Nochi Dankner - Chairman IDB Group
This is the third time in the past six years that Nochi Dankner has been chosen as one of the business leaders of the year. Dankner is Chairman of the IDB Group, the leading group in the Israeli economy. He saw the crisis in ahead of time and led his group to prepare accordingly, among other things, by acquiring shares in Credit Suisse in October 2008, selling some of them last year. Dankner, who began his career as a partner in a successful law firm, has succeeded in building economic power, with his own hands, and he is today the owner of one of the largest groups in the economy. Through his vision, IDB Group will become a multinational company managed from Israel.

Eli Yones - CEO Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank
For the second time in three years, Yones has been chosen by Dun & Bradstreet’s panel of judges as one of Israel’s business leaders. Yones has come a long way since serving as the Accountant General in the Ministry of Finance during the 1980s. After resigning from public service, Yones moved to the private sector and has served in a range of positions including CEO Bank Hapoalim. In 2004, he was appointed CEO Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank, a role which he fulfills today. Yones is responsible for the considerable leap forward that the bank has made in recent years and the growth in the bank’s market value and profits.

Zahavit Cohen - CEO Apax Partners Israel
Zahavit Cohen has been CEO of Apax Partners Israel since 2006. Her selection by the panel of judges is no surprise at all. Over the past year, Cohen has been involved in two of the largest deals in the economy, the Bezeq deal and the Psagot deal. These are not the first major deals that Cohen has led. Before these, among other deals, she acquired the controlling core of Tnuva in 2007 (together with Meir Shamir), a deal which was implemented largely thanks to her. Cohen is the youngest of this year’s winners and the fourth women in recent years to have won the business leaders award.

Chaim Katzman - Chairman Gazit-Globe
Chaim Katzman is an example of Israeli entrepreneurship overseas. For the past 20 years, Katzman has been buying and selling income producing real estate assets in the US and Canada and has been responsible for founding Gazit-Globe, a real estate empire in which he serves as chairman of the board. Over the past year, which began with a deep crisis in US real estate, Gazit’s core business, the company has recorded an expansionary trend as part of the strategy of acquisitions of its Austrian company Atrium. In the Dun’s 100 real estate rankings that were recently published, Gazit-Globe was in first place.

Galia Maor - CEO Bank Leumi le-Israel
This is the third time in the past six years that the CEO of the country’s largest bank, Galia Maor, has been chosen by the panel of judges. She has been in the post for 15 years and she is included in Fortune Magazine’s list of the 50 most influential women in the global economy. Bank Leumi won third place in Dun & Bradstreet’s Strength Ranking and it has been the largest bank in the country since 2007.

David Fattal - Owner and CEO Fattal Hotels Chain
David Fattal is an unusual success story. He began his career as a rank and file worker in a Haifa hotel in the 1980s. A decade later he was already a first rate manager of hotels. In 1998, Fattal decided to choose the path of an independent businessman, which as the years have gone by has proven to be a successful step. In 2009, the chain acquired Azorim Tourism and became the largest hotel chain in the country. The chains has also developed overseas through the “Leonardo” hotels, and among other things, Fattal is credited with successfully bringing the “all included” concept to Israel.

Shlomo Rodav - Chairman of the Board Bezeq
Since 2007, Shlomo Rodev has served as Chairman of the Bezeq Group. Since he assumed the position, Rodev has led a turnaround in the Group after taking on the leadership at a time of deep crisis. Rodev has led measures to stop the company’s fallback, stabilize and renewed growth. The rehabilitation of a company is not a new thing for Rodev who did the same thing for Gilat. Rodev is a modest man who abstains from media appearances and invests his energy in every role that he takes on. He is known as being familiar with a range of details, small and large, and his involvement in everything happening within a company. Rodev, who began as a clerk at Bank Leumi, has served for more than 30 years in a range of positions for leading companies in the economy.

Shaul Shani - Chairman ECI
The panel of judges chose the man who was responsible for the year’s best exit, if not of the decade. At the end of 2009, Shani sold his stake in the Brazilian company GVT to the French telecom company Vivandi. At the start of the decade the company was on the verge of insolvency following the foreign currency crisis and the bursting of the high-tech bubble. Shani succeeded in stabilizing the company and selling it at a record price. The telecom sector is no stranger to Shani who made his mark by setting up a number of companies in the 1980s: Sapiens, Persys and more. In 2007, Shani acquired shares in ECI and many see future success in the future for the company with his as Chairman.

Outstanding Leadership