Keren Terner

Keren Terner Eyal , also rendered Keren Terner-Eyal, Keren Terner or Keren Turner Eyal, is an Israeli civil servant and businesswoman. She served as Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Transport from 2016 to 2020 — the first woman to hold that post — and as Director-General of the Ministry of Finance in 2020, becoming only the second woman to head the ministry. After leaving government service, she became Chief Operating Partner at the venture capital firm Vintage Investment Partners, and in April 2026 was named one of the first two declared candidates for former prime minister Naftali Bennett's new party ahead of elections expected later that year.

Early life and education Turner grew up in moshav Hadar Am. She has a Bachelor's degree in economics, as well as a Master's degree in Business Management, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She served in the Israel Defense Forces as a training officer in the Moran special unit and was discharged with the rank of First Lieutenant. In 2011 she moved to the Ministry of Transport, where she was placed in charge of infrastructure planning; she was appointed deputy director-general in 2012.

Director-General of the Ministry of Transportation In 2011, Terner was appointed Deputy Director of the Ministry of Transportation by then-minister Israel Katz. The following year, she was appointed the Ministry's first female Director, following the retirement of her predecessor. Terner served under ministers Israel Katz and Bezalel Smotrich.

As a senior transport official she was also the finance minister's representative on the boards of directors of Israel Railways and Israel Post. Regev defended the dismissal as standard practice for an incoming minister.

In October 2020, after five months in office, Terner Eyal resigned amid disagreements with Katz over the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis and the continued absence of a state budget, in what was one of several senior departures from the ministry that year. Katz appointed Israel Tax Authority head Eran Yaacov as acting director-general pending a permanent replacement. and joined Israeli Venture Capital fund Vintage.

Political career In April 2026, former prime minister Naftali Bennett named Terner Eyal, alongside former director-general Liran Avisar Ben-Horin, as the first two candidates on the list of his new party ahead of elections expected by the end of October 2026. The announcement drew criticism from the Likud party, which linked her to the Brothers and Sisters in Arms protest movement; Bennett's party disputed the characterization, saying she had volunteered with a civilian coordination centre formed after the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and had never been a member of, or involved in, the movement's calls for refusal to serve in the military.