Start-Up Nation Policy Institute

Prof. Eugene Kandel (BA, MA Hebrew University in Jerusalem; MBA, Ph.D. The University of Chicago) is an Emil Spyer Professor of Economics and Finance at the Hebrew University. Prof. Kandel published extensively in Finance and Economics.   

In 2009-2015 Kandel served as Head of the National Economic Council and Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel, advancing many important economic policies and reforms. 

Prof. Kandel is the founder and the Co-Chairman of the Start-Up Nation Policy Institute, a non-profit dedicated to advancing Israel’s innovation policies, aimed at strengthening the ecosystem, and making it more impactful on the Israeli economy and society.  

Uri Gabai is the CEO of the Start-Up Nation Policy Institute (SNPI) and former co-General Manager of Start-Up Nation Central. Prior to his roles at Start-Up Nation Central, Uri served for seven years as the Chief Strategy Officer and Head of the Strategy and Economic Division at the Israel Innovation Authority since its establishment in October 2011.

Prior to that, Uri was a Senior Economist at the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister’s Office. He earned a B.Sc. in Economics and Computer Science and a M.Sc. degree in Economics with a focus on Game Theory, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Assaf Patir is the Chief Economist of the Institute, specializing in macroeconomics, monetary economics, and banking. Before joining SNPI, he taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was also an advisor to the Monetary Division at the Bank of Israel and held a visiting scholar position at the Department of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Assaf started his career as a physicist, earning a PhD for his research in String Theory from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He later shifted his focus to economics, earning a PhD from Northwestern University for his dissertation on the macroeconomic impact of consumer loan securitization.