Samuel Hayek is an Israeli millionaire real-estate tycoon and chairman of The KKL Charitable Trust.

Hayek was chairman of the Likud

Likud

Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...

 youth department.

He founded the S. Hayek holding company in 2004.

Biography

Hayek, who has never married, was born in 1953 in Kfar Sava and grew up in Bnei Brak. His parents, Salim and Nasira, are Iraqi

Iraqi people

The Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia , with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and...

 immigrants who had immigrated to Israel from Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

 with their three sons two years before. Another sister was born in Israel. His father was a merchant in Baghdad, a rep for the Hercules & Singer Company.

In 1979, Hayek began studying philosophy and history at Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...

, but soon decided to leave and study law in England. He reached the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 1980, after having performed his military service in the IDF's Intelligence. After finishing law he then went into business in real estate.

He is a British citizen and divides his time between London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

.