Eran Raven is a
mentalist and security expert.
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
A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried W ...
.
Early life
Eran Raven was born Eran Feigenbaum in
Tel Aviv, Israel
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
. 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
Raven 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
A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried W ...
, which was hosted by
Tim Vincent and judged by
Criss Angel
Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos ( el, Χριστόφορος Νικόλαος Σαραντάκος; born December 19, 1967), known professionally as Criss Angel, is an American magician, illusionist and musician. Angel began his career in New ...
and
Uri Geller. He finished as runner-up on the series, after performing dangerous demonstrations of
mentalism involving razor blades, snakes, scorpions, and nail guns.
A demonstration with Holly Madison went wrong when Raven was bitten by a snake on live TV. 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
Famous personalities Raven has "manipulated" include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Owen Wilson and Sylvester Stallone.
Security career
As Eran Feigenbaum, he worked at Google as head of security for Google Enterprise, and gave multiple presentations before technical audiences the world over, and members of Congress. He has written security whitepapers with ex-Google CIO Douglas Merrill.
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 Social engineering may refer to:
* Social engineering (political science), a means of influencing particular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale
* Social engineering (security), obtaining confidential information by manipulating and/or ...
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; an
KoolSpan an encrypted mobile communications provider.
Personal life
Raven has been linked to Heather Sweet (AKA
Dita Von Teese
Heather Renée Sweet (born September 28, 1972), known professionally as Dita Von Teese, is an American vedette, burlesque dancer, model, and businesswoman. She is credited with re-popularizing burlesque performance, earning the moniker "Queen ...
) 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.
References
External links
Official WebsiteOfficial Myspace*
LinkedIn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raven, Eran
1974 births
Living people
Mentalists
People from Highland Park, New Jersey
People from Irvine, California
University High School (Irvine, California) alumni