Whenever he’s faced a difficult crossroads in life or business, Varonis CFO Guy Melamed has focused squarely on goals—sticking to them and scoring them. Despite playing for Israel’s under-21 national soccer team and fielding alluring offers to continue his playing career there, Melamed chose to leave his home country. He attended Boston College, where he simultaneously played soccer, studied accounting and business, and learned English. His stick-to-it-iveness helped him to earn a B.A. and an M.S.A. while becoming the first Israeli to get drafted by a Major League Soccer (MLS) team. After a year with the Colorado Rapids in the U.S. and a stint in the U.K.’s Championship League, Melamed decided to focus exclusively on his business career, joining KPMG as a CPA. Despite lucrative offers from private industry, Melamed opted to remain at KPMG and, later, EY, because, at those points in his career, he says, “knowledge and experience were more important to me than making more money.” The pursuit of those goals also paid off by delivering him to Varonis, where he gained valuable experience in helping to guide a booming cybersecurity company through an IPO.

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