Chief Executive Officer, Zohar Yinon

On behalf of the university, Yinon serves in several bodies that promote strategic thinking, commercialization, and innovation:

• Director at the UNBOX partnership, which he was among its initiators and a partner in its establishment. The partnership is focused on building a high-quality portfolio of Deep-Tech ventures sprouting from the research labs of Bar-Ilan. Investments are made at the pre-seed stage.

• Director at BIRAD Ltd., the commercialization company focused on licensing and royalty deals, Innovation Authority programs and consortia, and research projects funded by various industry entities.

• Director at Mosaic – the National Personalized Medicine Initiative, a public benefit company jointly operated by most universities in Israel.

• In addition, Yinon serves as a member of the Executive Board of the Begin-Sadat Center, which deals with strategic research in the political-security field, and serves as Chair of the CEO Forum Vera starting July 2024.

Yinon began his professional path in the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance, in the fields of health and infrastructure. He later held senior positions in the business and public sectors, including as Senior Advisor to the CEO of Shikun & Binui Holdings, CFO and Controller of Israel Military Industries, and VP for Business Development at Granit HaCarmel Investments.

During his tenure as CEO of Hagihon, Yinon implemented revolutionary technologies and innovative management methods and won the Global WEX Award for 2014 for innovation in developing a practical model for reducing NRW (non-revenue water) in urban water systems. Later, in 2015, the Hagihon company was awarded a Certificate of Excellence by the Cleantech Israel conference for being the leading company in Israel in implementing innovative IoT technologies and for serving as a beta site for Israeli cleantech startups. In 2017, the Hagihon company was certified with the prestigious Diamond Mark by the Standards Institution of Israel.

In parallel to his role as CEO of Hagihon, between the years 2013–2016, Yinon served as the founder and acting chair of the government company “Dira Lehaskir,” whose role is to develop an institutional market for long-term rental in Israel. The company quickly became the government’s executive arm in the housing market.

In addition, he served as a director and chair in boards of directors of government, public, and startup companies, and was a member of the international expert panel of CTG Global for evaluating innovative technologies in the cleantech field in the years 2016–2017.

Yinon holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Bar-Ilan University; he is a graduate of the Directors’ Training Program at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, and the Mergers and Acquisitions Management Course by the Israeli Management Center. He also has extensive experience as a moderator and participant in panels, and as a lecturer in international conferences dealing with infrastructure, smart cities, and cleantech.

Yinon was a guest on Bar-Ilan’s podcast app, "Bar-Da'at" and spoke about how the COVID-19 crisis presented an opportunity for the university. In another podcast, recorded as part of "Managing Change" on the subject of public organizations, Yinon talks about the managerial challenges during the COVID pandemic period.

In an interview with the “Makor Rishon” Hebrew newspaper, Yinon speaks on a personal note about the beginning of his professional career.

Following the participation of the Bar-Ilan Center for Smart Cities in an international exhibition in Barcelona, Yinon says in an interview with Israel’s “People and Computers” magazine that part of the university's vision is to "spread knowledge and research beyond academia to the physical world" and the Center for Smart Cities is an example of this vision.

At the 27th annual conference of the Research Institute of Human Factors in Road Safety, in cooperation with the Bar-Ilan Center for Smart Cities, Yinon delivers an opening speech and emphasizes the importance of the institute's work and research, and discusses the integration of autonomous transportation technologies on the university campus.

He delivers greetings at an event of the Bnei Akiva movement for the holiday of Sukkot, briefly discussing the biblical commandment "and you shall rejoice in your festival" and linking it to the spirit of the time.

Yinon takes part in the IDF Home Front Command's search and rescue drill following the demolition of an old building in the city of Safed, on the site where a modern classroom building will be constructed for BIU’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee.

At a conference on the subject of violence against women, Yinon condemns gender-based violence and emphasizes the importance of fighting the phenomenon.

In light of his expertise and experience as the CEO of Hagihon, he is interviewed for the Waterline podcast in the episode "Want Not? Waste Not!" - Wastewater  in which he discusses the ecological and economic value of sewage. In another podcast episode "Water & Peace" - Hydropolitics, he reviews political conflicts arising from conflicts over water, and wonders where we are headed at a time when the global water shortage is only growing.

Staff of the Office of the CEO

Head of the Office:  Tali (Talia) Tzruya