Prof. Jacob Frenkel has joined BrainStorm in March 2020 as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Prof. Jacob A. Frenkel is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty (G-30), which is a private, nonprofit, Consultative Group on International Economic and Monetary Affairs. Prof. Frenkel served as Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International from 2009 to 2020 and is currently serving as a Senior Advisor to JPMorgan Chase.  From 2001 to 2011 he served as Chairman and CEO of the G-30, from 2004 to 2009 as Vice Chairman of American International Group, Inc., and from 2000 to 2004 as Chairman of Merrill Lynch International.  Between 1991 and 2000 he served two terms as the Governor of the Bank of Israel.  He is credited with reducing inflation in Israel and achieving price stability, liberalizing Israel’s financial markets, removing foreign exchange controls, and integrating the Israeli economy into the global financial system.

Between 1987 and 1991, he was the Economic Counselor and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund, and between 1973 and 1987 he was on the faculty of the University of Chicago where he held the position of the David Rockefeller Professor of International Economics and served as Editor of the Journal of Political Economy.

He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a life-time Fellow of the International Economic Association, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research, of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), of the Japan Society, and of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a member of the Competitive Markets Advisory Council (CMAC) of the CME Group, a member of the Boards of the Aspen Institute Italia and The Council for the US and Italy, a member emeritus of Temasek International Panel (TIP), a Senior Advisor of Temasek International Advisors, a member of the G20 Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Global Financial Governance, a member of the International Advisory Council of China Development Bank, and a Global Member of the Trilateral Commission.

Prof. Frenkel is a Laureate of the 2002 Israel Prize in Economics, a recipient of the Scopus Award from the Hebrew University, the Hugo Ramniceanu Prize for Economics from the Tel-Aviv University, the Czech Republic’s Karel Englis Prize in Economics, the “Order de Mayo al Merito” (in the rank of Gran Cruz) decoration from the Government of Argentina, the “Order of Merit” (in the rank of Cavaliere di Gran Croce) decoration from the Republic of Italy, and the YIVO Lifetime Achievement Award.  He is also a recipient of several Honorary Doctoral degrees and other decorations and awards, including the “1993 Economic Policy Award” by “Emerging Markets” and the “1997 Central Banker of the Year Award” by “Euromoney”.

Prof. Frenkel serves as Chairman of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University, where he is also Chairman of the Frenkel-Zuckerman Institute for Global Economics.  He previously served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (1995-1996), as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1999-2000), as Governor of the IMF and Alternate Governor of the World Bank for Israel (1991-2000), a member of the Economic Advisory Panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1986-2014), and a member of the Board of Trustees of the New York Economic Club (2013-2019).

Prof. Frenkel is the author of numerous books and articles in the fields of International Economics and Macroeconomics. He holds a B.A. in economics and political science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.