board earlier that year and effective on 1 April 2020; a market-data profile lists him as former chairman of N.S.O. Group Technologies Ltd. He left the chairmanship at the start of January 2022, saying he had represented Novalpina and was making way for BRG's appointee, and denied that his departure had anything to do with NSO's legal and financial troubles. These are a company announcement, an aggregator profile and a press account. ^{11 12 13}

analysisRegister summaries record Yuval Somekh as a manager of Q Cyber Technologies S.à r.l. from its registration in 2016 and of NorthPole Newco; according to the 2021 NGO report he was type B manager of Emerald LIE and Diamond LIE, which NSO Group said were created to grant stock options, with Gaëtan Dumont as type A manager. Register publications of 4 and 26 November 2021, as summarised by an aggregator, record that Somekh was no longer a manager of OSY and of NorthPole Newco and Q Cyber Technologies S.à r.l. respectively. NSO Group told the 2021 NGO report that Hulio, Lavie, Somekh and Asher Levy were directors in the group and that Dumont was a professional director in five of its eight Luxembourg companies, holding no other position in the group. A register publication of 20 August 2019, as summarised by an aggregator, lists Charline de Maigret as a manager of Q Cyber Technologies S.à r.l. Anthony Levy has been a manager of NorthPole Newco, OSY and Q Cyber Technologies S.à r.l. since 15 March 2023, having earlier been a class B manager of NorthPole Newco from 22 December 2021 to 16 January 2023, and has been the Luxembourg Q Cyber's delegate for day-to-day management since 5 June 2023, with a professional address in Luxembourg. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7}

analysisNSO Group told the NGO report's authors in 2021 that the former employee Kevin Wilson was then a shareholder in Triangle Holdings, that the former consultant Alexei Voronovitsky no longer held shares in any group company, that OSY Holdings Ltd. and Global Seven Group LP held no shares or other interest in Triangle, and that the group had no companies in the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands. ¹

analysisAccording to his witness biography published by the US House of Representatives, David M. Friedman was appointed on 10 November 2025 executive chairman of the Luxembourg holding company that owns NSO Group and of a Delaware subsidiary of that company, neither of which the biography names, and a register notice published on 30 December 2025 records his appointment as a manager of OSY Technologies with effect from 15 December 2025. Friedman was US ambassador to Israel from March 2017 to January 2021; before joining the State Department he practised law at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP, which he co-founded in 1994. A sanctions and PEP data service lists him as a politically exposed person on that basis and as named on the Iranian foreign ministry's own sanctions list, a measure by Iran against US individuals rather than a Western sanction. Robert Bruce Simonds Jr., according to Israeli business reporting, joined the board of the holding company shortly after the 2023 transfer, at the lenders' initiative to raise financing, tried to acquire NSO in June 2023 and left the board in August 2023 after five months, when the attempt had failed; the August 2023 report suggested, as its own speculation rather than a recorded decision of the ministry, that he may have been forced out for lack of Israeli Defence Ministry approval, possibly because of business ties to China. Israeli press reported in November 2025 that a group of US investors led by Simonds had bought a controlling stake in NSO in October 2025 and that the founders were no longer shareholders; the other investors were not named, and no retained register notice names Simonds as an owner. He is a film producer and founder and chairman of STX Entertainment, according to an online encyclopedia, and Luxembourg press reported that in January 2026 he sold his production company, Crown Productions, which it described as the film-financing subsidiary of the insurance platform A-CAP. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8}