Jacob Frenkel is an Israeli banker and businessman who served as Governor of the Bank of Israel in the 1990s.

Frenkel was born in 1943 in then Mandate Palestine and received a BA in economics and political science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He later earned an MA and a Ph.D., in 1970, in economics from the University of Chicago.

From 1971 to 1982, Frenkel worked as a faculty member and professor at Tel Aviv University and then at the University of Chicago. In 1987, he was appointed economic counselor and director of research at the International Money Fund, a position he held until 1991.

In 1991, Frenkel was appointed as Governor of the Bank of Israel, which he held until 2000. During that period, he also worked at Tel Aviv University in the Department of Economics. From 1995 to 1996, Frenkel also served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank.

In 2002, Frenkel was awarded the Israel Prize in Economics as well as the Tel-Aviv University Hugo Ramniceanu Prize for Economics, the Czech Karel Englis Prize in Economics, the “Order de Mayo al Merito” decoration from the Government of Argentina and the “Order of Merit” decoration from the Republic of Italy.

From 2000 to 2004, Frenkel served as Chairman of Merrill Lynch International and from 2004 to 2009 as Vice Chairman of American International Group (AIG). He is currently the Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International.

Sources: Israeli Foreign Ministry; Wikipedia