Shari Arison

Owner and former Chair, Arison Group (Bank Hapoalim, Shikun & Binui, Salt of the Earth) · Steward of one of Israel's largest privately-controlled industrial portfolios · Born 1957.

Shari Arison controlled one of the largest private concentrations of banking and industrial capital in Israel. She inherited a substantial portion of her father Ted Arison's holdings — the Carnival Cruise Lines fortune and the Israeli platform anchored by Bank Hapoalim — in the late 1990s and progressively concentrated her Israeli exposure through Bank Hapoalim, the construction conglomerate Shikun & Binui, and adjacent industrial holdings. Her 2019 sale of controlling interest in Bank Hapoalim to a Brookfield-Israel-led consortium ended more than two decades of family control of one of the two largest Israeli banks, and reshaped the structure of the Israeli banking-control landscape.

Founder Snapshot

Companies: Bank Hapoalim (until 2019), Shikun & Binui Holdings, Salt of the Earth, Arison Investments
Current role: Owner and chair of Arison Group; major shareholder across the portfolio
Sector: Banking, infrastructure, construction, industrial commodities, philanthropy
Born: 1957, New York
Father: Ted Arison (1924–1999), founder of Carnival Cruise Lines
Company listings: Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI); Shikun & Binui (TASE: SKBN); Salt of the Earth (TASE: SLT)
Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel
Estimated net worth: ~$3–3.5B (Forbes; publicly reported Israeli rich lists)
Notable transaction: Sold controlling stake in Bank Hapoalim in 2019 to a Brookfield-Israel-led consortium — ending 20+ years of family control of one of Israel's two largest banks
Philanthropy: Ted Arison Family Foundation; the Goodness Movement

Arison Group by the Numbers

Ted Arison acquires control of Bank Hapoalim: 1996 (privatization)
Transition to Shari Arison stewardship: 1999, upon Ted Arison's death
Duration of Arison family control of Bank Hapoalim: ~23 years (1996–2019)
Shikun & Binui founding: 1924 — one of the oldest continuously operating Israeli construction companies
Shikun & Binui international footprint: Active projects across Africa, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe
Salt of the Earth: Israel's principal salt producer, TASE-listed

Why Shari Arison Matters

Arison is the capital-markets figure whose family ownership and personal stewardship across three decades anchored some of the largest sectors of the Israeli industrial economy: banking through Bank Hapoalim, infrastructure through Shikun & Binui, and commodities through Salt of the Earth. The 2019 Bank Hapoalim exit was one of the most consequential changes to the Israeli banking-control structure in modern memory.

Who Is Shari Arison?

Shari Arison is an Israeli-American businesswoman and the owner of the Arison Group, the private holding structure that consolidates her family's controlling interests in Israeli industrial and financial assets. She is the daughter of Ted Arison, the Israeli-American businessman who founded Carnival Cruise Lines and later acquired the controlling position in Bank Hapoalim. She was born in 1957 in New York and has been the principal steward of the Arison family's Israeli industrial platform since her father's death in 1999.

How Did Shari Arison Inherit the Arison Fortune?

Ted Arison built Carnival Cruise Lines into the largest cruise-line operator in the world through the second half of the twentieth century. In the 1990s, as part of a broader family capital reallocation into Israel, Ted Arison acquired the controlling stake in Bank Hapoalim during the 1996 privatization — one of the two largest banks in the country. His death in 1999 transferred control of the Israeli platform to Shari Arison. Her transition from heir to operating principal of the Arison Group occurred progressively across the late 1990s and early 2000s.

When Did the Arison Family Control Bank Hapoalim?

The Arison family held the controlling position in Bank Hapoalim from the 1996 privatization through the 2019 sale to a Brookfield-Israel-led consortium — approximately 23 years of family control. The tenure spanned multiple Israeli banking-sector cycles, regulatory regimes, and political environments. It is one of the longest-tenured family ownership positions at the top of the modern Israeli banking system.

Why Did Shari Arison Sell Bank Hapoalim in 2019?

The Bank Hapoalim exit was executed under a combination of strategic, regulatory, and generational factors. The Israeli banking-sector regulatory environment tightened materially through the 2010s, with stricter capital requirements and higher scrutiny of concentrated bank ownership. The Arison Group's exit reflected a strategic monetization at a point when the regulatory environment favored institutional buyers over concentrated family control. The transaction closed with a Brookfield-Israel-led consortium acquiring the position, and it was the largest change in the Israeli banking-control landscape of the past decade.

What Does the Arison Group Own Today?

Following the Bank Hapoalim exit, the Arison Group's principal remaining industrial holdings are:

Shikun & Binui (TASE: SKBN) — Israeli infrastructure-and-construction conglomerate; one of the country's largest. The company traces to 1924 and has executed major Israeli public-infrastructure projects across housing, transportation, and water infrastructure. It has also historically operated an international project book across Africa, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe — though the current control block of Shikun & Binui itself is held by Naty Saidoff via Los Angeles, following the restructuring of the Africa-Israel Investments group. The Arison Group has retained meaningful ownership exposure to the company across the transition period.
Salt of the Earth (TASE: SLT) — Israel's principal salt producer and a substantial industrial-commodities holding.
Arison Investments — the family-office investment vehicle managing the Arison Group's diversified financial exposure.

How Big Is the Arison Fortune?

Public net-worth estimates from Forbes and the Israeli business press place Arison's personal net worth at approximately $3–3.5 billion. The Arison Group is one of a small number of Israeli family-controlled industrial portfolios at that scale, alongside the Wertheimer family (Iscar, sold to Berkshire Hathaway for $6.05 billion across 2006 and 2013), the Ofer family (shipping and real estate), and the small remaining cohort of principal-controlled Israeli industrial platforms.

Where Does Shari Arison Sit in the Israeli Controlling-Shareholder Layer?

Most English-language coverage of Israeli capital allocation concentrates on technology founders — Shwed, Shashua, Abrahami. But the Israeli economy also operates at the layer of controlling-shareholder industrial holdings, where decisions made by a small number of families shape banking, infrastructure, energy, and commodities access for the entire country. Arison is the most internationally recognized name in that layer, alongside the Ofer family (shipping, real estate), the Wertheimer family (industrial cutting tools through IMC), and a small number of other principal-controlled portfolios. The Bank Hapoalim sale in 2019 was therefore not only a single transaction but a structural change in the Israeli banking-control landscape.

What Are the Arison Group's Philanthropic Activities?

Arison has run a substantial parallel commitment to philanthropy across her operating career. The Ted Arison Family Foundation — named for her father — is the principal Arison-family philanthropic vehicle, active in Israeli and international social, environmental, cultural, and educational programs. The Goodness Movement is Arison's personally led initiative promoting values-driven business and social engagement. The philanthropic footprint has been a defining feature of Arison's public profile alongside her industrial-portfolio stewardship.

Legacy: The 2019 Brookfield Exit and Beyond

Banking control: More than two decades of Arison family ownership of Bank Hapoalim — one of Israel's two largest banks — until the 2019 sale to a Brookfield-Israel-led consortium reshaped the Israeli banking-control landscape.
Infrastructure exposure: Long-tenured Arison Group exposure to Shikun & Binui, one of Israel's largest infrastructure-and-construction conglomerates, across multiple Israeli housing, transportation, and water-infrastructure cycles.
Industrial holdings: Salt of the Earth and adjacent industrial-commodities positions inside the broader Arison Group portfolio.
Philanthropic footprint: The Ted Arison Family Foundation, the Goodness Movement, and adjacent philanthropic initiatives have deployed substantial capital across Israeli social, environmental, and cultural sectors.
Institutional pattern: One of the most globally recognized examples of long-tenured Israeli family-controlled industrial capital allocation at the largest scale of the national economy.

What to Watch in 2026

Shikun & Binui revenue trajectory and major infrastructure-project wins across the Israeli housing, transportation, and water-infrastructure demand pipeline.
Salt of the Earth commodity-cycle positioning and any strategic-portfolio decisions.
Ongoing institutional engagement and philanthropic activity through the Ted Arison Family Foundation.
Israeli banking-sector regulatory developments and the longer-term consequences of the Bank Hapoalim ownership transition to Brookfield-Israel-led control.

Sources

Arison Group company materials. Bank Hapoalim sale documentation (publicly reported, 2019). Shikun & Binui Holdings Ltd. (TASE: SKBN) annual reports. Forbes Israel rich list (publicly available reports).

Olam coverage

See Olam coverage of the Israeli banking sector, the broader controlling-shareholder Israeli industrial landscape — including the Wertheimer family and Shikun & Binui under Naty Saidoff — and the flagship Olam Nasdaq 20 for additional context on the Israeli economy.

The Olam Editorial Team

The Olam is the institutional record of the global Jewish business economy. Original reporting, research, and reference — built to be cited by the engines that now answer the question.