POL I CY The Israeli Insurance, Pension & Finance Newspaper 6 Special edition 2022 The sudden and untimely death of the late Ofer Eliyahu, on February 27, 2022, has shocked the entire Israeli insurance industry. Ofer held the highest offices in the insurance sector and was the son of Mr. Shlomo Eliyahu who was the owner of the Eliyahu Insurance Company, and as of 2012, Mr. Shlomo Eliyahu is the controlling shareholder in the Migdal Insurance Group, which is one of Israel’s largest insurance groups (according to the value of its balance sheet assets). Ofer’s passing has left a deep and genuine sense of sorrow across the insurance industry at all levels. Despite the lofty roles Ofer occupied, he remained a modest and decent man until his last day. He was a virtuous person who behaved in a kindly manner toward others, treated everyone with respect, and always kept his office door open to all, regardless of the status or position of the person who wishes to enter his room. So, it is no wonder that he was admired by everyone who knew him. Following the completion of his service in the Israeli Navy in an intelligence unit, Ofer studied Insurance at the College of Insurance. His insurance career began when he started working at Eliyahu Insurance Company in 1983. During the first 3 years from, 1983 to 1986, Ofer worked as a trainee, spending about half a year working in each department in the company. Ofer’s approach was that the best way to study the insurance business is to learn it from the bottomup.After Ofer completed his training that had lasted 3 fruitful years he was appointed (in 1986) as CEO of Eliyahu Insurance Company a role he occupied until he was appointed Director of Migdal’s General Insurance Division in 2013. In 2014 he became CEO of the Migdal Group until his resignation in 2018. In parallel with Ofer’s positions at Eliyahu and Migdal, he also served on the management boards of two national Insurance Organizations that is the Israel Insurance Association (R.A.), which integrates most of the general insurance companies in Israel, and the Association of Life Insurance Companies of Israel LTD, which integrates most of the insurance companies engaged in life insurance, including pension insurance and health insurance. Ofer was appointed as chairman of the Association of Insurance Companies in Israel from2011 to 2016 and served from 2014 to 2016 as chairman of the Association of Life Insurance Companies also. As chairman of these Associations, Ofer worked tirelessly to benefit the industry as a whole, whilst always taking into account the interests of medium and small insurance companies, and during his tenure as chairman, Ofer initiated the change whereby each member in the organizations, would have the equal right of vote i.e. each member (insurer) would have one vote only in all institutions operating within the said national organizations, regardless of its size or the membership fee that is paid by it. Under his leadership, Ofer led the insurance organizations to several notable achievements but always kept a low profile when doing so, because he believed that the insurance industry should operate under the media radar. An example of Ofer’s “quiet” achievement was his activity in connection with the wave of fires that occurred in Israel in 2016. Within three or four days he managed to settle an arrangement with the then Minister of Finance and Deputy Minister of Finance (under an “Emergency” approval from the Competition Authority) that provides how-to divide between the State of Israel (Compensation Fund) and the insurance companies the payment to insureds for damage caused to their assets by fires. Consequently, enabling full and immediate compensation to be paid to insureds whose property had been lost or damaged by fire, and thus preventing endless litigations between insurers, fire victims that were insured, and the State on the question of whether any of the fires were caused by an act of terror – a question that could not easily or definitively be answered or resolved. ByOfer’s initiative, Migdal was also the first to implement the Farewell to the late Ofer Eliyahu The late Ofer Eliyahu
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