Eyal Ofer was born in 1950 in Haifa, Israel. His Father, Sammy Ofer, was a Romanian-born Israeli shipping magnate and once Israel's richest man. Eyal graduated from Atlantic College, an international boarding school affiliated with the United World Colleges, based in St Donat's Castle, Wales. In his teenage years, he spent summers working on the family company's ships, loading cargo, scraping the boats' sides and repainting them, as well as traveling to international ports.
He served as an intelligence officer in the Israeli Air Force from 1967 to 1973. He then studied Law in London.
Ofer started his career in international maritime transportation in all the major shipping segments in the 1980s.
Ofer is also the principal of OMNI Offshore Terminals, the largest provider of floating production storage and offloading (FSO & FPSO) assets to the offshore oil and gas industry. Founded in 1990, the Singapore–headquartered company has delivered 23 conversion projects, 2 FPSO and 21 FSO.
He is the chairman of Zodiac Group, a privately held Monaco-based shipping company with a fleet of more than 150 vessels. It is the largest operator of vessels under the Red Ensign by tonnage. Ofer has been a Director of Royal Caribbean Cruises, the second largest cruise company in the world, since May 1995 and holds a significant stake in the company.
He is married to Marilyn Ofer, and they have four children. They reside in Monte Carlo, Monaco. In 2008, they resided in west London and had a home in Herzliya Pituah near Tel Aviv. He also owns an apartment at 15 Central Park West, a building he developed located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City.
Through his family Foundation, in 2013, he donated £10 million to Tate Modern, and £1.5m to the National Maritime Museum.
Its residential projects include 15 Central Park West, which was described as “the most powerful apartment building in the world” and “the most lucrative”, with quoted apartment sales of approximately $2 billion. It was the subject of a book published in March 2014 by Michael Gross entitled "House of Outrageous Fortune: Fifteen Central Park West, the World’s Most Powerful Address".
In 2016, Ofer was ranked 10th in the Lloyd’s List Top 100 Most Influential People in the Shipping Industry. According to Lloyd’s List, “the consensus view from those who know Eyal Ofer best is that he is a man who understands the markets with forensic detail”.
Ofer has interests in Technology companies through O.G. Tech Ventures, the tech investment arm of Ofer Global. O.G. Tech Ventures is a venture capital fund launched in 2017 focusing on early growth start-ups with disruptive technologies.
In 2018, the “Eyal Ofer Galleries” are set to hold Tate Modern’s first ever solo exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s work, “Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy”, which will display the artist’s masterpiece “La Reve” (sold for a record £102 million) along with more than 100 “outstanding” paintings, sculptures and drawings. The exhibition is described by the Tate as one of the most significant in its history.
