Ze'ev Drori

Ze'ev Drori (; born 1940) 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 (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, Israel. 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 at 17, and moved through the ranks to become an officer in the Paratroopers Brigade. 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 in Mountain View, one of the pioneering Silicon Valley electronics firms. He left Fairchild to start his own company in 1970.

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, Elon Musk, a major Tesla investor, took over as CEO. Drori was on the board as vice-chairman, but has since left the company.

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 from 2005 until 2009.