Jewish Philanthropy Podcast · Dovid M Cohen

Topic: A Thoughtful Leader Guest: Arnon Kraft

·51 min·3 clips

On October 7, Arnon’s son was home on leave, then left in uniform and with a weapon for his unit.

1. Jewish Philanthropy Podcast features David M. Cohen speaking with Arnon Kraft about money, leadership, and Jewish philanthropy. 2. Arnon Kraft is introduced as Payoneer’s COO, a former Microsoft and SanDisk executive, and a Technion and Tel Aviv University graduate whose career matters because he has worked across Israeli and global tech. 3. The episode asks what shapes Arnon Kraft as a leader, a father, and an Israeli at a time of war. 4. Arnon says he is “first and foremost, an Israeli,” a father to four children, husband to Karen, and a “connector of people.” 5. He describes himself as a “sentimental pragmatist,” pairing emotional awareness with a strong focus on execution. 6. Arnon says his career has centered on tech leadership, but his identity is tied to relationships and listening. 7. He explains that he grew up mostly in Haifa and spent middle school years in Philadelphia in the 1980s. 8. Arnon says those Philadelphia years exposed him to classmates from Korea, Brazil, Argentina, and other countries. 9. He credits that experience with shaping his comfort working across cultures in China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. 10. Arnon says his parents shaped his beliefs about marriage, support, hard work, and giving children tools rather than everything. 11. He says his father is 81 and still works, which reinforced his view that work should be done “right” and without complaint. 12. Arnon says he studied engineering before military service because Israel’s academic reserve system let him go straight to university. 13. He spent seven years in the Israeli Navy doing information systems for live operations, then moved into SAP sales in Israel. 14. A former Navy colleague then brought him to M-Systems to work on marketing for the flash drive, which he says began his consumer-tech path. 15. After SanDisk acquired M-Systems, he became vice president for technology and operations. 16. He later joined Modu Mobile with the company’s former founder and says the startup ultimately ran out of money and shut down. 17. Arnon says Microsoft called him in 2011, and he moved with his family to Redmond for a role that eventually became general manager in the devices division. 18. He says Satya Nadella changed Microsoft’s culture quickly by making customers first and by emphasizing listening across a company of about 150,000 people. 19. Arnon says he loves mentoring through the Technion, Tel Aviv University, Global Mentoring, and WeStart, and he asks mentees to send questions ahead of time so meetings become a two-way dialogue. 20. He says that on October 7 he was at home, his son was on military leave, and the family had to send him back to his unit as the day’s events unfolded.

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