Dan David (businessman)

Dan David (Hebrew: דן דוד; ‎23 May 1929 – 6 September 2011) was a Romanian-born Israeli businessman and philanthropist.

Dan David
Born(1929-05-23)23 May 1929
Bucharest, Romania
Died(2011-06-09)9 June 2011
Israel
NationalityIsraeli
Known forbusinessman and philanthropist.

Biography

Dan David was born to a Jewish family in Bucharest, Romania. He joined a Zionist youth movement at the age of 16. After studying economics at university, he worked for Romanian television and became a press photographer. In 1958, his newspaper asked him to travel to West Germany on an assignment. When he requested an exit permit, he was accused of being a Zionist activist and was fired from his job.[1]

He left Romania for Paris in August 1960, later settling in Israel. The following year, he traveled to Europe.

David died in London on 6 September 2011.[2]

Business career
Castle Court Shopping Centre photo booth

With a $200,000 loan from a cousin, he won the franchise for Photo-Me International automated photography booths in certain countries. He opened branches in Israel, Spain, Romania and Italy, eventually taking over the company.[3] When David was chairman[4] of Photo-Me in 1999, his and board-member Serge Crasnianski's shares were valued at 210 and 200 million pounds, respectively.[5]

Dan David Prize

In 2000, David founded the Dan David Foundation with a $100 million endowment. The Foundation awards the Dan David Prize (first awarded in 2002), which is headquartered at Tel Aviv University. For its first 20 years, the prize consisted of three 1$ million awards granted in rotating fields of the sciences and the humanities. [6] In 2021, the Foundation announced[7] it was redesigning the prize to focus on history and other disciplines that study the past, granting up to nine awards of $300,000 to early- and mid-career researchers in those fields.[8]

Commemoration

The Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research was inaugurated on 25 November 2018, in Dan David's memory.[9] The Center is affiliated with both the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, where its laboratories and facilities encompass over 1200 meters squared.[10] The facilities include a micro-CT as well as histological and ancient DNA laboratories.[11] The Center also houses Israel's national fossil collection,[12] and a museum exhibit on human biological and cultural evolution.[13]

References
  1. "Businessman-philanthropist Dan David dies in London". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  2. Businessman-philanthropist Dan David dies in London
  3. "The true worth of Dan David". Haaretz. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
  4. Cope, Nigel (5 August 2000). "Institutions demand a boardroom clear-out at Photo-Me". The Independent. Retrieved 15 September 2010. Dan David, the 71-year-old chairman... Serge Crasnianski, the chief executive
  5. "Business: The Economy UK Net millionaires boom". BBC News. 3 October 1999. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  6. "The Prize 2001 - 2021". Dan David Prize. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  7. "Dan David Prize relaunches, now the world's largest history award". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  8. "The Prize". Dan David Prize. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  9. "Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory". Tel Aviv University News and Events. Tel Aviv University. Archived from the original on 8 May 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  10. "About the Dan David Center". Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research. Archived from the original on 28 May 2019.
  11. "Facilities". Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research. Archived from the original on 28 May 2019.
  12. "Collection". Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research. Archived from the original on 28 May 2019.
  13. "What makes us Human?". Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
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