Professor Eugene Kandel is the CEO of the Start-Up Nation Central, a non-profit dedicated to strengthening Israel's innovation ecosystem and connecting the world business, government, and NGO leaders to the people and technologies in Israel that can help them solve their most pressing problems. Between 2009 and 2015 Professor Kandel served as the Head of the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister's Office and as Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister, and played a central role in all the major decisions on economic policy. Professor Kandel is the Emil Spyer Professor of Economics and Finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He holds a BA and an MA from the Hebrew University, and an MBA and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. Professor Kandel's primary area of academic expertise is Financial Markets and Financial Intermediaries, and his research has been published in various world-leading Finance and Economics journals.