FRENKEL, YA'AKOV

(1943- )

Governor of theBank of Israelfrom 1991 to January 2000. It was under his stewardship that the Israelieconomyabsorbed the massive wave of immigration (seeALIYA) from the formerUnion of Soviet Socialist Republicsand evolved into a high-tech giant in the 1990s. Frenkel is currently vice-chairman of an American insurance corporation and is also chairman of the Washington-based economics organization, the Group of Thirty. In August 2007, he joined the advisory board of an Israel-based biotech firm, BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, Inc.