• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

2

Uber CEO says rideshare 'freed up' his son from having to get a driver’s license—and he's one of many Gen Zers who aren’t willing to drive

3

Inside the 'stealth wealth' playbook: How Silicon Valley's elite buy multimillion-dollar mansions without leaving a paper trail

1

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

2

Uber CEO says rideshare 'freed up' his son from having to get a driver’s license—and he's one of many Gen Zers who aren’t willing to drive

3

Inside the 'stealth wealth' playbook: How Silicon Valley's elite buy multimillion-dollar mansions without leaving a paper trail
MPWFintech

She was one of the world’s few female bank CEOs. Now she’s founding a fintech venture group

Claire Zillman
By
Claire Zillman
Claire Zillman
Editor, Leadership
Down Arrow Button Icon
Claire Zillman
By
Claire Zillman
Claire Zillman
Editor, Leadership
Down Arrow Button Icon
September 15, 2020, 6:55 AM ET
Courtesy of Team8 Fintech

For Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, part of being a good leader is knowing when to leave.

The former president and CEO of Bank Leumi, Israel’s largest bank by market cap, says no chief executive “should sit in their chair for dozens of years.”

It was partly for that reason that Russak-Aminoach, now 54, announced she was leaving Leumi in June 2019 and giving up her prominent role as one of the world’s only female bank CEOs.

“Leaving after a certain amount of time is part of [being a] role model,” she says.

Subscribe to The Broadsheet, a daily brief for and about the world’s most powerful women, delivered free to your inbox.

At the time, she didn’t give a reason for her resignation, but in an interview with Fortune earlier this month, she provided more context for her departure and revealed what she’s doing next.

On Tuesday, Team8, a Tel Aviv- and New York-based venture group backed by Microsoft, Walmart, Barclays, and Moodys, announced that Russak-Aminoach will be one of the leaders of its new arm, Team8 Fintech. She will be joined by two fintech founders, Yuval Tal of payments company Payoneer, and Ronen Assia of eToro, a social trading network and multi-asset brokerage. Both fintech startups are unicorns—industry slang for private companies valued at $1 billion or more. Galia Beer-Gabel, PayPal’s former head of business development in Eastern Europe, Israel, and Africa, is also joining the Team8 Fintech founding team.

Alums of Israel’s elite intelligence group Unit 8200 (similar to the U.S.’s NSA) launched Team8 in 2014 to build cybersecurity companies; the firm has since expanded with a venture capital arm and now a fintech division. (Russak-Aminoach says she first connected with Team8 co-founder, Nadav Zafrir, when she enlisted him for help after hackers tried to blackmail Bank Leumi.)

The new fintech division will build on Team8’s foundry model in which it partners with entrepreneurs to co-found new companies that receive Team8 funding. Team8 Fintech’s mission is B2B and B2B2C. Russak-Aminoach says a primary goal is to build startups that incumbent firms can tap as they work to go digital. That means the startups don’t have to acquire brand new customers, which can be a lengthy and expensive process.

“Our idea is let the customers be served where they are,” Russak-Aminoach said.

The first company Team8 Fintech is building will provide an engine to evaluate credit risk of small- and medium-sized enterprises in e-commerce. The division plans to co-found five to six companies over the next five years and invest $5 million to $8 million in each.

Russak-Aminoach’s decision to join Team8 is a stark departure from her prior role leading a legacy bank that dates back to 1902. Russak-Aminoach was CEO of Leumi for seven years and is credited with turning the bank around. She engineered the government-ordered sale of Leumi’s credit card division to U.S. private equity fund Warburg Pincus. She reduced the bank’s headcount to roughly 10,000 by offering thousands of workers extended severance or early pension arrangements and shrank the bank’s physical footprint by closing or merging dozens of brick-and-mortar branch locations. Russak-Aminoach also led the launch of Pepper, Leumi’s fully-mobile digital bank, in June 2017. During her tenure, the bank achieved record profits and market capitalization.

The landscape for bank CEOs changed dramatically midway through Russak-Aminoach’s tenure when Israel passed a law that capped bank executive’s compensation at 2.5 million shekels, or $730,000, a year. The law didn’t expedite her exit, she says, but allows, “It’s a factor, it’s not something you can ignore.”

Russak-Aminoach says her startup experience with Pepper is what motivated her to join Team8, versus taking another bank CEO role. She confirmed to Fortune reports that she was in contention for jobs at European banks and said she’d fielded an offer from a financial company in New York.

No matter the country, financial industry incumbents can have outdated systems and processes and lots of people, Russak-Aminoach says, meaning “how far you can go with your turnaround is limited.” The prospect of  “building a new thing made me much more happy and excited than continuing to turn around a very large ship.”

Sign up for the Fortune Features email list so you don’t miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews, and investigations.

About the Author
Claire Zillman
By Claire ZillmanEditor, Leadership
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Claire Zillman is a senior editor at Fortune, overseeing leadership stories. 

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in MPW

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in MPW

She grew Salesforce’s team by 600% in South Asia. Meet one of India’s most powerful women
NewslettersMPW Daily
She grew Salesforce’s team by 600% in South Asia. Meet one of India’s most powerful women
By Angelica AngMay 22, 2026
3 days ago
lucas
ConferencesWorkplace Innovation Summit
Trump’s EEOC chair is suing The New York Times because ‘we should bring it on behalf of white workers too’
By Nick LichtenbergMay 20, 2026
5 days ago
How a book convinced Arundhati Bhattacharya, one of India’s most powerful bankers, to try working for a U.S. tech company
AsiaMost Powerful Women
How a book convinced Arundhati Bhattacharya, one of India’s most powerful bankers, to try working for a U.S. tech company
By Angelica AngMay 19, 2026
6 days ago
shyam
CommentaryHealth
World Economic Forum: women’s health gets only 20% of R&D funding. We must seize this $1 trillion opportunity
By Shyam BishenMay 18, 2026
7 days ago
weld
Future of Workthe future of work
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who’s going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
By Mike Householder and The Associated PressMay 17, 2026
8 days ago
‘No one was coming to save me’: How Reese Witherspoon built a $900 million company from a problem Hollywood wouldn’t fix
Successreese witherspoon
‘No one was coming to save me’: How Reese Witherspoon built a $900 million company from a problem Hollywood wouldn’t fix
By Sydney LakeMay 17, 2026
8 days ago

Most Popular

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
Success
Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
By Preston ForeMay 21, 2026
4 days ago
Uber CEO says rideshare 'freed up' his son from having to get a driver’s license—and he's one of many Gen Zers who aren’t willing to drive
Lifestyle
Uber CEO says rideshare 'freed up' his son from having to get a driver’s license—and he's one of many Gen Zers who aren’t willing to drive
By Sasha RogelbergMay 24, 2026
1 day ago
Inside the 'stealth wealth' playbook: How Silicon Valley's elite buy multimillion-dollar mansions without leaving a paper trail
Real Estate
Inside the 'stealth wealth' playbook: How Silicon Valley's elite buy multimillion-dollar mansions without leaving a paper trail
By Sydney LakeMay 24, 2026
1 day ago
Indeed chief economist says we’re entering an era of ‘great mismatch’ thanks to a generational imbalance of workers
Success
Indeed chief economist says we’re entering an era of ‘great mismatch’ thanks to a generational imbalance of workers
By Emma BurleighMay 22, 2026
3 days ago
This 39-year-old quit his lineman job during the pandemic and built a $50 million company in his backyard
Success
This 39-year-old quit his lineman job during the pandemic and built a $50 million company in his backyard
By Nick LichtenbergMay 23, 2026
2 days ago
Microsoft reports are exposing AI's real cost problem: Using the tech is more expensive than paying human employees
AI
Microsoft reports are exposing AI's real cost problem: Using the tech is more expensive than paying human employees
By Jake AngeloMay 22, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.