Idan Ofer

Early life

Idan Ofer was born in 1955. His father, Sammy Ofer, was an Israeli shipping magnate originally from Romania. His mother, Aviva Ofer, lives in London. He has a brother, Eyal Ofer.

Ofer graduated from the University of Haifa in Haifa, Israel, with a degree in Economics and Shipping. He then received a Master's in Business Administration from the London Business School in the 1980s.

Career

He started his career by expanding the family shipping business in Hong Kong in the 1980s. He then worked in Singapore and the United States. In 1989, he was the founder of the Tanker Pacific, now the largest privately owned tanking fleet globally.

He is the Principal of the Quantum Pacific Group, a Guernsey-based holding corporation. He is also the majority shareholder of Pacific Drilling, a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and the Israel Corporation, the largest public holding listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. He served as the Chairman of the Israel Corporation from 1999 to 2010, and as a member of its Board of Directors from 1999 to 2013. He has served on the Advisory Boards of Synergy Ventures and Aspect Enterprise Solutions. He was an investor in Better Place, an electric car company which went bankrupt in May 2013.

In 2014, he established Kenon Holdings as a spin off from the Israel Corporation. It is a holding company primarily focused on growth-orientated businesses in the automotive and energy industries. It inherited some of the investments previously held by the Israel Corporation, such as Qoros, a joint project created in partnership with Chery Automobile that manufactures automobiles aimed towards a ‘young, internationally-minded’ market in China. Other investments include Zim Integrated Shipping Services and IC Power. It also includes Inkia Energy, a Peruvian energy company and subsidiary of the IC Power. Meanwhile, the Israel Corporation retains investments in Oil Refineries and Israel Chemicals.

He serves on the Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Dean's Council of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. With Richard Branson and others, he is a co-founder of the Carbon War Room, a think tank on climate change based in Washington, D.C.. According to The Financial Times, he is "a Tel Aviv liberal in the mould of the old Israeli Labour party."

Shortly after his father's death in 2011, he inherited half his father's fortune. Additionally, he inherited half of his father's "vast collection" of modern art. As a result, by 2013, he was the richest man in Israel. According to Forbes, Idan Ofer has a net worth of $4.1 billion, as of January 2015.

Philanthropy

In 2013, he donated £25 million, or $40 million, to his alma mater, the London Business School through the Idan and Batia Ofer Foundation. As a result of the charitable gift, the LBS established The Sammy Ofer Centre in honor of his father. It will be located in the Old Marylebone Town Hall, a historic building leased by the university since 2012 undergoing redevelopment as classrooms and lecture halls for students and academics at LBS. The new building is expected to be dedicated in 2016. As of 2013, it was the largest private donation ever made to a British business school.

In 2013, he made a donation to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University for the establishment of the Sammy Ofer Graduate Fellowship Fund for Emerging Leaders from Israel and Palestine, a scholarship program for Israeli and Palestinian students to attend the school. It offers full tuition every year to four Israeli or Palestinian students who have demonstrated their commitment to fostering peace in the region.

With his wife Batia, he has made charitable contributions to the Jewish Museum London.

Personal life

He has been married four times. His fourth and current wife is Batia Ofer, a philanthropist, who serves on the advisory board of Sotheby's. He has five children. They resided in Arsuf, near Tel Aviv, until 2013. His daughter, Leigh Ofer resides in NYC; the rest of his children currently reside in London.