Efi Arazi

Efraim R. "Efi" Arazi (Hebrew: אפי ארזי) (14 April 1937 – 14 April 2013)[1] was an Israeli technology pioneer and businessman.[2]

Efi Arazi
אפי ארזי
Born
Efraim R. Arazi

(1937-04-14)14 April 1937
Died14 April 2013(2013-04-14) (aged 76)
NationalityIsraeli
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
OccupationHigh Tech Entrepreneur
EmployerSeerun Ltd.
TitleChairman

Education

Arazi enrolled as a cadet to study electronics in the Israel Defense Forces at the Air Force Technological Academy,[3] He earned an engineering degree in the 1960s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[4][5] (he was accepted to MIT via the "extraordinary cases" as he did not have a matriculation certificate).[3]

Business career

Arazi began his career in the United States. He returned to Israel in June 1967.[6] In 1968 he founded and headed Scitex Corporation (renamed Scailex Corporation in 2005), an Israel-based multi-national company that specialized in developing and manufacturing hardware and software for the graphics design, printing, and publishing markets.[6][7][8] It was the first Israeli high-tech firm, and at its peak employed 4,000 people.[9] Arazi stepped down as CEO and president of Scitex on 1 June 1988,[10] but continued to serve as chairman of the board of directors of the company (a position to which he had been appointed on 1 May 1985) until 18 January 1989, when Robert Maxwell's Mirror Group acquired a 27% stake in the company and Maxwell was appointed chairman.[11]

In 1988 Arazi founded EFI - Electronics for Imaging.[4][12] He later became CEO of iMedia, a developer of tools for cable, satellite, and terrestrial television operators to manage compressed digital video.[8]

At the time of his death, Arazi was chairman of Seerun Ltd.[8]

The term "computer art"

On the title page of the magazine Computers and Automation, January 1963, Edmund Berkeley published a picture by Efraim Arazi from 1962, coining for it the term "computer art." This picture inspired him to initiate the first Computer Art Contest in 1963. The annual contest was a key point in the development of computer art up to the year 1973.[13][14]

The Efi Arazi School of Computer Science

The Efi Arazi School of Computer Science is part of IDC (Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya), Israel's first private university. The school was founded in 1996, and named after Efi Arazi in 2003.

References
  1. Israel News (14 April 2013). "Efi Arazi, Israeli high-tech pioneer, passes away at age 76". Ynetnews. ynetNews.com. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  2. Sheva, Nathan (2 April 2008). "Efi Arazi invests in Knafaim". Haaretz. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  3. If we always follow the hard-and-fast rules without any deviation or creativity, we shall certainly miss extraordinary talents and unusual people, and merely get a great deal of boring mediocrity
  4. "Electronics for Imaging, Inc. – Company History". Fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  5. Martha Rosler (2004). Decoys and disruptions: selected writings, 1975–2001. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262182317.
  6. Elia Zureik (2011). Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory and Power. ISBN 9780203845967.
  7. "Scitex Chief Is A Kite-Flying Dynamo". Los Angeles Times. 20 December 1981. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  8. "Efi Arazi: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  9. "Even flagships need talented captains". Haaretz. 10 March 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  10. Labate, John (28 June 1993). "Companies to Watch". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  11. The Annual Report of Scitex Corporation Ltd. (Form 20-F) to the Securities & Exchange Commission for year ended 31 December 1988.
  12. Marshall Phelps, David Kline (2009). Burning the ships: intellectual property and the transformation of Microsoft. ISBN 9780470494103.
  13. "Computers and Automation | Database of Digital Art".
  14. Herbert W. Franke: Grenzgebiete der bildenden Kunst, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart In: Katalog, 1972, S. 69.
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