Professor Eugene Kandel CEO, Start-Up Nation Central: Professor Kandel has assumed the post of CEO of Start-Up Nation Central in 2015. He has previously served as Head of the National Economic Council of Israel (NEC) and as Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel. He is also a Professor of Economics and Finance at the Hebrew University. Professor Kandel was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. He immigrated to Israel in 1977. He holds a BA and an MA in Economics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an MBA and a Ph.D in Economics from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. He is the Emil Speyer Professor of Economics and Finance at Hebrew University. He has previously taught at the University of Rochester and the University of Chicago. He is a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy and Research in London and a Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute. He founded the Centre for Financial Markets and Institutions and the MA programme in Finance and Financial Economics, both at Hebrew University. He advised on the re-design of the Nasdaq and other U.S. markets in the 1990s. He was the advisor on the design of the Mutual and Provident Funds ranking system in Holland and in Israel. He served as a judge on the Israeli Antitrust Court and was Chairman of the Investments Committees of pension and provident funds in Israel.