Irad Ben-Gal

The story of Irad Ben-Gal's life

Irad Ben-Gal was born on Kibbutz Bar'am to Liora Lukitz Ben-Gal, a historian and Middle East scholar, and Eli Ben-Gal, a historian who helped found Beit Hatfutsot. He grew up in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. As a teenager and after the army he played water polo for Maccabi Kiryat Ono and for Israel's national team for many years.

He served as intelligence officer of the Shaldag Unit and later as a reserve major. He earned degrees in industrial engineering and management and in industrial engineering and systems analysis, and received a doctorate from Boston University in 1999.

He then joined the engineering faculty at Tel Aviv University, where he headed the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management and now leads the LAMBDA lab. He was a visiting professor at Stanford University and leads the joint research project Digital Living 2030. During the coronavirus outbreak his lab assisted the national coronavirus headquarters and the health and defense ministries.

With Dr. Gonen Singer he cofounded CB4, an AI company for retail, and served as its CEO in its first years and later as chairman. GAP acquired CB4 in 2021. He is also cofounder and chairman of XPOZ.AI. He is married to Hila Halutz Ben-Gal and has 3 children.