IAI bows its head with grief from the passing of Moshe Keret, one of the fathers of Israel’s defence industry and part of the founding generation of IAI. Keret has been with IAI for over 50 years. He served as CEO of IAI from 1985 to 2006 after fulfilling several senior positions in the organization. Under Keret’s management, IAI became an international aerospace company establishing major technological, managerial, and business achievements for IAI and the security of the State of Israel.
Among Keret’s dozens of achievements over the years is the development of countless new areas of activity for the aerospace industry that positioned IAI among the world’s largest defence manufacturers and Israel’s leading exporters. During his time as the company’s CEO, IAI’s exports of various products increased significantly, among them military aircraft, executive aircraft, intelligence mission aircraft, UAVs, radars of various types, observation satellites, and maintenance and conversion of passenger aircraft to cargo aircraft to foreign customers around the world.
Over the years, Keret has won awards, appreciation, and recognition, both in Israel and abroad, for his many years of activity: the Israel Security Award and the Kaplan Award, for his part in the development and production of the Kfir fighter aircraft, the Manufacturers’ Association Award for his contribution to the plant’s recovery, an Honorary Doctorate on from the Technion, and medals of honor and appreciation from leading aerospace industry publications in the US and Europe. Alongside them, Keret has received countless letters of praise from IAI’s customers around the world.
IAI CEO Nimrod Sheffer: “Tonight, the State of Israel and IAI lost one of its best sons, who devoted decades to the benefit of the State, Israel’s industry, and IAI in particular. Keret, a visionary, led the company to extraordinary technological, commercial, and economic achievements. He believed in IAI’s ability to break boundaries time and time again. IAI’s management and employees owe a deep gratitude to Keret for his dedication, determination, and leadership. We shall always remember him and may his memory be a blessing”.
Moshe Keret was born in Israel in 1934 and served in the IDF from 1952 to 1955. He began working in the aerospace industry as an aircraft mechanic in 1955. After a year he applied to study at the Hebrew Technion in Haifa. In 1959 he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering.
In 1968, following the imposition of an embargo on the supply of French fighter jets to Israel after the Six-Day War, the Israeli government decided to enter the development and production of fighter jets in Israel. In his capacity as head of the fighter aircraft assembly division at IAI, Keret was responsible for the production of the Nesher, the first fighter jet made by IAI (a fighter jet from local production based on “Mirage 5”). In 1974, Moshe Keret was appointed IAI’s VP and in charge of the company’s Kfir program. For his part in the production of the “Kfir,” Keret won the Israel Security Award and the Kaplan Award.
In 1982 he was appointed VP of Marketing of IAI. A year later, Keret was appointed Deputy General Manager of IAI and led the areas of marketing, research, and business development. In 1985, Keret was appointed General Manager of IAI. At the beginning of his tenure as CEO, IAI embarked on the ambitious Lavi program, a project Keret saw as the pinnacle of his professional achievements, and a convincing display of IAI’s ability to develop an advanced fighter jet in Israel. Following the cancellation of the project, Keret spearheaded a company reorganization in which IAI underwent far-reaching changes in the technological and business field that led the company to new and numerous achievements.
