Idan Ofer

Idan Ofer was born in 1955.[2] to Sammy and Aviva Ofer. His father, Sammy Ofer, was an Israeli shipping magnate originally from Romania.[2][3][4] He has a brother, Eyal Ofer.[2]

Ofer grew up in Haifa, and did his mandatory military service in the Israeli Navy, serving as deputy commander of a patrol boat. He graduated from the University of Haifa with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Shipping.[5][6] He then received a Master's in Business Administration from the London Business School in the 1980s.[5][7][8]

He started his career by expanding the family shipping business in Hong Kong in the 1980s.[3][6] He then worked in Singapore and the United States.[6] In 1989, he was the founder of the Tanker Pacific, now the largest privately owned tanking fleet globally.[5]

He is the Principal of the Quantum Pacific Group, a Guernsey-based holding corporation.[2][9] 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.[2][9] 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.[5][6] He has served on the Advisory Boards of Synergy Ventures and Aspect Enterprise Solutions.[5] He was an investor in Better Place, an electric car company which went bankrupt in May 2013.[2]

In 2014, he established Kenon Holdings as a spin off from the Israel Corporation.[10][11] It is a holding company primarily focused on growth-orientated businesses in the automotive and energy industries.[12] 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.[11][13][14] Other investments include Zim Integrated Shipping Services and IC Power.[11] It also includes Inkia Energy, a Peruvian energy company and subsidiary of the IC Power.[15][16] Meanwhile, the Israel Corporation retains investments in Oil Refineries and Israel Chemicals.[11]

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.[5][6] 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..[2][6][17] According to The Financial Times, he is "a Tel Aviv liberal in the mould of the old Israeli Labour party."[3]

Shortly after his father's death in 2011, he inherited half his father's fortune.[2] Additionally, he inherited half of his father's "vast collection" of modern art.[2] As a result, by 2013, he was the richest man in Israel.[9][18] According to Forbes, Idan Ofer has a net worth of $5.2 billion and is the 394th richest person in the world.[19]

In 2018, Ofer purchased a 51% stake via Quantum Pacific Group in Portuguese second league football club FC Famalicão, which he subsequently increased to 85% in 2019.[20] In 2019, Famalicão ascended to the top-tier football league in Portugal, the Primeira Liga.[21] Ofer also owns a 32% stake in Spanish football club Atlético Madrid.[22][21]

Ofer has come under fire in Israel for evading taxes by moving to London,[23] for pollution from his chemical factories,[24][25] and for his lavish lifestyle.[26][27] In 2014, he allegedly paid Israeli espionage company Black Cube to track and eventually manipulate and exploit secretive information on the then Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid and other government officials in a bid to influence tax policy.[28]

In 2013, he donated £25 million to his alma mater the London Business School through the Idan and Batia Ofer Foundation.[7][8][29][30] As a result of the charitable gift, the largest private donation the school has ever received, the LBS built the Sammy Ofer Centre in 2017 in honor of his father.[31][7][29]

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.[32][33] 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.[34]

He has been married four times.[3] His fourth wife is Batia Ofer, a charity fundraiser.[35][36] He has five children.[2] They resided in Arsuf, near Tel Aviv, until 2013.[37] His daughter Leigh Ofer resides in New York City; his other children reside in London.[2]