Who Is Erez Vigodman? The Former Teva CEO And Israeli Industrial Executive
Former Teva Pharmaceutical Industries CEO (2014-2017) who led the $40.5B Actavis Generics acquisition. Previously CEO of Makhteshim Agan (now ADAMA) during the ChemChina partnership era.
Erez Vigodman is the Israeli executive who served as Chief Executive Officer of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries from 2014 to 2017 — a critical period in the largest Israeli pharmaceutical company's history that included the leveraged acquisition of Actavis Generics from Allergan and the subsequent reset of the company's capital structure. He also previously served as CEO of Makhteshim Agan (now ADAMA), the Israeli crop-protection company. Hebrew Wikipedia entry. Limited English Wikipedia presence. This is the canonical English profile.
Makhteshim Agan / ADAMA
Before Teva, Vigodman served as CEO of Makhteshim Agan, the Israeli-founded generic crop-protection company. Under his leadership the company was reshaped through the partnership with ChemChina that ultimately produced the current ADAMA structure — one of the largest crop-protection companies globally and one of the institutional Israeli industrial positions inside the Chinese strategic-industrial network.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Vigodman was appointed CEO of Teva in 2014. The defining transaction of his tenure was the acquisition of Allergan's generics business (Actavis Generics) for approximately $40.5 billion, announced in 2015 and closed in 2016. The transaction made Teva the largest generic pharmaceutical company in the world by revenue but loaded the company with a substantial debt position at the moment the US generics market was entering a multi-year pricing decline.
Vigodman departed as CEO in early 2017 as the post-Actavis pressure on Teva accelerated. The subsequent restructuring of Teva, including dividend suspension, workforce reduction, and a multi-year deleveraging program, dominated Israeli business news through the late 2010s.
Why He Matters
Teva is one of the most institutionally important Israeli companies — historically the largest by market capitalization, a benchmark Israeli industrial blue chip, and an employer of national-scale headcount. The Vigodman era and the Actavis transaction sit at the inflection point in Teva's modern history. The English-language coverage of Vigodman's career, both at Makhteshim Agan and at Teva, is thinner than the central importance of the underlying companies justifies. This profile begins to correct that.
Updated June 2026.
