Managing Director in 1965 and Vice-Chairman in 1980. Beginning in 1962, DBIC was the first financial institution in Israel to invest in local hi-tech industry. Tolkowsky helped Uzia Galil start the technology holding company Elron Electronic Industries in 1962. In 1985 Tolkowsky, in partnership with his son Gideon and Frederick Adler, a noted American venture capital investor, founded Athena, the first venture fund in Israel, to invest in Israeli and American ventures, mostly hi-tech, which operated until 1997. Tolkowsky also held a series of minor government posts. In 1963, he joined the National Council for Research and Development. He served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Radiation and Radioisotopes of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission. In 1970, he headed a commission of inquiry that investigated an accident at Lod Airport. From 1978-1980 he was a member of the Israel Securities Authority plenum. In 1997, he served on the Ciechanover Commission, which investigated a failed Mossad assassination attempt against Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan. He also was a member of a committee examining the organizational structure of higher education institutions. Tolkowsky is a Commandeur of the French Legion d’Honneur (1958), holds a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology (1980), and holds an award from the joint US-Israel Science and Technology Authority named after Yitzhak Rabin. He is married to Miriam and has a daughter and two sons, Roni, David, and Gideon. Notes References Jews from Palestine are sent to the RAF pilot course in Rhodesia, IAF Official Site. Accessed June 9, 2006. 1921 births Living people Israeli centenarians Israeli aviators Israeli Air Force generals Israeli Jews Men centenarians Royal Air Force pilots of World War II Alumni of Imperial College London Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur 20th-century Israeli businesspeople