Like many others in the Israeli high tech field, Yoel Gat is a graduate of the Intelligence Corps, and a protege of Zohar Zisappel. He entered the civilian job market in 1987 only because he did not win against Eric Paneth in the stand-off for the position of unit commander. Three years later, Paneth became one of the founders of Orckit.
Leaving the unit together with Gat were Amiram Levinberg, his brother Joshua Levinberg, Shlomo Tirosh and Gideon Kaplan, and together they set up Gilat Satellite Networks (GILTF). At the beginning, the new team wrote a business plan for cable television company Matav, which was bidding at the time for a license. Later, they set up Giltek together with Menachem Kop, in order to exit the cables sphere, and sold their shares in that company at a later date.
The next step was the raising of finances from the Eitana venture capital fund and Discount Investments, and the development of a one-way satellite communications system which broadcasts and receives transmissions via small dishes, one meter or less in diameter. The company then developed a two-way system too, and became the second largest company in the world in satellite communications. In fact, it became so big that last year Gilat acquired General Electric's satellite division, SpaceNet.
In recent years, Gat headed two trends which are about to turn Gilat into one of the most significant factors on the global communications market. One of these trends is the provision of communications services to developing countries. The other is the provision of broadband satellite communications services, mainly Internet. Gilat is currently negotiating joint ventures with giant companies, among them Microsoft.
Gilat Satellite Networks subsidiary Gilat Communications, set up in Israel under the management of Shlomo Tirosh, is increasingly becoming a major factor in the Israel inland communications market, and like its parent company, was highly successful in issuing on Wall Street. Gilat grew from being a start-up to a 500-staff company, which constantly shows profits (generally exceeding expectations), and never ceases to innovate in satellite communications. Gat stands at the head of the pyramid of a company with a hush-hush aura attached to it by a team of guys who left the Intelligence Corps and globally conquered the satellite communications market.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on December 29, 1999