Eyal Ofer (; born 2 June 1950) is a

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

-based

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

, philanthropist and art collector. Born in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, he is involved in real estate, energy, technology and product shipment. Ofer is the chairman of Ofer Global, Zodiac Group and Global Holdings.

Early life and education

Ofer was born in 1950 in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, Israel.Karmin, Craig
Developers Team Up With a Man Behind the Scenes
''The Wall Street Journal'', May 12, 2013 His father,

Sammy Ofer Sammy Ofer (; born Shmuel Herskovich; 22 February 1922 – 3 June 2011) was an Israeli shipping magnate and one of the richest men in the country. Early life Shmuel Herskovich was born in 1922 in Galați, Romania, to a Jewish family.John ReedId ...

, was a Romanian-born Israeli shipping magnate and once Israel's richest man.Pickford, James
Eyal Ofer donates £10m to Tate Modern extension
''Financial Times'', July 2, 2013Starkman, Rotem; Georgi, Anat
Be smart, work hard - and be born into the right family
''Haaretz'', April 3, 2008 Ofer graduated from

Atlantic College UWC Atlantic (formally the United World College of the Atlantic, and often referred to by its original name, Atlantic College) is an Private schools in the United Kingdom, independent boarding school in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales. Fo ...

, an international boarding school affiliated with the

United World Colleges The United World Colleges (UWC) is an international network of schools and educational programmes with the shared aim of "making education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future." The organisation was fo ...

, based in St Donat's Castle,

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. In his teenage years, he spent summers working on one of his family's ships, loading cargo, scraping the boats' sides and repainting them, as well as traveling to international ports. He served as an intelligence officer in the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

from 1967 to 1973. He then studied Maritime Law at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

Career

Ofer's business interests are separate from those of his brother, Idan Ofer, operating independently, and are concentrated in shipping, cruise lines and global real estate within the Ofer Global group, a Monaco-based private company focused on shipping, real estate, oil and gas, banking and investments in Europe, North America, the Near East and Asia. In 2014, he received an honorary lifetime membership of the

Baltic Exchange The Baltic Exchange (incorporated as The Baltic Exchange Limited) is a Trade association, membership organisation for the Maritime transport, maritime industry, and Shipping markets, freight market information provider for the trading and settl ...

in London in recognition of his contribution to shipping in the UK and global maritime trade. Other recipients of this award have included the Duke of Edinburgh, Winston Churchill, and Maersk Mc-Kinney. He is "one of the most influential shipowners in the industry”, according to '' Lloyd’s List'', ranking among its 100 most influential people, since 2013, including as tenth in 2016, and seventh in 2014,Eyal Ofer
''Lloyd’s List'', 12 December 2014. 2021,Eyal Ofer, November 2021
''Lloyd’s List'' 21 November 2021. and 2022. He has spoken at industry events, including at the

Milken Institute The Milken Institute is an independent economic think tank based in Santa Monica, California, with offices in Washington, D.C., New York, Miami, London, Abu Dhabi, and Singapore. It publishes research and hosts conferences that apply market-bas ...

Global Conference in 2012, 2013 and 2015. Ofer also regularly attends the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

’s annual meeting in Davos. In 2018, Ofer joined the Advisory Board of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum. The board is made up of a group of leaders in their fields from business, government, education and philanthropy. In November 2024, '' Bloomberg Billionaires Index'' reported his net worth to be US$26.5 billion.#70 Eyal Ofer $26.5
''Bloomberg'', 19 November 2024.

Real estate

Ofer first moved to New York City in 1980 to start the family real estate business, and invested in properties on

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough (New York City), boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the wes ...

South, which he rented to law firms and public relations firms through his real estate company, Global Holdings. Over the years, he assembled a real estate empire, having acquired a deep knowledge of ships which had made him comfortable with managing similarly tangible assets. Ofer is the chairman of Global Holdings, a private real estate holding company specializing in large-scale commercial real estate and high-end residential developments. Its holdings include prime commercial properties in Manhattan, and a controlling stake in Miller Global Properties, a large real estate investment fund focusing on key markets in North America and Europe. He serves as Miller Global's co-chairman. Global Holdings' commercial projects include, among others, and 120 Park Avenue – the former headquarters of the

Altria Group Altria Group, Inc. (previously known as Philip Morris Companies, Inc. until 2003) is an American corporation and one of the world's largest producers and marketers of tobacco, cigarettes, and medical products in the treatment of illnesses c ...

. Its residential projects include 15 Central Park West, which was described as “the most powerful apartment building in the world” and “the most lucrative”, with quoted apartment sales of approximately $2 billion. It was the subject of a book published in March 2014 by Michael Gross entitled '' House of Outrageous Fortune: Fifteen Central Park West, the World's Most Powerful Address''. They also include the development at The Greenwich Lane (in partnership with the Rudin family - formerly the site of Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center), together with the redevelopment of 18 Gramercy Park South, 520 Park Avenue and 50 United Nations Plaza (all in partnership with Zeckendorf Development). 18 Gramercy Park South (ranked the most expensive Manhattan development in 2013) and 15 Central Park West were designed by architect Robert A. M. Stern. 50 UN Plaza is a 44-story tower designed by London-based architects

Foster and Partners Foster and Partners (also Foster + Partners) is a British international architecture firm with its headquarters in London, England. It was founded in 1967 by British architect and designer Norman Foster. The firm has been involved in the desig ...

. Ofer’s portfolio includes more than 120 properties and over 1,500 hotel rooms.

Shipping

Ofer started his career in international maritime transportation in all the major shipping segments in the 1980s. He is the chairman of Zodiac Group, a privately held London-based ship owning and chartering (i.e. leasing) company with a fleet of more than 180 vessels. It is the largest operator of vessels under the Red Ensign by tonnage. Ofer has been a director of Royal Caribbean Cruises, the second largest cruise company in the world, since May 1995 and holds a significant stake in the company. In 2022, Ofer was ranked 7th in the Lloyd’s List ''Top 100 Most Influential People in the Shipping Industry''. According to Lloyd’s List, "the consensus view from those who know Eyal Ofer best is that he is a man who understands the markets with forensic detail". He controls one of the largest private shipping fleets in the world, and is the third-largest non-operating owner of containerships in the world.

Energy

Through O.G. Energy, he is involved in energy production, including renewable energy, and the production of

green hydrogen Green hydrogen (GH2 or GH2) is hydrogen produced by the electrolysis of water, using renewable electricity. Production of green hydrogen causes significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than production of grey hydrogen, which is derived fr ...

. In 2022, he invested in Belgium-based green hydrogen energy startup Tree Energy Solutions (TES), through O.G. Energy. Through O.G. Oil & Gas, the oil and gas arm of Ofer Global's O.G. Energy division, he has exploration and production interests in South East Asia and in

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

, including a 70% majority stake in New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZOG), acquired in 2017. In October 2018, O.G. Energy agreed to acquire a 40 per cent stake in Beach Energy’s Otway Basin assets off the south east coast of Australia. In 1990, he also founded OMNI Offshore Terminals, the largest provider of floating production storage and offloading ( FSO and FPSO) assets to the offshore oil and gas industry, with headquarters in Singapore.

Technology

Ofer has interests in technology companies through single LP VC fund O.G. Venture Partners, the tech investment arm of Ofer Global. Its $150 million Fund I launched in 2017 to invest in early growth start-ups with disruptive technologies, including SuperPlay, a mobile gaming company acquired by Playtika in 2024 for $700 million plus a contingent amount of up to $1.25 billion, depending on performance over three years. In 2022, Ofer stated that "Technology has become the global economy’s central nervous system" at the launch of O.G. Venture Partners $400 million Fund II, continuing his focus on early growth stage investments in software tech start-ups.Eyal Ofer's O.G. Tech launches new $400 million fund.
Calistech. 8 September 2022.

Arts

Ofer is listed among the top 200 collectors in the world of

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

, modern,

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and

Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

art by ''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...

''. He inherited half of an extensive collection from his father, including masterpieces by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

, and continues to expand a significant collection. He is associated with several Arts institutions and is a founding member of the Circle of Friends of Fondation Giacometti in Paris. He is a trustee and serves on the permanent acquisitions committee for the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

(MoMA) in New York. Through his family Foundation, in 2013, he donated £10 million to expand the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

museum in London. As a result, the exhibition gallery on the third floor bears his name. He gave £1.5 million to the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unit ...

to allow it to keep two 18th-century

George Stubbs George Stubbs (25 August 1724 – 10 July 1806) was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Self-trained, Stubbs learnt his skills independently from other great artists of the 18th century such as Joshua Reynolds and Thoma ...

paintings (''

Portrait of a Large Dog ''Portrait of a Large Dog'' is an oil painting depicting a dingo ('' Canis lupus dingo'') by George Stubbs. It is part of the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. The painting and '' The Kongouro from New Holland' ...

'' and ''

The Kongouro from New Holland ''The Kongouro from New Holland'' is an oil painting by George Stubbs. Depicting a kangaroo, it is the first painting of an Australian animal in Western art, along with a painting of a dingo—'' Portrait of a Large Dog''—also by George Stub ...

'') in the UK after a public appeal by Sir David Attenborough."George Stubbs' kangaroo and dingo paintings to stay in UK"
''BBC News Online; Entertainment & Arts'', 6 November 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2015.Mark Brown
Tate Modern receives £10m gift from Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 2 July 2013 The Foundation also made a donation of $5 million to the

Tel Aviv Museum of Art The Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art both from Israel and around the world. History The Tel Aviv ...

in 2019 to renovate the

Helena Rubinstein Helena Rubinstein (born Chaja Rubinstein; December 25, 1872 – April 1, 1965) was a Polish and American businesswoman, art collector, and philanthropist. A cosmetics entrepreneur, she was the founder and eponym of Helena Rubinstein Incorporate ...

Pavilion for Contemporary Art, which reopened as the Eyal Ofer Pavilion in May 2023 with the first retrospective of Swiss sculptor

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, Drafter, draftsman and Printmaking, printmaker, who was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His work was particularly influenced ...

to be shown in Israel.

Philanthropy

Ofer is a supporter of artistic, educational and cultural institutions – including the Tate Modern and the National Maritime Museum in the UK and the

– through the Eyal & Marilyn Ofer Family Foundation, which continues his family's philanthropic tradition.Pendleton, Devon
"Israeli Billionaire Ofer Makes Gift to Expand Tate Modern"
''Bloomberg Business'', July 4, 2013. Accessed 21 October 2015. Ofer is chairman of the Foundation. Ofer was one of the donors to the ''Gloriana'' during the

Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II The year 2012 marked the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II being the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. The only diamond jubilee celebration for any of Elizabeth's predecessors was in 1897, for Queen Victo ...

in 2012. In 2020, the Eyal Ofer Heart Hospital opened with financial support from Ofer for the

Rambam Health Care Campus Rambam Health Care Campus () commonly called Rambam Hospital, is a teaching hospital in the Bat Galim neighborhood of Haifa, Israel. Rambam Health Care Campus is a part of Tertiary Referral Center for Northern Israel, It was founded in 1938. It ...

, which built the new cardiology hospital.

Personal life

He is married to Marilyn Ofer, and they have four children. They reside in

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

, Monaco. In 2008, they resided in west London and had a home in Herzliya Pituah near

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. He also owns an apartment at 15 Central Park West, a building he developed located on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...

of Manhattan in New York City.

References

External links

Official website

O.G. Venture Partners
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ofer, Eyal 1950 births Living people Businesspeople from Haifa People from Herzliya People from the Upper West Side People from Monte Carlo People educated at Atlantic College People educated at a United World College Israeli Air Force personnel Israeli expatriates in Monaco Israeli businesspeople Israeli philanthropists Israeli billionaires Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent Eyal