Yohanan Danino
| Yohanan Danino | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1959 |
| Died | |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Residence | |
| Occupation | Police officer (retired); company chairman; adviser |
| Known for | Israel Police Commissioner; chairman of Migdal Insurance; adviser to Black Cube since 2018 |
| Parents | |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | |
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| Education | |
| Predecessor | |
| Website | |
Yohanan Danino is a former Israel Police Commissioner (2011–2015) and an architect of the police's Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit. After leaving the force he chaired the insurer Migdal, and in 2018 he joined the advisory board of the private intelligence firm Black Cube.
Yohanan Danino (יוחנן דנינו; born 1959) spent more than 30 years in the Israel Police, specialising in investigations and intelligence. He led its Investigations and Intelligence Division during the corruption investigations of Ehud Olmert, Moshe Katsav and Avraham Hirchson, and served as commissioner from 1 May 2011 to 30 June 2015.[1] Black Cube added him to its advisory board in July 2018,[2] and in 2019 the Black Cube adviser Giora Eiland named him, with the former Mossad director Efraim Halevi, as one of the firm's senior advisers.[3] The firm's other former police chief is Adrian Leppard, former Commissioner of the City of London Police, whose appointment was reported in January 2021.[4]
Police career
Danino served in the IDF Paratroopers Brigade before joining the police.[5] According to Haaretz, he first took a job in the civil guard in Ramat Gan to pay for his law studies.[6] He holds an LLB from Tel Aviv University and an MA in political science from the University of Haifa, and he is a member of the Israeli Bar.[1]
| # | Period | Position | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Before 2006 | Head of the Sharon sub-district investigations office; head of the Sharon district police prosecution unit; head of the Unit for International Crime Investigations; head of Southern Command | [1][5] |
| 2 | 2006–2008 | Head of the Investigation and Intelligence Division, responsible for the investigations of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, former President Moshe Katsav and former Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson | [1] |
| 3 | 2008 | One of the founders of Lahav 433, the police's national umbrella unit for serious fraud, corruption and organised crime | [1][2] |
| 4 | 1 May 2011 – 30 June 2015 | 17th Commissioner of the Israel Police, succeeding David Cohen. He took office at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu | [6][1] |
| 5 | 2014 | Receives the Police Executive Research Forum prize, according to his ICT biography for his work with police chiefs abroad, including Jordanian and Palestinian Authority forces | [1] |
Black Cube's website credits him with establishing Lahav 433, "dealing with the most sophisticated fraud, corruption, and cyber cases", setting up an Integrated Intelligence Center and promoting a "financial model" of crime prevention.[7]
Business career
| # | Period | Position | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | From 2015 | Senior adviser at McKinsey & Company Israel. Senior fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, IDC Herzliya | [1][5] |
| 2 | September 2015 – 2017/18 | Chairman of Migdal Insurance, Israel's largest insurer, controlled by Shlomo Eliahu. He was appointed about two months after leaving the police. In November 2017 he announced he would leave the group, saying he wanted to pursue other business and public directions, as his post-police cooling-off period ended in 2018 | [8][9] |
| 3 | July 2018– | Member of Black Cube's international advisory board | [2][7] |
| 4 | Until July 2023 | Chairman of the R&D partnership HIVE 2040, controlled by the defence-tech businessman Tomer Avnon, whose investment committee also included the former Mossad head Tamir Pardo. Danino resigned in July 2023, and trading in the partnership was later suspended | [10] |
| 5 | Listed 2023 | Chairman of HART Digital and Together Pharma. Member of the advisory committees of Black Cube and SOSA | [5] |
| 6 | Listed 2026 | Director and group president of the insurance-technology group weSure | [11] |
Black Cube
Calcalist reported on 5 July 2018 that Black Cube had added Danino to its advisory board, according to the firm's website. It noted that he joined "a cadre of former law enforcement and intelligence officials" affiliated with the company, whose activities had been "the subject of several recent exposes".[2] The appointment came eight months after the New Yorker exposed Black Cube's work for Harvey Weinstein, and two months after the Observer reported its operation against Obama administration officials over the Iran nuclear deal.[12][13] Four months later Efraim Halevi joined to head a new client-screening committee.[14]
In an October 2019 interview with Globes, Eiland listed "former Israel Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino" among the firm's senior advisers.[3] Black Cube's website still lists him as "Inspector General (Ret.)" on its international advisory board, describing his most recent role as chairman of Migdal Insurance Group.[7] No public source describes a specific Black Cube operation in which Danino took part, and he does not appear to have commented publicly on the firm.
Danino's appointment postdates Black Cube's 2016 operation in Romania against the anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi, for which the firm's founders later accepted suspended sentences.[15]
Affiliations
- Black Cube, international advisory board (2018–)
- International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, senior fellow
- McKinsey & Company Israel, senior adviser (from 2015)
- Migdal Insurance, chairman (2015–2017/18)
- HIVE 2040, chairman (until 2023)
- weSure, director and group president
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Commissioner (Ret.) Yonahan Danino, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Reichman University, accessed 17 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Asaf Shalev, Spy Firm Black Cube Adds Former Israeli Police Chief to Advisory Board, Calcalist (CTech), 5 July 2018.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Yuval Azulai, "Black Cube has ethical boundaries", Globes, 24 October 2019.
- ↑ Black Cube keeps foot in London with Leppard, Intelligence Online, 13 January 2021 (paywalled).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Yohanan Danino, Avnon Group (company biography), accessed 17 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Yaniv Kubovich, Yohanan Danino Succeeds David Cohen as Police Chief, Haaretz, 2 May 2011.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 About us, Black Cube website (the firm's own material), accessed 17 October 2026.
- ↑ הג'וב החדש של יוחנן דנינו: יו"ר חברת מגדל ביטוח (Yohanan Danino's new job: chairman of Migdal Insurance), Globes, 10 September 2015.
- ↑ זעזוע במגדל: היו"ר דנינו והמנכ"ל עופר אליהו צפויים לעזוב (Shake-up at Migdal: chairman Danino and CEO Ofer Eliahu expected to leave), Globes, 23 November 2017.
- ↑ Gali Weinreb, HIVE 2040's plight spotlights failed stock market experiment, Globes, 3 October 2023.
- ↑ Board of directors, weSure Group (company website), accessed 17 October 2026.
- ↑ Ronan Farrow, Harvey Weinstein’s Army of Spies, The New Yorker, 6 November 2017.
- ↑ Mark Townsend and Julian Borger, Revealed: Trump team hired spy firm for ‘dirty ops’ on Iran arms deal, The Observer/The Guardian, 5 May 2018.
- ↑ Ronen Bergman, Former Mossad chief joins Black Cube, Ynet, 12 November 2018.
- ↑ AFP and ToI Staff, 3 Israelis from Black Cube intel firm given suspended sentence in Romania, Times of Israel, 21 March 2022.