The Institute's Board of Directors is chaired by Sir Frank Lowy, AC, co-founder and chairman of the Westfield Group and Chairman of the Lowy Institute for International Policy (Australia). Professor Itamar Rabinovich, former ambassador and president of Tel Aviv University, serves as the vice chairman. The Board includes eight other members with distinguished records in academia, foreign affairs, security, and business.
Board of Directors members:
Sir Frank Lowy co-founded the Westfield global shopping center company in 1960 and served as its Executive Chairman for 50 years, and then as non-executive Chairman between 2011 and 2018, when the company was acquired by Unibail-Rodamco. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for National Securities Studies (INSS) and Chairman of the Lowy Institute in Australia. He has received numerous honors and citations for his business and philanthropic activities, including being made a Knight Bachelor in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2017.
Alfred Akirov is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alrov, an international real estate company, based in Tel Aviv. In 1978, Mr. Akirov founded Alrov, one of lsrael's leading real estate companies, which went public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 1983. Through Alrov, Mr. Akirov is behind the establishment of the Alrov Institute for Real Estate Research at Tel Aviv University and is engaged in a variety of other public activities. In 2007 he received an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University, and in 2013 a Legion D'honneur from the French government.
Brigadier General (Res.) Reem Aminoach (CPA) began his military service in the Armored Corps, spending most of it in Lebanon during what would later be known as the "Security Zone Campaign." He was discharged from the IDF after one year as an officer with the rank of lieutenant, and during his reserve service, he held numerous roles until, in 2005, he was appointed as a district commander and promoted to the rank of colonel. Later, he served as the deputy commander of the Dan District in the Home Front Command. In 2011, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and appointed as the financial advisor to the Chief of Staff, head of the IDF's Economic Division, and head of the Budget Department at the Ministry of Defense. He was the only individual appointed to this position from outside the military, returning to active service for three years. As part of his role, Aminoach served as a member of the General Staff Forum and the Ministry of Defense management team.
Since retiring from the position of financial advisor to the Chief of Staff, Aminoach has served as chair of various IDF and defense establishment committees, including chairing the IDF Accounting Internship Committee and the Efficiency Award Committee. In 2015, he chaired the committee to abolish income tests for disabled IDF veterans, parts of which were adopted and implemented through a government decision.
Aminoach holds a bachelor's degree in accounting and a master's degree in business administration from Tel Aviv University. In 1987, he co-founded the accounting firm Shtainmetz Aminoach & Co. with Kobi Shtainmetz, and by 2016, after growing the firm to become the sixth largest in Israel with approximately 300 employees, he sold his share to his partners. In 2001, his book Pension Taxation and Provident Funds was published. In November 2019, he was appointed as a director at Israel Aerospace Industries, serving as chair of the Risk Management Committee, Finance Committee, and Audit Committee. Aminach has also served as a director at Ofer Investments, ZIM, and ICL.
Justice Dorit Beinisch is an Israeli attorney and judge. After a long professional career in public service, she was appointed State Attorney of Israel in 1989. In December 1995 Justice Beinisch was appointed to the Supreme Court, and in September 2006 was sworn in as the first woman President of the Supreme Court of Israel, a position she held until her retirement in February 2012.
Adv. Hanina Brandes is an Israeli attorney who founded Naschitz Brandes Amir, one of the largest law firms in Israel. He is one of the leading lawyers in Israel and is a graduate of the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv branch. Mr. Brandes served as the chairman of the hi-tech committee of the Israeli bar and was a member of the mergers committee established under the anti-trust law. He is a member of the Board of Governors and the Board of Directors of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and is a member of the Board of Governors of the Tel Aviv University. Mr. Brandes is an art collector and a retired Lt. Col. of the Signal and Electronics Corp of the IDF. He lives in Tel Aviv.
Sir Mick Davis, born and raised in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, is currently Chairman and Chief Executive of Vision Blue Resources (VBR), an investment company building diversified portfolio of clean energy metal and mineral investments across commodities and geographies that will enable the reduction in CO2 emissions and battery storage of clean energy for EV’s, buildings and electricity grids. He is also Chairman of MacSteel, a global trading and shipping company, and an investor, director and advisor to other companies that are investments of VBR as well as in the financial services and technology sectors. Mick was also the Treasurer of the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom from February 2016 to July 2019 and its Chief Executive from July 2017 to July 2019. Mick is a past President of the Council of Members and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Leadership Council of the United Kingdom, the umbrella body of the largest Jewish charities and institutions in the United Kingdom responsible for the strategic imperatives of UK Jewry. He was Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission of the United Kingdom. Mick is also currently a member of the Brookings International Advisory Council.
Prof. Jacob Frenkel is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty (G-30), Chairman of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Plus 500. Previously Prof. Frenkel was Chairman of J. P. Morgan Chase International (2009-2020), Vice Chairman of American International Group (2004-2009), Chairman of Merrill Lynch International (2000-2004), Governor of the Bank of Israel (1991-2000), Economic Counselor and Director of Research at the IMF (1987-1991), and the David Rockefeller Professor of International Economics at the University of Chicago (1973-1987). Prof. Frenkel is a recipient of the 2002 Israel Prize in Economics.
Dan Geva is a leading partner in the Corporate and Securities Group at Meitar Law Offices.
He advises Israeli and international corporations in planning and structuring complex transactions involving acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings and associated corporate finance matters. Dan represents Israeli and international issuers and investment banks in a variety of financing matters and has worked on numerous initial public offerings and other offerings registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission,
For many years Dan has been the trusted advisor for numerous companies leading the Israeli economy, such as Nice, Amdocs, Bank Leumi, Iscar and many more.
Michael Granoff is the founder and CEO of Pomona Capital, a global private equity firm with over $15 billion in capital commitments with offices in New York, London and Hong Kong.
Prior to his business career, Mr. Granoff served as the Chairman’s representative on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, the Congressional committee that appropriates US military and economic assistance. He was a member of the 1992 Presidential Transition Team for the Department of the Treasury. Mr. Granoff was appointed by President Clinton to the Board of the Albanian-American Enterprise Fund, a U.S. government-sponsored private sector development initiative, where he serves as Chairman. He is also Chairman of the Albanian American Development Foundation, the largest non-profit organization in the Balkans. Mr. Granoff is a recipient of the Order of Skanderbeg, the Order of Mother Teresa, and the Medal of Public Gratitude from the Government of Albania. He served as a Trustee of the Yad Hanadiv Rothschild Foundation. Mr. Granoff is a Director of the Grameen Bank U.S. (a microcredit lender) and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Granoff received a JD from Georgetown University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Inbal Kreiss is Chief of Innovation at the Systems, Missiles and Space Division of the Israeli Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) and Chairwoman of RAKIA, Scientific and Technological Mission to the International Space Station.
Inbal was the Deputy Director of the Space Division at IAI, leading the development, construction, launch and operation of observation and communication satellites for both Israeli and foreign users.
Throughout her career she has held leadership positions across Israel Aerospace Industries, including chief engineer of Israel's Arrow 2 anti- ballistic missile defense system and program manager of the Arrow 3 Exo-atmospheric interceptor development. Her leadership in Defense Development & Innovation has contributed significantly to Israel's deterrence abilities, and capacity to respond to evolving security challenges.
Inbal received her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering with honors from the Technion, Haifa, an Executive Masters in Business Administration (E.M.B.A) with honors from Tel Aviv University, and is a fellowship at the Aeronautics & Astronautics Department, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Boston.
Tzipi Livni is a former Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice Prime Minister (the first woman to hold this position since Golda Meir served as Prime Minister). She has held other ministerial positions, including Minister of Justice, Minister of Regional Cooperation, Minister of Immigrant Absorption, Minister of Housing and Construction, and Minister of Agriculture. Ms. Livni also served as leader of the opposition and leader of center parties.
Livni, a lawyer by profession, was the head of the Government Companies Authority. She served as an officer in the army and later in the Mossad.
David Lowy is a Principal of LFG, the private investment business and family office of the Lowy Family Group. Prior to the founding of LFG, Mr. Lowy served in various positions for the Westfield Group from 1977 to 2000, including as Executive Director and Managing Director. He retired in 2000 as an executive and served as the Group’s non-executive Deputy Chairman until 2011. Mr. Lowy is the Founder and President of Temora Aviation Museum, a member of the Board of Directors of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, the Lowy Medical Research Institute Limited, and the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). He is also a pilot and a musician.
Prof. Ariel Porat is the ninth President of Tel Aviv University. Prof. Porat's main research interests are torts, contract law, and the economic analysis of the law. He served for 15 years as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago (2003-2019). He was also Visiting Professor at Stanford University, and at New York University, Columbia, Berkeley, and the Universities of Virginia and Toronto. Prof. Porat is the recipient of numerous honors, among them the EMET Prize, the European Law and Economics Association Award for Lifetime Achievements in Law and Economics, the Chesin Prize, the Zeltner Prize, and the Zusman Prize. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Prof. Itamar Rabinovich is Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University. He is Israel's former ambassador to the United States and former chief negotiator with Syria in the mid-1990s, and the former President of Tel Aviv University (1999-2007). He is President Emeritus and Counselor of the Israel Institute (Washington and Tel Aviv), and a Distinguished Fellow of the Brooking Institution's Foreign Policy Program. Prof. Rabinovich is the Vice Chairman of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and a senior research fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.
Prof. Eyal Zisser is the Vice Rector of Tel Aviv University and the holder of the Yona and Dina Ettinger Chair in Contemporary History of the Middle East. Prof. Zisser was the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities (2010-2015), the Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies (2007-2010), and the Head of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History. Prof. Zisser, who earned his PhD from Tel Aviv University, has written extensively on the history and the modern politics of Syria and Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He was a visiting professor at Cornell University and a visiting research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.