The Most Famous
BUSINESSPEOPLE from Israel
This page contains a list of the greatest Israeli Businesspeople. The pantheon dataset contains 847 Businesspeople, 5 of which were born in Israel. This makes Israel the birth place of the 22nd most number of Businesspeople behind Greece, and Norway.
Top 7
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Israeli Businesspeople of all time. This list of famous Israeli Businesspeople is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Arnon Milchan (b. 1944)
With an HPI of 54.10, Arnon Milchan is the most famous Israeli Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages on wikipedia.
Arnon Milchan (Hebrew: ארנון מילצ'ן; December 6, 1944) is an Israeli billionaire businessman, film producer and former spy. He has been involved in over 130 full-length motion pictures and is the founder of production company Regency Enterprises. Regency's film credits include 12 Years a Slave, JFK, Heat, Fight Club, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Milchan has earned two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Picture, for L.A. Confidential and The Revenant; he also produced Best Picture nominees The Big Short, 12 Years a Slave, and Birdman, with the latter two winning the award in consecutive years. Milchan was also an Israeli intelligence operative from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. As of January 2024, Forbes estimated Milchan's net worth at US$3.3 billion, ranked 937th worldwide and 13th wealthiest in Israel.
2. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh (b. 1938)
With an HPI of 51.34, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh is the 2nd most famous Israeli Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh (Arabic: طلال أبو غزالة; born 22 April 1938) is a Jordanian-Palestinian businessman, entrepreneur, and the founder and chairman of the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org), an international company headquartered in Jordan. He has been recognized for his role in promoting intellectual property rights in the Arab world.
3. Micky Arison (b. 1949)
With an HPI of 44.82, Micky Arison is the 3rd most famous Israeli Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Micky Arison (born June 29, 1949) is an Israeli-American billionaire businessman and chairman of Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise operator. From 1979 until 2013, he was also the company's chief executive officer. Arison is also the owner of the NBA's Miami Heat, which under his ownership has won three NBA Championships.
4. Adam Neumann (b. 1979)
With an HPI of 38.08, Adam Neumann is the 4th most famous Israeli Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Adam Neumann (Hebrew: אדם נוימן; born April 25, 1979) is an Israeli-American billionaire businessman and investor. In 2010, he co-founded WeWork with Miguel McKelvey, where he was CEO from 2010 to 2019. In 2019, he co-founded a family office dubbed 166 2nd Financial Services with his wife, Rebekah Neumann, to manage their personal wealth, investing over a billion dollars in real estate and venture startups. Following mounting pressure from investors based on disclosures made in a public offering filing, Neumann resigned as CEO of WeWork and gave up majority voting control as of September 26, 2019. Forbes estimated his net worth to be around US$2.2 billion as of February 2024.
5. Zeev Suraski (b. 1976)
With an HPI of 36.73, Zeev Suraski is the 5th most famous Israeli Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.
Zeev Suraski (Hebrew: זאב סורסקי Hebrew pronunciation: [ze-ev so-raski pron]) born February 18, 1976, is an Israeli programmer, PHP developer and co-founder of Zend Technologies. A graduate of the Technion in Haifa, Israel, Suraski and Andi Gutmans created PHP 3 in 1997. In 1999 they wrote the Zend Engine, the core of PHP 4, and founded Zend Technologies, which has since overseen PHP advances. The name Zend is a portmanteau of their forenames, Zeev and Andi. Suraski is an emeritus member of the Apache Software Foundation, and was nominated for the FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software in 1999. Zeev Suraski was the Chief technology officer for Zend Technologies until he left the company in August 2019. On October 17, 2018, he announced his intention of leaving Zend Technologies as Rogue Wave Software, which acquired Zend Technologies in 2015, decided to change the strategic focus of the company. Since August 2019 he's the Chief technology officer of Strattic. He was the lead contributor to PHP from 1997 onwards. Suraski works at Google, and is the husband of Anya Suraski, and father of three daughters.
6. Simon Leviev (b. 1990)
With an HPI of 35.24, Simon Leviev is the 6th most famous Israeli Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Simon Leviev (Hebrew: סיימון לבייב; born Shimon Yehuda Hayut, 27 September 1990) is an Israeli convicted of forgery and fraud. According to The Times of Israel, between 2017 and 2019 he allegedly conned an estimated $1 billion dollars from people and banks in a Ponzi scheme. His criminal activity became widely known in 2019 after the publication of an article titled "The Tinder Swindler" by investigative journalists from the Norwegian tabloid Verdens Gang, with the support of Israeli journalist Uri Blau, and later with the release of the 2022 Netflix documentary of the same name. In 2015, Leviev was sentenced to two years in prison in Finland, and in 2019 to 15 months in prison in Israel.
7. Andi Gutmans (b. 2000)
With an HPI of 24.19, Andi Gutmans is the 7th most famous Israeli Businessperson. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.
Andi (Andrei) Gutmans is an Israeli programmer and entrepreneur.
People
Pantheon has 7 people classified as Israeli businesspeople born between 1938 and 2000. Of these 7, 7 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Israeli businesspeople include Arnon Milchan, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, and Micky Arison. As of April 2024, 2 new Israeli businesspeople have been added to Pantheon including Adam Neumann, and Simon Leviev.
Living Israeli Businesspeople
Go to all Rankings
Arnon Milchan
1944 - Present
HPI: 54.10
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh
1938 - Present
HPI: 51.34
Micky Arison
1949 - Present
HPI: 44.82
Adam Neumann
1979 - Present
HPI: 38.08
Zeev Suraski
1976 - Present
HPI: 36.73
Simon Leviev
1990 - Present
HPI: 35.24
Andi Gutmans
2000 - Present
HPI: 24.19
