Nir Barkat is an entrepreneur, former Mayor of Jerusalem, Minister of Economy and Industry, and a Member of the Knesset.

Barkat holds a BA in computer science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. While in university, Barkat, together with several friends, created one of the world’s first antivirus technologies and went on to establish BRM, a leading Israeli investment fund. Barkat is a founder and the first chairman of the board of CheckPoint Technologies, an Israeli cyber security giant.

Between 2003 and 2008, Barkat served as opposition chairman on the Jerusalem City Council, after which he was elected mayor, remaining in that position for a decade. During Barkat’s tenure, Jerusalem changed dramatically. Young people returned to the city, hi-tech companies opened offices in the capital, visits of foreign and local tourists increased, education and academia reassumed leadership, and national and international culture and sporting events filled the city’s venues and streets. As a result of his efforts, Jerusalem showed some of the most significant growth in the world in terms of tourism and the hi-tech industry and was the leading Israeli city in new business openings