Lester Thurow – A Tribute to a Man Greater Than Life

Yoram Yahav and the Yoyah Group

A dear friend, mentor and vital member of the Yoyah Group, Lester Thurow, passed away last week. A larger than life, amazing personality, Lester touched all of us with whom he worked with his intellect, vision, charm and warmth. Changing and educating an management culture of a country to ‘go global’, is one thing, but convincing Lester Thurow the guru of globalization, to come to Israel to guide the effort is a whole different story.

As we men quite often say, there is a great woman behind every great man (a mom is considered one as well…). As an Israeli citizen, Anni, “the Love of His Life” as Les called his wife, literally told him that there was no question about his helping Israeli companies and management. That was the beginning of our amazing friendship.

As the New York Times wrote, “Lester C. Thurow, a prominent and provocative economist who earned a dedicated following through his long writing and speaking career, and who was known for his prescient warnings about the growing income gap between rich and poor Americans.”

I got to know Lester well, both professionally and personally as the founding chairman of the Technion Institute of Management (TIM) of which I was the founding CEO. His guidance and deep understanding of globalization was critical to the design and operation of our action learning methodology. Under his leadership, TIM in its ten years of operations, developed hundreds of global executive teams in Israel’s burgeoning high tech industry and became one of the most innovative programs in the world.

A friend wrote that with his passing “a light has gone out in the world.” Lester’s great force was felt by many like us at Yoyah on a deeply personal level. We will miss him.

Here is the link to The New York Times obituary:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/business/economy/lester-c-thurow-prominent-economist-is-dead-at-77.html