Levi Kushnir

Levi Kushnir (born December 29, 1953) is an Israeli serial entrepreneur, investor and business leader. He is the founder of Kital International Development Holdings Ltd., an international holding and investments subsidiary of Kushnir Family Holdings.
Kushnir's vision has transformed Kital in securing a strong position working with numerous high-profile projects. Kushnir has executed several successful turnarounds of firms in many regions and branches of business throughout his career. He is regarded as one of the most innovative and successful entrepreneurial retailers in Israel and Internationally. 
Kushnir has over three decades of experience and is recognized as an internationally acclaimed entrepreneur regarded for his work throughout the industry. In 1989 Kushnir was a listed finalist for the Inc Magazine "Entrepreneur of the Year". Kushnir has managed several businesses in the commercial real estate development, retail chains and social work sectors such as Builders Discount Chain, Home Center, Auto Center, Tadiran Consumer Products, Petro Group, eLoan, EarlyCell, School of Life, Nechunshtan Lifts and others. 
==Early life and Education==
Kushnir was born on December 29, 1953 to parents who were Holocaust survivors. He attended Ramat Gan's municipal high school and was inducted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1972, serving in the armoured Corps' Patrol and Sickle squads. During his military duty he was a member of the 14th Brigade which fought in the canal during the Yom Kippur War.
He began his undergraduate studies in economics and business administration at Tel Aviv University after his release from the IDF in 1975 successfully completing his studies in 1977.
==Career==
In 1977, Kushnir was recruited by Koor Trade (the largest conglomerate in Israel) as part of the executive training programme for management reserve. He was appointed as Regional Director stationed in East Africa (1980 to 1984) and in 1984 relocated to Koor USA as the Director of the West Coast until 1986.
In 1986 Kushnir left Koor Trade to begin his entrepreneurial journey. Kushnir purchased through an LBO the Builders Discount Chain, providing consumers with low-cost, high-quality building materials. It was a DIY chain that also sold to small contractors and home improvement firms. The chain had five massive complexes in California which were managed by Kushnir until they were sold in 2003, eventually merging into Home Depot.
In 1992 Kushnir returned to Israel and founded Kital International Development Holdings Ltd, which constitutes his main investment arm in Israel. Kushnir bought Nehushtan Lifts and served as Chairman until 1998 when he sold the company to the Swiss lifts conglomerate "Schindler." Simultaneously, he created Home Center in 1992, which became Israel's largest "DIY" renovation and home maintenance retail chain. Home Center became the first Israeli low-tech firm to go public on NASDAQ (1999) and had 30 mega stores, four of which were in Cyprus, and was sold to the Fishman Fund in 2000. 
In 1998, he launched Auto Center, a company that specializes in the sale of pre-owned cars. Auto Center became the first company in Israel to establish the pre-owned automobile supermarket concept. The company was sold a few years later to Meyer Group, a vehicle importer and owner of Avis.
Kushnir purchased Tadiran Consumer Products in 1999 from Koor Industries and acted as Chairman until 2003 when the company was sold to the American enterprise Carrier. As Chairman of Tadiran, Kushnir was invited to appear on the BBC's “Back to the Floor” TV show in which he was documented as a regular employee working on the manufacturing floor of Tadiran.
In 2005, Kushnir purchased Petro Group, a public company that owned and operated over 180 gas stations and convenience stores under the FasMart USA brand in eight states in the eastern United States. As chairman of the company, Kushnir grew it to over 350 locations before selling it to the Gaydamak Group in 2008.
From 2009 to 2012, Kushnir was the President of Portsmouth, a British football club that competed in the Premier League. During these years, the Club underwent numerous significant changes, culminating with the group qualifying for the FA Cup finals for the first time in its existence in 2010. The club was sold to a Russian financial firm in 2012.
Kushnir became the director and investor in the solar farm Israsolar in 2010 and remained in that position until the company was sold in 2012. 
In 2012 Kushnir became an investor and director of Cleveland Diagnostics and was since appointed as the representative of the company's ordinary shareholders. Cleveland Diagnostics is a leading med-tech cancer diagnostics company. Following that in 2014 Kushnir co-founded EarlyCell, a company that has developed the breakthrough method for detecting and separating foetal cells and malignant cells in the blood. 
All of Kushnir’s M&A’s were turned-around and restructured to become profitable enterprises and since 2000 till today Kushnir is listed in the “Dun & Bradstreet Top 100 Entrepreneurs” list.
In parallel to the M&A activities Kushnir has been involved in real estate developments in Africa, Asia, USA and Israel. Since 1993 he has built over 4000 residential units including the famous south Tel Aviv residential project “Neve Zedek Towers”, Tel Aviv’s highest residential tower. The project was a huge success and cleared the way for additional projects in Tel Aviv's south. The corporation initiated Israel’s largest Urban Revitalization Corporation in 2009, which enables urban renewal in city centres and provides tens of thousands of new residential buildings as part of the process. In February 2020 the Urban Revitalization Corporation was sold to a large New York based Fund.
==Personal life==
Levi Kushnir is married to Ruth Kushnir and currently resides in Tel Aviv. He has one son and one daughter and is the grandfather of three grandchildren.
==References==
==External links==
* Official website
* 
Category:1953 births
Category:Entrepreneurs
Category:Israeli businesspeople
Category:Israeli investors
Category:Tel Aviv University alumni