Ze'ev Drori (; born 1940 in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli-born American technology entrepreneur currently residing in California. Drori was the founder and Chief Executive of Monolithic Memories, before the company merged with

Advanced Micro Devices Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a Information technology, hardware and F ...

(AMD) in 1987. He helped engineer the turnaround of struggling electric carmaker Tesla Motors as President and CEO from 2007 to 2008.

Biography

Early life

Ze'ev Drori was born and raised in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. His father worked for the Tel Aviv Municipality and his mother was a homemaker. Uninterested in school, he left home at 15 to move to Kibbutz Hulda, where despite his young age Drori worked in the fields. Drori enlisted in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

at 17, and moved through the ranks to become an officer in the Paratroopers Brigade. As an officer at the age of 20, he led his platoon during Israel's many skirmishes with its neighbors. At the completion of his military service, Drori passed his Israeli matriculation exams (

Bagrut Te'udat Bagrut (, ''lit.'' "graduation certificate", Arabic: شهادة بجروت) is a certificate that attests that a student has successfully passed Israel's high school matriculation examination. Bagrut is a prerequisite for higher education ...

) and went to the United States to study. Having gained admission to the Polytechnic University of New York, Drori supported himself by working a variety of jobs, including as a chimney sweep, a dishwasher/busboy, in a slaughterhouse, in a cold-storage house in the meat-packing district of New York and on a lumberyard. Upon receiving his B.S, Drori accepted a position with

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Burlington, Vermont Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is the List of municipalities in Vermont, most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat, seat of Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County. It is located south of the Can ...

. He was soon promoted to head IBM's semiconductor memory operation as the engineering manager. He left IBM after receiving a job offer from

Fairchild Semiconductor Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1957 as a division of Fairchild Camera and Instrument by the " traitorous eight" who defected from Shockley Semi ...

in Mountain View, one of the pioneering Silicon Valley electronics firms. He left Fairchild to start his own company in 1970.

Monolithic Memories

In 1970, Drori founded Monolithic Memories, a semiconductor firm that pioneered advances in memory and logic technology. He served as President, CEO, Chairman of the Board and CTO of Monolithic through 1981 and as chairman of the board from 1981 to 1987. As CTO, he was responsible for the invention, development and manufacturing of the PAL (

programmable array logic Programmable Array Logic (PAL) is a family of programmable logic device semiconductors used to implement logic functions in digital circuits that was introduced by Monolithic Memories, Inc. (MMI) in March 1978. Introductory advertisement on ...

), the PROM (

programmable read-only memory A programmable read-only memory (PROM) is a form of digital memory where the contents can be changed once after manufacture of the device. The data is then permanent and cannot be changed. It is one type of read-only memory (ROM). PROMs are used i ...

), ROM (

read-only memory Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be electronically modified after the manufacture of the memory device. Read-only memory is useful for storing sof ...

), and high performance signal processing chips. In 1980, Monolithic went public at $21 a share. In 1987, Monolithic merged with

(AMD) in a transaction valued at $437 million.

Clifford Electronics

During his tenure as Chairman of Monolithic Memories, Drori first invested in and subsequently acquired Clifford Electronics, a fledgling car alarm manufacturer. In 1985, having given up day to day control over operations at Monolithic Memories, Drori became the full-time CEO and president. Drori brought cutting edge innovations to the auto security industry by incorporating the latest "Silicon Valley" technologies. Under his leadership the company established a strong IP position including the development of the remote control car alarms. Clifford was the OEM supplier to several foreign and domestic car makers. Clifford's rapid growth was also fueled by a national and international network of after-market dealers. Drori grew Clifford Electronics into one of the world's leading automobile security companies, before selling the company to Allstate Insurance in 1999.

Tesla Motors

In 2007, Drori was appointed President and CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Motors (now Tesla Inc.). Drori was specifically tasked with bringing the company's struggling Roadster prototype to market, which he was able to do in 2008. In October 2008, Tesla founder and major investor

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

took over as CEO. Drori was on the board as vice-chairman, but has since left the company.Tesla - Board of Directors
Ir.teslamotors.com. Retrieved on 2013-08-10.

Automobile racing

An avid race car driver, Drori has been actively competing in Formula Cars since 1997. He has twice participated in the Long Beach Toyota Grand Prix, and competed in the Formula Car Challenge presented by

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tire manufacturer headquartered in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear manufactures tires for passenger vehicles, aviation, commercial trucks, military and police vehicles, motorcycles, recreati ...

from 2005 until 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drori, Zeev 1940 births Living people Businesspeople from Tel Aviv Israeli Jews Israeli businesspeople Israeli emigrants to the United States Tesla, Inc. people