Yehuda Zisapel, one of the founding fathers of Israel’s renowned high-tech industry, died Sunday at the age of 81.
In the 1980s, Zisapel and his younger brother Zohar founded the RAD Group – an umbrella organization of independent Israeli telecommunications and networking companies. It evolved from their original company RAD Data Communications Ltd, which remains a part of the RAD Group to this day.
Zohar Zisapel passed away last year at the age of 74, following a battle with cancer.
Yehuda Zisapel was born in Tel Aviv in April 1942 to Polish immigrant parents who owned a shoe store in the city. He studied electrical engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of technology in Haifa and later completed a Master’s degree in business at Tel Aviv university.
He then worked as an engineer at Motorola Israel until he set up his own company.
Both brothers were very involved in philanthropy, in particular to their shared alma mater. The RAD Group also awards multiple scholarships annually to disadvantaged students who were outstanding in the fields of engineering and computing.
“Yehuda was both a visionary and someone able to implement his vision,” said Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority and former CEO of RAD Data Communications.
“Yehuda was not only a leading businessman and technology expert but also a staunch Zionist who, in every business decision he made, always considered the benefit of the State of Israel and the Israeli economy,” he said.
“Alongside his business success, he established numerous philanthropic endeavors, and much of this activity remained unpublicized. There are not many people like Yehuda, and I will miss him greatly. May his memory be a blessing.”
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