Founders & Companies · Jul 22, 2026
Michael Federmann: The Elbit Systems and Dan Hotels ChairmanMichael Federmann — chairman of Elbit Systems and Dan Hotels; principal-controlled steward of Israel's largest defense prime across 25 years.
Founders & Companies
The founders behind Israeli businesses, the executives running them and the ownership decisions that shape their companies.
85 storiesUpdated Sep 11, 2026
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Lead storyFounders & Companies · Aug 30, 2026
Rami Levy: Israel's Discount Supermarket King
He opened a single wholesale grocery on Jerusalem's Hashikma Street in 1976. Today Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing (TASE: RMLI) is Israel's discount-retail engine, spanning supermarkets, pharmacy, cafes, mobile and a stake…
Read →Israel runs a deep founder pipeline.
Per Tracxn data published April 2026, Israel has produced 42 unicorns. Per Israel Innovation Authority data reported by Times of Israel in early 2026, 39 active tech unicorns operate in the country. Tel Aviv accounts for 25 of them; Herzliya for 4; Jerusalem for 3.
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The pipeline behind those numbers runs through identifiable institutions: Unit 8200, Talpiot, Unit 9900, Mossad cyber, Shin Bet technology, the Technion's computer science and information security programs, the Weizmann Institute, Hebrew University, and Tel Aviv University. The same names recur across Wiz, CyberArk, Check Point, Mobileye, AI21 Labs, Armis, and the next generation including Heven AeroTech, Wonderful, Oasis Security, and Line5.
Per the Technion CS faculty, faculty graduates lead the unicorn list — including Assaf Rappaport (Wiz), Oren Kaniel (AppsFlyer), Eilon Reshef (Gong), and Nadir Izrael and Yevgeny Dibrov (Armis).
This cluster is the canonical reference layer. Each named person and company gets a structured entity page: identity, background, role, capital history, related entities, sources.
Reference and analysis
Long-form reference entries in Founders & Companies
Israeli Founders & Billionaires — The Olam Reference
Articles
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Founders & Companies · Jul 3, 2026
Nir Zuk: Palo Alto Networks Founder Who Invented Next-Gen FirewallEarly Check Point engineer, then founded OneSecure — sold through NetScreen to Juniper for $4B — and in 2005 founded Palo Alto Networks. World's large…
Founders & Companies · Jun 17, 2026
The Ronn Torossian Archive: 23 Years From 5W to AI CommunicationsA note from Olam's publisher. The Torossian Communications Archive — sixteen years of indexed publishing consolidated at ronntorossian.com — and why f…
Founders & Companies · Sep 1, 2026
Harel Wiesel: The Man Behind Fox GroupHarel Wiesel, co-CEO of Fox Group, built Israel's largest fashion retailer. He oversees over 600 stores and 14,500 employees.
Founders & Companies · Aug 30, 2026
Ofra Strauss: Strauss Group's Third-Generation ChairOfra Strauss: born 1960 in Nahariya. Third-generation chairwoman of Strauss Group since 2001. Architect of the Strauss-Elite merger. Fortune's Most Po…
Founders & Companies · Jun 1, 2026
Lab-Grown Diamonds Broke Israeli CuttingIsraeli cutting employment has fallen from a 1970s peak of well above 15,000 to under 1,000 today. Lab-grown diamond prices have collapsed roughly 70…
Founders & Companies · Jul 17, 2026
Avraham Livnat: Hadera Paper and Granite HacarmelAvraham Livnat: Israeli industrialist whose family controlled Hadera Paper and Granite Hacarmel across decades. Canonical figure in the under-covered…
Founders & Companies · Jun 26, 2026
Sami Sagol: Keter Plastics FounderBuilt Keter Plastics from a Jaffa workshop into a global resin-products leader. Sold 80% to BC Partners and PSP Investments in 2016 for $1.7B. Globes…
Founders & Companies · Jul 16, 2026
Boaz Dotan: Amdocs Co-FounderBoaz Dotan co-founded Amdocs in 1982 with Morris Kahn and Avi Naor, built the Israeli carrier-software era, and helped establish the model every subse…