Eli Groner is Israel’s Minister for Economic Affairs to the United States, based in Washington, D.C. Mr. Groner was confirmed by the Israeli Cabinet for this position in August 2011. Mr. Groner came to the diplomatic role by way of the private sector, where he worked most recently in private equity and management consulting.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Groner served as a special advisor to the Chairman of Tnuva, Israel’s largest consumer packaged goods company. From 2003-2009, Mr. Groner was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he served a breadth of Fortune 1000 corporations from around the world, as well as many of Israel’s leading companies. While at McKinsey, Mr. Groner was also selected to lead firm-wide training for early tenure consultants.
Mr. Groner started his career as a journalist at The Jerusalem Post, where he served as a finance and economics correspondent. He was also a summer investment banking associate at Lehman Brothers in New York, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions.
He spent several years playing for Israel’s national fast pitch softball team, where he participated in the European Championships, and won a Bronze Medal at the 1993 Maccabiah Games. Mr. Groner served in the paratrooper corps from 1989-1992, where he received a citation for outstanding performance and exemplary leadership.
Mr. Groner has an MBA from New York University where he was a Director’s Fellow. He received a BA in political science from Bar-Ilan University.
He and his wife Tamar have five children.