Ella-Tamar Adhanan never dreamed of the life she has today. She never planned on living in the US, and certainly never imagined that, at age 35, she would be one of the most influential Israeli bankers on the New York tech scene. "My dream was to move to Israel’s outlying areas, and set up a community as an active Bnei Akiva member. Today, I can already say that if you interview me in five years, you may be interviewing a bank CEO."
Adhanan also never imagined that after climbing so high, her employer, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), would collapse. But in March 2023, SVB faced a crisis unlike any the US had seen in years. At the time, she was in Dubai, leading a conference for 120 investors. "I got on a plane and by the time I landed in California, there was no more bank," she says. SVB was caught in a financial spiral due to the CEO's gamble on bond purchases. Thousands of entrepreneurs and investors around the world were forced to find an immediate solution to the $130 billion deposited in the bank, under threat from the US regulator to confiscate some of the deposits.
"At that moment, I understood what real responsibility is. My phone was flooded with thousands of calls. There was no time to hesitate, no time for self-pity, we had to talk to the customers, show that we were here to stay and let the storm pass. We built this ecosystem, we were the bank for more than half of the venture-backed companies and more than 80% of the venture capital and private equity funds, and that's just in the US. I think I processed what had happened maybe only a few weeks later."
Luckily, her life got back on track when First Citizens Bank, a mid-sized bank, rescued SVB. Thus, for seven years now, Adhanan has been SVB’s Director of US-Israel Business Development for Technology Banking and Investor Coverage. Last month, she also received some good news: in addition to developing the Middle East market, she will manage accounts for private equity funds in New York, with a team of about ten staffers under her direct management.
Beginnings at Morgan Stanley
Adhanan was born 35 years ago in Gondar, Ethiopia, the eldest sister in a family of seven children. When she was three, the family left the city and made their way on foot for a week to the capital, Addis Ababa, from where they immigrated to Israel as part of Operation Solomon. The family first settled in an absorption center in Dimona and then moved to Kvutzat Yavne, a religious kibbutz in central Israel, where she grew up. She was sent to an ulpana, a girls-only Jewish high school in the religious youth village of Givat Washington, walking distance from her home. She spent most of her time in the Bnei Akiva youth movement.
"My learning curve was very fast," she says. "You can't ignore the challenges we went through, but my parents' upbringing taught me that circumstances are circumstances, so you have to rely on the decisions you make. Ours was a home of education for excellence, one where, if I would come back with grade of 98, that wasn’t enough. I was a super high-achiever, maybe not a nerd, but a very competitive student. I think that stays with me to this day."
Adhanan graduated from high school with honors in many subjects, including math, biology, and Tanach ("We didn't study physics at the ulpana"). She was selected for the first trial round of Sherut Leumi [national service for young women with religious exemption from military service], to serve in the Office of the Prime Minister. Which was how, at 20 years-old, she arrived at the Israeli embassy in Washington DC. "It was a radical change," she says. "I didn't grow up in Tel Aviv, I grew up in Bnei Akiva." She stayed for another three years as Chief of Staff in the diplomatic department at the embassy, working with foreign embassies, talking to White House officials, and becoming well acquainted with US government institutions. At the same time, she studied economics and finance at the University of Maryland.
Good fortune smiled on her once more when Morgan Stanley made the decision to hire non-Ivy League analysts; the University of Maryland was one of the first places they visited. "I went to a panel the bank held on campus and listened. I was very curious, but it wasn't like being a banker was my dream. After nine interviews, they called, and told me I’d been accepted. I was sure they would call me a minute later to tell me it was a mistake. So, I signed the contract and waited two weeks. Only then did I call my mother to tell her I’d had been accepted at Morgan Stanley, and she asked, 'Is that good'? 'Yes,' I laughed, 'it's good.' In the US, mothers prepare their children for careers in banking, while for us, it just happened along the way."
Adhanan moved to New York as a sales analyst in a trading room that works with the largest institutional entities. "I wasn't a trader, but that's where I learned to swear. It was a very macho environment, people who work hours and hours, from dusk to dawn. I was the only one of my kind - not only in terms of gender, but also my background, and it was the best schooling I could ever have, because unlike most people who try to fit in, I knew very well how to situate myself and serve as a kind of moral compass.
In my second week on the job, I dared to answer the phone that rang 15 minutes before the close of trading, which is something no novice analyst would do. It was an angry client who no one had answered. He shouted at me, 'If you don't help me now, I will lose my money because of you.' I barely understood what he was saying and I mustered up the courage to say to him, 'Sir, do you want to meet the deadline? How about hanging up, and I'll go help you in the remaining trading time. I became his portfolio manager until I finished working there. I learned to be sharper, more assertive, make things happen and, above all, work very hard."
But it was also a rewarding job, loaded with bonuses. Adhanan bought her first apartment in an affordable housing complex near Madison Square Garden in the heart of Manhattan. "Some would say the hard work isn’t worth the bonuses, and truly, you do pay quite a bit in personal price for that hard work."
"More Israelis coming over"
Adhanan came to SVB thanks to two of the bank’s clients, tech entrepreneurs from her social circle. In the years leading up to its collapse, SVB was the go-to bank for tech companies, entrepreneurs, and investors, earning a reputation as a dazzling unicorn in its own right. This happened, in part, thanks to its high-risk appetite for underwriting loans to loss-making, low-revenue startups, and close relationships with the venture capital fund invested in those startups. SVB provided credit lines the VC funds and personal banking services to investors, such as wealth management and even mortgage financing. So, while most banks shied away from the risk involved in startups and VC funds, SVB raked in the cash.
Adhanan was looking for place with a personal touch, beyond pure banking and found it at SVB. After a period as VP Venture Capital and Private Equity, she became one of the bank’s Directors of Global Markets. In her role as deputy market lead for India, and later as MENA region head, excluding Israel, she bounced between Chennai, Cairo, and Amman.
You actually grew up with a bank that collapsed, and it was kind of your baby, the product of an investment you had made over five years.
"It was what I had been looking for. Waking up in the morning and going to a place that was more than just work, and feeling part of building something big. I got there when we had 2,700 employees and we grew to more than 8,000. The customers were our partners, because you don't just deal with the entrepreneur's or investor's work, you also bundle it with personal banking -- we called it One SVB. We were no longer a bank for startups, we were built specifically for startups from 40 years ago. We were on the top of the world, and everyone knew that most people who worked at SVB didn't leave. I represented the bank in international markets personally, I was kind of the face of the bank in many places around the world."
You were bailed out by First Citizens, a mid-sized bank that has cut back on some of your activities as well as most of your international activities.
"We continue to operate within First Citizens as a separate division under our veteran brand. Just last week I did four strategic events for market-leading funds. We still work very closely with founders at every stage, from company founding to IPO. Obviously, there was a crisis, but you don't regain trust just with words, but also with actions, showing that you stand up for your community and provide answers. We talk to our clients honestly and present them with future plans. We are here to stay."
And meanwhile, interest rates, which were zero in the good years, have risen, so companies are less in need of bank loans.
"It's true that the market has rebooted, and companies understand that money is no longer as cheap as it used to be, and that it has to work smarter. But today, investors are demanding higher returns from their companies, and their valuations are falling, which is an incentive to raise debt. Sometimes, companies prefer to take a loan so as not to compromise their value or suffer from share dilution. There is money out there, but it takes time to raise it."
SVB has closed its Israel office, so you can only work with local entrepreneurs remotely.
"That's a certain disadvantage, but it's only a matter of time until companies expand to Silicon Valley or to New York, and this is our advantage, because when they decide to come here, we can help them. Unfortunately, for better or for worse, we’re seeing an increase in the number of Israeli entrepreneurs coming over to found their companies here. I help them 'speak American,' help them play the game with the major leaguers, and help them understand how to conduct themselves properly in this market."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 20, 2025.
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