From Sailing Instructor to Chairman: How Gil Roshinek Boosted Electra Real Estate's Value 16-Fold
"After 2008, we sold assets at any price to avoid a debt settlement. I went on a crazy realization journey. I sat in front of senior officials at Deutsche Bank, to whom we owed millions, to extract a few shekels," recalls Gil Roshinek, Chairman of Electra Real Estate.
Personal
48 years old, married + 2, lives in Tel Aviv.
Professional
Chairman of Electra Real Estate.
Childhood and family
I grew up in the town of Omer in the south to a mother who was a teacher and a father who was a chemical engineer who managed R&D at Makhteshim Agan. In high school, I studied at the Eshel HaNasi agricultural school. I was in the scouts and had many friends, but I was an 80-grade student. My older sister was an honors student, and I was always asked why I couldn't be like her.
Army
In the town where I grew up, everyone was called to go to combat units. I enlisted in the Naval Officers course, a course that trains for management at the highest levels. My competitive side came out there - and I excelled. I served for seven years, in my last role as deputy commander of the naval command school, where I trained officers for the position of company commander. Today I am a Lieutenant Colonel in the reserves. Since October 7, I have done 150 days of reserve duty.
Academia
I was discharged at 25 to study law and business administration. I didn't want to waste another year on the psychometric exam, and the only institution that accepted me was the Interdisciplinary Center. I finished two degrees with high honors and today I teach at three universities - Tel Aviv, Reichman, and Bar-Ilan - as part of the master's degree. My course is called - How to invest in real estate overseas?
Sailing instructor
Parallel to my studies, I worked as an instructor at the sailing school in Herzliya. At the end of my fourth year, I was asked to instruct two brothers who wanted to get a yacht license. That's how I met Danny and Mikey Zalkind, the controlling owners of Elco (the parent company of Electra). After two lessons, they said to me 'come work for us', and my life changed.
Electra Real Estate
In 2006, I started as an analyst at Electra Real Estate, under CEO Shlomo Sharaf. I completed my internship while working, and when I asked why he wanted me to be a lawyer, Sharaf replied: so that if I fire you, you'll have somewhere to work. For the first two years, I experienced a boom, until the economic crisis of 2008, the year I moved to manage the company's office assets in Europe. We met the crisis with 90% leverage, and that is the big lesson from that period: leverage is like salt - too much is unhealthy.
Realization journey
In 2011, Sharaf resigned and went to take Azrieli public. Shay Weinberg was appointed CEO, and he and I found ourselves in a company that had one goal: to sell assets at any price to avoid entering a debt settlement. Electra Real Estate had debts of 1.3 billion shekels. I went on a crazy realization journey all over the world. At 33, I sat in front of senior officials at Deutsche Bank, to whom we owed millions of euros, and tried to extract a few shekels for the bondholders. In 2013, I flew back and forth from Israel more than 40 times.
CEO
At the end of 2014, when I was 37, Shay received an offer and left as well, and I was appointed CEO of a company that had almost nothing and was traded at only about 245 million shekels. I never dreamed that seven years later, when I finished my role, the company would be traded at about 4 billion shekels, a jump of about 1,540% in market value.
USA
In 2016, Electra Real Estate acquired from Elco its multi-family management company in the USA and we founded the Electra Real Estate investment funds. Amir Yaniv, who was my deputy at the time, and I started running between institutional bodies and qualified investors from Israel with a presentation. We raised 6.5 billion dollars in equity in the last decade, launched five funds, we have almost 1,600 private investors and about 35 thousand housing units in the USA.
Tenants
Our tenants are blue-collar workers who earn 100 thousand dollars a year, that's the average salary in the USA. There are many teachers and factory workers among them, they have steady jobs. For us, it is important that the rent does not exceed 25% of their salary.
Republicans only
We invest only in Republican states. It is critical for us to maintain the ability to raise rent and evict tenants who do not pay. We prefer less socialist states, and therefore we operate in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina.
Stock decline
We were hurt because of the interest rate and the dollar (the stock fell by more than 32% since the beginning of 2026), but I always remind myself that if we know how to work correctly, it will be fixed. There was a bit of market overshooting here.
Chairman
At the end of 2020, Amir Yaniv, who was then deputy CEO and had always been a good friend, asked me to pave a way for him to the CEO position. I examined the company's best interest and decided that Electra Real Estate must not lose him. At the end of 2021, I moved to the position of active chairman. I lead our office fund in London, where I also have a stake in the ownership for the first time. We raised about 200 million pounds, we buy offices, renovate them, and return them to the market. At the same time, I manage the company's new single-family (villas) activity in the USA.
Looking to the future
Later on, I would like to be a senior executive in the Elco group. I have a resume of one company, but one where I did everything. When I recently celebrated 20 years at Electra Real Estate, I informed the Zalkind brothers that I would be happy to stay for another 20 years. I grew up with a father who worked for 40 years at Makhteshim Agan, I am still young compared to him.
