Eran Raven is a mentalist and security expert.
Eran Raven | |
|---|---|
 Eran Raven in Seoul, South Korea, on April 4, 2013 | |
| Born | Eran Feigenbaum March 3, 1974 |
| Occupation(s) | Mentalist and Security Expert |
| Website | http://www.EranRaven.com |
Raven is best known in technology circles by his birth name, Eran Feigenbaum, for his role as both the former director of security at Google Enterprise (2007-2016), and the former chief information security officer for Jet.com.
Raven is famous in the US for his death-defying mentalism performances on NBC’s Phenomenon.
Early life
editEran Raven was born Eran Feigenbaum in Tel Aviv, Israel. His mother was a high school principal and his father was a rocket scientist.
His interest in magic began at an early age, and he gave his first public performance at age 11. He became interested in mentalism after he realized the way he asked questions could influence the person's response, or willingness to respond, to the request. Raven became fascinated by, and would make much use of, this nonverbal communication.
Appearances
editRaven has appeared on stage in more than 35 countries in North America, Europe and Asia; and on more than 50 TV shows internationally. His biggest air date was on NBC's Phenomenon, before a broadcast audience of 8 million live viewers.
In October and November 2007, Raven was one of ten mentalist contestants on the primetime NBC series Phenomenon, which was hosted by Tim Vincent and judged by Criss Angel and Uri Geller.[1] He finished as runner-up on the series, after performing dangerous demonstrations of mentalism involving razor blades, snakes, scorpions, and nail guns.[2]
A demonstration with Holly Madison went wrong when Raven was bitten by a snake on live TV.[3] He decided to continue after having his hand bandaged.
Raven was seriously injured during rehearsals for another demonstration, which resulted in multiple ruptured disks in his back and relegated him to using a wheelchair, and a cane for a period thereafter. He has commented that he will reattempt this demonstration [4]
Famous personalities Raven has "manipulated" include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Owen Wilson and Sylvester Stallone.
Security career
editAs Eran Feigenbaum, he worked at Google [5] as head of security for Google Enterprise, and gave multiple presentations before technical audiences the world over, and members of Congress.[6] He has written security whitepapers with ex-Google CIO Douglas Merrill.[7]
Eran Feigenbaum is a frequent speaker at international security gatherings like Black Hat Security Conference and Hacker Halted, where he talks about why current security systems don't work, the vulnerability of passwords and how to think like a hacker. His areas of expertise include cybersecurity, perception management, social engineering and non-verbal cues.
He is currently Chief Security Officer at Oracle. He sits on the board of a number of technology startups, including telemedicine innovator Curogram; technology company Peri; and KoolSpan, an encrypted mobile communications provider.
Personal life
editRaven has been linked to Heather Sweet (AKA Dita Von Teese) when they went to University High School together, and TV personality Carmen Electra whom he met during his nail gun stunt on NBC's Phenomenon.[8]
References
edit- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "Mind-Bending 'Phenomenon' Contestant Hopes Viewers Are Ravin' About Raven". .tbo.com. 2007-10-31. Archived from the original on 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
- ^ "Phenomenon: A Snake Bite, Drinking Acid & A Burned Leg « Crushable". Crushable.com. 2007-11-08. Archived from the original on 2012-05-31. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
- ^ Death Drop. http://vegasrumors.blogspot.com/
- ^ Wright, Jennifer (2010-01-10). "Working it out". NYPOST.com. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
- ^ "Google Security Chief by Day, TV Magician 'Eran Raven' by Night". Gawker.com. 2010-01-04. Archived from the original on 2010-06-16. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
- ^ Purba, Sanjiv (2001). "Contents". In Purba, Sanjiv (ed.). New Directions in Internet Management. Best Practices. Vol. 20. pp. ix–xiii. doi:10.1201/9780203997543. ISBN 978-0-8493-1160-4.
- ^ "RealiTV: October 2007 Archives". Blogs.publicopiniononline.com. Archived from the original on 2007-10-20. Retrieved 2010-06-28.