"The system is steering me down just because I'm a girl": Facebook Israel CEO confesses
Adi Sofer-Teeni recalls the difficult conversation in high school where they tried to prevent her from studying physics, and explains how her childhood as a latchkey kid in Savyon shaped her path to the top of the high-tech industry.
Adi Sofer-Teeni is a senior Israeli executive, serving as CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook) Israel since the local office was established in 2014, and is considered one of the most influential and dominant women in the economy and the Israeli high-tech industry.
She describes her ambition and passion for excellence from the home in which she grew up: "I grew up in Savyon, my father was an architect and my mother was a teacher. My mother was a career woman and she was a figure I greatly admired, and I think much of the ambition to succeed came from watching her. Being a 'latchkey kid' wasn't typical. On one hand, I was a real nerd in my studies, one of those who cries over a 99. My mother says I would call in hysterical tears because of a 99. Excelling was very significant to me, I loved it, and above all, I loved to excel."
Her first dramatic encounter with gender steering occurred back in high school, when she decided to dare and choose a complex scientific track, a moment etched in her memory as a turning point in consciousness:
"When I decided I wanted to study physics, the grade coordinator called me and my mother for a conversation and tried to convince us that I shouldn't do it, and she said, 'I think this is a hard choice, why does she need this?' Suddenly I realize that the system is steering me down just because I'm a girl and not a boy, because she wouldn't have said that to a boy. It's clear that boys should study physics. Suddenly they classified me as a girl and tried to discourage me from doing something hard because I'm a girl," she says on "Their Own Money" on Kan 11.
The uncompromising drive and determination to prove her abilities led her to an impressive and groundbreaking management path. She began her senior management career as CEO of the English language school "Wall Street" between 1997–2001, and later served as CEO of the education and test preparation group "Kidum" from 2001–2008. Later, she moved to the world of technology and digital entertainment when she served as CEO of the B2C division of the online gambling and gaming giant 888 Holdings.
In 2014, Sofer-Teeni was chosen to establish and lead the official representation of Facebook (now Meta) in Israel, and in recent years she was even promoted to the position of Vice President and board member at Meta EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).
