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Amir Gal-Or

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Amir Gal-Or
אמיר גלאור
Amir Gal-Or in 2006
Born(1962-09-05)September 5, 1962(age 61)
Haifa,Israel
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur,venture capitalist
Children4, includingRaz

Amir Gal-Or(Hebrew:אמיר גלאור;born September 5, 1962) is an Israeli businessman involved in venture capital, technologies, and East Asian enterprises. He is the founder and managing partner ofInfinity Group,[1][2][3][4]and founder and chairman of Innonation. Gal-Or served as a pilot in theIsraeli Air Force.[5]

Biography

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Gal-Or was born on September 5, 1962, inHaifa,Israel. His parents, Leah and Benjamin, are professors at theTechnion-Israel Institute of Technology.Gal-Or's mother specializes inchemistryandmaterials;his father specializes inmachinery.[5]Gal-Or attended theHebrew Reali Schoolin Haifa, where he graduated from the Science-Physics Department.[5]Gal-Or earned aBScineconomicsandbusiness managementfrom theUniversity of Haifaand anMBAfromTel Aviv University.Later he graduated fromHarvard University's program in venture capital andprivate equityinvestments.[5]

Gal-Or has four children:Raz,Amit, Talia and Hila.[5]

Air force career

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Gal-Or served as a combat pilot in theIsraeli Air Force(IDF/AF) for 24 years, flying theF-4 Phantom,F-16andA-4 Skyhawk.[5]He was also a member of the IDF/AF aerobatic team. On October 16, 1986, he flew in the same formation with Israeli MIA navigator/weapon systems officer (WSO)Ron Arad,who went missing that day. Gal-Or is retired from active reserve duty and serves as an instructor in the military flying school.[5]

Business career

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Amir Gal-Or addresses attendees of the Israel Venture Association Conference inTel Aviv

Gal-Or's career as a private entrepreneur began at the Technion incubator in 1990 upon completing seven years of army service.[6]He returned home to Haifa, registered at theUniversity of Haifaand, together with his mother,[7]established two materials companies: TAN, developing high-grade refractoryceramicoxides,and a venture with the largest Israeli fuels company:PazOil Company. Eventually, the latter venture integrated with Paz in exchange for royalties, and TAN was sold.[5]In 1994, Gal-Or was nominated as a manager of Mati Ra'anana, a business development center inRa'ananajointly established by theJDC,the Ministry of Absorption, the Israel Small and Medium Enterprise Authority (ISMEA),ESRAorganization, and the Ra'anana Municipality.

In 1998, Gal-Or switched to venture capital[5]and helped foundInfinity Group.[7]In 2002 theOffice of the Chief Scientist(OCS) of Israel began a program to privatize thetechnology incubators.Under the umbrella of Infinity, Gal-Or founded Maayan Ventures, a publicly traded company, where he serves as chairman. Maayan, headquartered inBeersheva,is a working partner of the Israeli government for seed investments and manages more than 60 investment holdings. Infinity also operates technology incubators inDimonaandSde Bokerand is purchasing a share in the incubator inOfakim.Each incubator has a specialization and Infinity provides them with services and support.[6]

Infinity, backed by theChina Development Bankand Clal Industries, manages over US$1.5 billion and has 23 funds, incubators, and accelerators established throughout China. Notable exits of the fund include: Galileo, Saifun, Shopping.com, ShellCase, Scitex Vision, Digital China, WLCSP, Bazun, and ITS.

In 2017, Gal-Or was bestowed with theFriendship Award[8]by the Chinese government for his great contribution to China-Israel business relations over the past nearly two decades. The award is the highest honor granted to foreign experts by the Chinese government for their contributions to the country's economic progress.

In January 2020 Gal-or was nominated to be the honorary president of the Israel Chamber of Commerce in China or IsCham (Chinese:Trung quốc dĩ sắc liệt thương hội).[9]

Gal-Or is involved in defense technologies, including unmanned aerial systems, AI-driven cybersecurity, and next-generation avionics. His role includes evaluation and instruction in these technologies, applying his experience in their development and implementation in the defense sector.

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Bacani, Cesar." To infinity and Beyond China is developing a local private-equity industry partly at the expense of foreign investment firms. But one Israeli fund has discovered an unlikely path to success ", CFO Asia, June 2008"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 26, 2010.
  2. ^Steve Gelsi (May 15, 2007)."China IPOs continue in U.S. Israeli venture fund raises $155 mln for China firms".Marketwatch.
  3. ^"Int'l credit crunch shifts Israeli business focus in China".Xinhua. April 20, 2009.
  4. ^"Israel PE Fund Infinity: Investment Price is not everything in China".CLPA. 2009-05-10.[dead link]
  5. ^abcdefghiFeldman, Batya (September 7–8, 2006).הרמת המסך של אמיר גלאור[Raising the Curtain on Amir Gal-Or].Globes(in Hebrew). p. 6. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-09-27.
  6. ^abGrimland, Guy (November 21, 2007)."Amir Gal-Or: This will be a brain power community".The Marker.Archived fromthe originalon November 23, 2007.
  7. ^abHermoni, Oded (December 26, 2005).באו בגלל הכסף, נשארו בשביל הכיף[Came for the money, stayed for fun].Haaretz(in Hebrew).RetrievedAugust 18,2014.
  8. ^International, China Radio."הישראלי אמיר גל-אור זכה בתואר הכבוד הגבוה ביותר לזרים בסין | הרדיו הבינלאומי של סין (CRI)".cri.co.il(in Hebrew).Retrieved2018-10-23.
  9. ^"IsCham nominates our Honorary President - Mr. Amir Gal-Or".IsCham dĩ sắc liệt thương hội.
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