List of Jewish American businesspeople

This is a partial list of notable Jewish American business executives. For other Jewish Americans, see Lists of Jewish Americans.

Aerospace

  • Henry Crown (1896–1990), founder of the Material Service Corporation (merged with General Dynamics)
  • Jesse Itzler (1968–), co-founder of NetJets and co-owner of NBA's Atlanta Hawks
  • Abraham Karem (1937–), Iraqi-born founder of Karem Aircraft
  • Si Ramo (1913–2016), co-founder of TRW Inc.
  • Bernard L. Schwartz (1925–2024), long-time CEO of Loral Space & Communications
  • Al Schwimmer (1917–2011), American-Israeli founder of Israel Aerospace Industries

Beauty

  • George W. Schaeffer – The founder of OPI Products, Inc., one of the world’s leading nail care companies.

Energy and mining

  • Guma Aguiar (1977–2015), Brazilian-born energy industrialist, co-founder of Leor Energy L.P.; disappeared in June 2012
  • Arthur Belfer (1906–1993), Polish-born founder of the Belco Petroleum Company, one of the precursor companies of Enron Corporation
  • Louis Blaustein (1869–1937), Lithuanian-born co-founder (along with his son Jacob) of the American Oil Company (1922)
  • Jacob Blaustein (1892–1970), American-born co-founder (along with his father Louis) of the American Oil Company (1922)
  • Marvin Davis (1925–2004), chairman of the Davis Petroleum Corp., briefly owner of 20th Century Fox and the Beverly Hills Hotel; member of the Davis family
  • Max Fisher (1908–2005), founder of the Aurora Gasoline Company, once one of the largest gas station chains in the Midwest
  • Robert Friedland (1950–), American-Canadian co-founder of Ivanhoe Energy Inc. and chairman of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.
  • Avram Glazer (1960–), former chairman and CEO of Zapata Corp. (now HRG Group, Inc.), co-chairman of family-owned EPL's Manchester United F.C.; member of the Glazer family
  • Joseph S. Gruss (1903–1993), Ukrainian-born founder of Gruss & Company
  • Jack J. Grynberg (1932–2021), Polish-born oil and natural gas developer, founder of Oceanic Exploration Co.
  • Meyer Guggenheim (1828–1905), Swiss-born mining magnate; member of the Guggenheim family
  • Armand Hammer (1898–1990), long-time CEO and president of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation, co-founder of Isramco
  • Leon Hess (1914–1999), founder of Hess Corporation and former owner of NFL's New York Jets
  • Ludwig Jesselson (1910–1993), German-born metal trader who served as president and CEO of Phibro
  • Adolph (1849–1938) and Leonard Lewisohn (1847–1902), German-born mining magnates, founders of Lewisohn Bros.
  • George Lindemann (1936–2018), chairman and CEO of the Southern Union Company
  • Benedict I. Lubell (1909–1996), founder of the Lubell Oil Company
  • Samuel Newhouse (1853–1930), mining magnate; developed Newhouse, Utah
  • Andrew Perlman (1975–), co-founder of GreatPoint Energy
  • Samuel Ruben (1900–1988), co-founder of Duracell Inc.
  • Charles Schusterman (1935–2000), Russian-born founder of the Samson Investment Company

Miscellaneous

  • Juval Aviv (1947–), Israeli-American founder of corporate investigations firm Interfor International
  • Larry Baer (1957–), CEO of MLB's San Francisco Giants
  • Henry (1922–2019) and Richard Bloch (1926–2004), founders of tax preparation company H&R Block, Inc.
  • Al Davis (1929–2011), owner of the NFL's Oakland Raiders
  • Heidi Fleiss (1965–), former madam, owner of the Nevada-based Flying S Ranch Ultralight Flightpark, an ultralight private use airport
  • Orit Gadiesh (1951–), Israeli-American corporate strategist, chairwoman of global management consultancy Bain & Company
  • Jonathan Greenstein (1967–), founder of auction house J. Greenstein & Company
  • Ami James (1972–), Israeli-American entrepreneur, owner of the Miami-based Love Hate Tattoo Studio, and nightclub Love Hate Lounge
  • Jules Kroll (1941–), founder of corporate investigation firm Kroll, Inc.
  • Terry Lenzner (1939–2020), founder of Investigative Group International (IGI)
  • Jason Levien , co-owner of D.C. United Holdings (holds MLS' D.C. United), co-owner of EFL Championship's Swansea City A.F.C. and NBL Australia's Brisbane Bullets, former CEO of NBA's Memphis Grizzlies
  • Ira A. Lipman (1940–2019), founder and chairman of security company Guardsmark
  • Moishe Mana (1956–), Israeli-born founder of Moishe's Moving Systems, GRM Information Management and MILK Studios
  • Barry Minkow (1966–), founder of carpet-cleaning company ZZZZ Best Co.
  • Morris Mirkin (1919–1985), founder of Budget Rent-a-Car
  • Michael Rubin (1972–), founder of global digital sports platform Fanatics, Inc.
  • Abraham Saperstein (1902–1966), British-born founder of the Harlem Globetrotters; former owner of NLB's Chicago Brown Bombers and the Birmingham Black Barons
  • Louis Sloss (1823–1902), co-founder of the Alaska Commercial Company
  • Casey Wasserman (1974–), founder of sports marketing and talent management company Wasserman
  • Mark Weinberger (1964/1965–), former chairman of multinational professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY)
  • Sheldon Yellen (1958–), CEO of BELFOR Property Restoration
  • Daniel Yergin (1947–), vice chairman of research and information company, IHS Markit

Pharmaceuticals and healthcare

  • Arie S. Belldegrun (1949–), Israeli-American (co-)founder of Kite Pharma and biotechnology companies Agensys, Allogene Therapeutics
  • Howard Birndorf (1950–), co-founder of biotechnology companies Hybritech, Inc., Gen-Probe (merged with Hologic) and IDEC Pharmaceuticals (merged with Biogen)
  • Alan Cohen (1954–), founder of Andrx Pharmaceuticals
  • Phillip Frost (1936–), entrepreneur, chairman and CEO of OPKO Health, former Vice chairman of Teva
  • Alex Grass (1927–2009), founder of the Rite Aid Corporation
  • Bennett Greenspan (1952–), co-founder of gene testing company Gene by Gene, Ltd. (Family Tree DNA)
  • Rachel Haurwitz (1985–), co-founder of gene editing company Caribou Biosciences
  • Joel Landau, co-founder of nursing home operator company The Allure Group and healthcare services company AlphaCare
  • Jeremy Levin (1954–), South African-born chairman of Ovid Therapeutics Inc., former CEO of Teva
  • Arthur D. Levinson (1950–), CEO of biotechnology company Calico, former chairman of Genentech
  • Al Mann (1925–2016), founder of biotechnology companies Pacesetter Systems and the MannKind Corporation
  • Stewart Rahr (1946–), founder of Kinray Inc.
  • Shlomo Rechnitz (1971–), health care magnate, co-founder of TwinMed LLC
  • Richard Roberts (1957–), former owner of URL Pharma (acquired by the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in 2012)
  • Martine Rothblatt (1954–), founder of biotechnology company United Therapeutics, co-founder of Sirius Satellite Radio
  • Mortimer (1916–2010) and Raymond Sackler (1920–2017), former owners of Purdue Pharma (known for OxyContin); members of the Sackler family
  • Leonard Schleifer (1953–), founder of biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
  • Cheryl Shuman (1960–), founder of the Beverly Hills [...] Club
  • Daniel E. Straus (1956–), founder of CareOne LLC and minority owner of NBA's Memphis Grizzlies
  • Samuel D. Waksal (1947–), French-born founder of ImClone Systems, Kadmon Corporation
  • Herbert Wertheim (1939–), founder of eye care products manufacturing company Brain Power Incorporated (BPI)
  • Ron Zwanziger (1954–), Israeli-American founder of diagnostic testing devices manufacturing company Alere, Inc.

Technology and software

  • Rony Abovitz (1971–), founder of Magic Leap, co-founder of the MAKO Surgical Corp.
  • Leonard Adleman (1945–), co-founder of RSA Security LLC
  • Aron Ain , chairman of the Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG)
  • Beny Alagem (1953–), Israeli-American co-founder of Packard Bell, owner of the Beverly Hilton hotel
  • Kobi Alexander (1952–), Israeli-American co-founder of Comverse Technology
  • Steve Ballmer (1956–), former long-time CEO of the Microsoft Corporation, founder of USAFacts and owner of NBA's Los Angeles Clippers
  • Werner Michael Blumenthal (1926–), former chairman and CEO of Burroughs Corporation and Unisys
  • Julian A. Brodsky (1933–), co-founder of the Comcast Corporation
  • Safra Catz (1961–), Israeli-born CEO and co-president of the Oracle Corporation
  • Alon Nisim Cohen (1968–), Israeli-born co-founder of CyberArk
  • Bram Cohen (1975–), author of the BitTorrent protocol, co-founder of BitTorrent, Inc.
  • Jared Cohen (1981–), CEO of technology incubator company Jigsaw (formerly Google Ideas)
  • Michael Dell (1965–), founder of DELL
  • Larry Ellison (1944–), co-founder of the Oracle Corporation
  • David Frankel, South African-born tech investor, co-founder of Internet Solutions (IS), the largest ISP in Africa
  • Gideon Gartner (1935–2020), Mandatory Palestine-born founder of Gartner, Inc.
  • Levy Gerzberg (1945–), Israeli-American founder of the Zoran Corporation
  • Rob Glaser (1962–), founder of RealNetworks, Inc. (RealPlayer), partner at Accel
  • Andrew Grove (1936–2016), former COO, chairman and CEO (1st) of Intel
  • Andi Gutmans, Swiss-American co-founder of Zend Technologies, co-creator of PHP, General Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Eli Harari (1945–), Israeli-American co-founder of the SanDisk Corporation
  • David (1944–) and Orion Hindawi (1980–), founders of cybersecurity firm Tanium Inc.
  • Irwin M. (1933–) and Paul E. Jacobs (1962–), Qualcomm Incorporated
  • Andy Jassy (1968–), CEO of Amazon, co-founder of Amazon Web Services (AWS), co-owner of NHL's Seattle Kraken
  • Philippe Kahn (1952–), French-born creator of the camera phone, co-founder of the Borland Software Corporation
  • Dan Kaminsky (1979–2021), co-founder of cybersecurity firm White Ops
  • Mitch Kapor (1950–), founder of Lotus Software, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
  • Phil Katz (1962–2000), founder of PKWARE, Inc., creator of the Zip file format; died of alcoholism in 2000 at age 37
  • Steve Kirsch (1956–), founder of OneID, co-founder of the Frame Technology Corp. (now Adobe FrameMaker)
  • Edwin H. Land (1909–1991), founder of the Polaroid Corporation
  • Sandy Lerner (1955–), co-founder of Cisco Systems and cosmetics brand Urban Decay
  • Daniel Lewin (1970–2001), American-Israeli co-founder of Akamai Technologies Inc.; 9/11 victim
  • Joseph Lubin (1964–), Canadian-American founder of blockchain software technology company ConsenSys, co-founder of Ethereum
  • Ken Oshman (1940–2011), former CEO of the Echelon Corporation, co-founder of the ROLM Corporation
  • Brian L. (1959–) and Ralph J. Roberts (1920–2015), the Comcast Corporation; members of the Roberts family
  • Lior Ron (1977–), Israeli-American co-founder of self-driving truck company Otto, former Product Lead for Google Maps
  • Ben Rosen (1933–), founding investor and former chairman of the Compaq Computer Corporation, co-founder of venture capital firm Sevin Rosen Funds
  • Andy Rubin (1963–), co-developer of the Android operating system, co-founder of Android, Inc., Danger Inc. and Playground Global
  • Michael G. Rubin (1972–), founder of eBay Enterprise, Inc. (formerly GSI Commerce, Inc.)
  • Henry Samueli (1954–), co-founder of the Broadcom Corporation, owner of NHL's Anaheim Ducks (founded in 1993 by Disney as "the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim")
  • Steve Sarowitz (1965/1966–), founder of the Paylocity Corporation
  • Dan Schulman (1958–), former president and CEO of PayPal, and chairman of the Symantec Corporation, former CEO of Virgin Mobile
  • Ivan Seidenberg (1946–), former chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications, partner at Perella Weinberg Partners
  • Charlie Shrem (1989–), co-founder of BitInstant (defunct) and Intellisys Capital, former Vice chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation
  • Joel Spolsky (1965–), co-founder of the Stack Exchange Network, founder of Fog Creek Software, creator of Trello
  • Kirill Tatarinov, Russian-born former CEO of Citrix Systems, Inc., former executive VP of Microsoft Business Solutions
  • Jack Tramiel (1928–2012), Polish-born founder of Commodore International and the Atari Corporation (bought from Warner Communications in 1984)
  • Alan Trefler (1956–), founder of Pegasystems
  • Kenneth D. Tuchman (1959–), founder of TeleTech
  • Andrew Viterbi (1935–), co-founder of Qualcomm Incorporated, inventor of the Viterbi algorithm
  • Gary Winnick (1947–), founder of telecommunications company Global Crossing
  • Stephen Wolfram (1959–), British-American founder of Wolfram Research
  • Amit Yoran (1970–2025), former CEO of Tenable, Inc., former president of RSA Security, former CEO of Netwitness, co-founder of Riptech
  • Charles Zegar (1948–), co-founder of Innovative Market Systems (later renamed Bloomberg L.P.)
  • John Zimmer (1984–), co-founder of on-demand transportation company Lyft
  • Nir Zuk (1971–), Israeli-American co-founder of cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks

New media

  • Robert A. Altman (1947–2021), co-founder of ZeniMax Media (owns id Software, Arkane Studios, Bethesda Softworks)
  • Sam Altman (1985–), former president of Y Combinator and co-founder of OpenAI
  • Dario Amodei (1983–), Italian-American co-founder of AI company Anthropic
  • Scott Belsky (1980–), founder of Behance
  • Marc Benioff (1964–), co-founder of cloud computing company Salesforce
  • Sergey Brin (1973–), Russian-born co-founder of Google, Inc., president of Alphabet Inc., Director at X Development
  • Jay S. Cohen (1968–), online [...] pioneer, co-founder of WSEX
  • Dan Doctoroff (1958–), chairman of urban innovation organization Sidewalk Labs and smart cities tech company Intersection, former president of Bloomberg L.P.
  • Greg Fischbach (1942–), co-founder of Acclaim Entertainment
  • Mark Ghermezian, Canadian-American co-founder of mobile marketing company Braze, Inc.
  • Daniel Gross (1991–), Israeli-American co-founder of AI company Safe Superintelligence Inc.
  • Justin Hartfield, founder of the Ghost Group and Weedmaps
  • Gary Kaplan (1959–), founder of the online sports betting company, BetonSports.com
  • Jonathan Klein (1960–), South African-born co-founder of Getty Images
  • Josh Kopelman (1972–), founder of Half.com, First Round Capital, chairman of Philadelphia Media Network, LLC
  • Jan Koum (1976–), Ukrainian-American co-founder of WhatsApp, Inc.
  • Jon Kraft, co-founder of Pandora Media, Inc. and Thrively
  • Gary Kremen (1963–), founder of Match.com; first registrant of [...].com (Kremen v. Cohen)
  • Eric Lefkofsky (1969–), founder of health technology company Tempus AI, co-founder of Groupon
  • Max Levchin (1975–), Ukrainian-born co-founder of PayPal and financial technology company Affirm; member of the "PayPal Mafia"
  • Aaron Levie (1985–), CEO and co-founder of Box Inc.
  • Joey Levin, CEO of media and Internet company IAC/InterActiveCorp (holds Vimeo LLC, Match Group, Inc., Tinder, Ask.com)
  • David Litman (1957–), co-founder of Hotels.com
  • Talmon Marco, Israeli-American co-founder of Viber, founder of Juno
  • Andrew Mason (1981–), co-founder of Groupon
  • Yuri Milner (1961–), Russian-born Israeli-American tech investor, co-founder of DST Global, former chairman and CEO of Mail.Ru (owns VKontakte)
  • Michael Morhaime (1967–), co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment
  • Adam (1979–) and Rebekah Neumann (1978–), co-founders of WeWork
  • Craig Newmark (1952–), founder of Craigslist
  • Shaul Olmert (1975–), Israeli-American co-founder of online publishing platform EX.CO (formerly Playbuzz), former VP of digital products for MTV Networks
  • Jon Oringer (1974–), founder of Shutterstock
  • Larry Page (1973–), co-founder of Google, Inc., CEO of Alphabet Inc.
  • Andrew Paulson (1958–2017), co-founder of SUP Media (LiveJournal)
  • Mark Pincus (1966–), co-founder of social game developing company Zynga
  • Ruth Porat (1957–), British-American CFO of Alphabet Inc.
  • Jeff Pulver (1962–), VoIP pioneer, co-founder of Vonage
  • Sean Rad (1986–), co-founder of Tinder
  • Bob Rosenschein (1953–), American-Israeli founder of Curiyo, co-founder of Answers.com
  • Jeffrey J. Rothschild (1954–) founding engineer and shareholder of Facebook.
  • David O. Sacks (1972–), South African-born co-founder of Yammer, CEO of Zenefits, founding COO of PayPal
  • Sheryl Sandberg (1969–), COO of Facebook, Inc., former VP of global online sales and operations at Google
  • Terry Semel (1943–), former chairman and CEO of both Yahoo! and Warner Bros.
  • Jeremy Stoppelman (1977–), co-founder of Yelp
  • Aaron Swartz (1986–2013), co-creator of RSS (web feed) and Reddit
  • Jeff Weiner (1970–), Executive Chairman of LinkedIn
  • Devin Wenig (1966–), former president and CEO of eBay Inc.
  • Rus Yusupov (1984–), Tajik SSR-born co-founder of video hosting service Vine, and HQ Trivia
  • Mark Zuckerberg (1984–), co-founder of Facebook, Inc.

Tourism and hotels

  • Sheldon Adelson (1933–2021), casino magnate, founder of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation (owns the Venetian, the Palazzo, Marina Bay Sands), co-founder of the Interface Group (COMDEX)
  • Micky Arison (1949–), Israeli-American chairman of Carnival Corporation & plc, the world's largest travel leisure company and owner of NBA's Miami Heat; member of the Arison family
  • Severyn Ashkenazy (1936–), Polish-born hotelier, former co-owner of the Viceroy L'Ermitage Beverly Hills
  • Mel Bernstein (1945–), Colorado-based paintball park and military museum owner
  • Paul Binder (1942–), co-founder of the Big Apple Circus
  • Ernie Blake (1913–1989), German-born founder of Taos Ski Valley
  • Alan Faena (1963–), Argentine-American Miami Beach-based hotelier, owner of the Faena Hotel Buenos Aires
  • Gene Freidman, Russian-born founder of Taxi Club Management (TCM)
  • Rande Gerber (1962–), Nightlife industry entrepreneur, founder of the Gerber Group, co-founder of tequila label Casamigos
  • Dan Gilbert (1962–), founder of Detroit-based Jack Entertainment LLC and co-owner of NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers
  • Joe Gold (1922–2004), founder of Gold's Gym International, Inc. and World Gym International
  • Bernie Goldstein (1929–2009), founder of Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc.
  • David Grutman (1974–), Miami-based nightlife mogul, co-founder of the Miami Marketing Group (MMG)
  • Efrem Harkham, Israeli-born Beverly Hills-based hotelier, owner of the Luxe Rodeo Drive Hotel
  • Jeremy Jacobs (1940–), chairman of hospitality company Delaware North, owner of NHL's Boston Bruins
  • Alfred Kaskel (1901–1968), Polish-born founder of Doral Hotels and Resorts (Doral Beach Hotel) and Carol Management (Doral Country Club)
  • Jake Kozloff (1901–1976), Russian-born casino manager, former owner of the Frontier hotel & casino
  • Bill Miller (1904–2002), Russian-born former night club and casino operator
  • Sam Nazarian (1975–), Iranian-American founder of SBE Entertainment Group (Mondrian Hotels, Delano South Beach, Delano Las Vegas); member of the Nazarian family
  • Ben Novack (1907–1985), former developer and owner of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach
  • Eli Ostreicher (1984–), British-American founder of Regal Wings, a B2B luxury air service provider; brother of investor Jacob Ostreicher
  • Alberto Perlman (1977–), Colombian-American co-founder of Zumba Fitness, LLC
  • Jason Pomeranc, hotelier, co-founder of the SIXTY Collective and the Thompson Hotels Group
  • Jay Pritzker (1922–1999), co-founder of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation (now led by his son, Thomas Pritzker (1950–)); member of the Pritzker family
  • Eugene Remm, Russian-born co-founder of the EMM Group (now Catch Hospitality Group)
  • Harris Rosen (1939–), Florida-based founder of Rosen Hotels & Resorts
  • Ed Savitz (1942–1993), former Philadelphia-based amusement arcade owner
  • Izak Senbahar, Turkish-born hotelier, co-founder of the Alexico Group
  • Bugsy Siegel (1906–1947), co-founder of the Flamingo casino and [...], Inc., former co-owner of the El Cortez Hotel and Casino
  • David A. Siegel (1935–), founder of Westgate Resorts
  • Gordon Sondland (1957–), founder of Provenance Hotels
  • Noah Tepperberg (1975–), NYC-based co-founder of Strategic Hospitality Group (owns Tao, Lavo, Marquee New York)
  • Jonathan Tisch (1953–), chairman of Loews Hotels, co-chairman of family-owned Loews Corporation and co-owner of NFL's New York Giants; member of the Tisch family
  • Sid Wyman (1910–1978), co-owner of Las Vegas casinos Sands, Riviera, Royal Nevada, and The Dunes
  • Steve Wynn (1942–), Las Vegas casino owner, founder of Wynn Resorts

Restaurants

  • Burt Baskin (1913–1967), co-founder of ice cream and cake restaurants chain Baskin-Robbins
  • George Cohon (1937–2023), American-born Canadian founder of McDonald's of Canada and Russia
  • Nathan Handwerker (1892–1974), Polish-born co-founder of Nathan's Famous, Inc. (later led by his son, Murray (1921–2011))
  • Reuben and Rose Mattus (1912–1994; 1916–2006), founders of Häagen-Dazs (ice cream)
  • Rich Melman (1942–), co-founder of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE) restaurants
  • Danny Meyer (1958–), founder of the Union Square Hospitality Group (owns Shake Shack Inc., Gramercy Tavern)
  • Arnie Morton (1922–2005), co-founder of Morton's The Steakhouse
  • Clifford S. Perlman (1926–2016), co-founder of Lum's restaurant chain and former owner of Las Vegas' Caesars Palace luxury hotel
  • William Rosenberg (1916–2002), founder of Dunkin' Donuts
  • Howard Schultz (1953–), former executive chairman of Starbucks and owner of NBA's Seattle SuperSonics; co-founder of venture capital fund Maveron
  • Daniel Schwartz (1980/1981–), co-chairman of Restaurant Brands International Inc. (RBI), the parent company of Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes
  • Zev Siegl (1942–), co-founder of the Starbucks Corporation

See also

  • Lists of Jewish Americans
    • Businesspeople
      • in media
      • in real estate
      • in retail