Senior Management
Sir Ronald Cohen
Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of The Portland Trust and Bridges Ventures. He is also a director of Social Finance UK and Social Finance USA. He chaired the Social Investment Task Force (2000-2010) and the Commission on Unclaimed Assets (2005-2007) and is currently advising the UK Government on the establishment of The Big Society Bank.
He was a co-founder and chairman of Apax Partners. Founded in 1972, Apax Partners is now one of the world’s leading private equity investment groups.
He was a founder director and chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and a founder director of the European Venture Capital Association. He was also a founder and former Vice-Chairman of EASDAQ and former director of NASDAQ Europe.
He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he was President of the Oxford Union and is an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
He is a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers and the Board of Dean’s Advisers at Harvard Business School, a Vice-Chairman of Ben Gurion University and a member of the University of Oxford Investment Committee. He is also a Trustee of the British Museum.
In 2007, Sir Ronald published: “The Second Bounce of the Ball – Turning Risk into Opportunity”.
Sir Harry Solomon
Sir Harry is a founder and Vice Chairman of The Portland Trust. He qualified as a solicitor in March 1960 and practised law until 1974 when he co-founded and became Chairman and Chief Executive of Hillsdown Holdings plc. Hillsdown became one of the largest food producers in Europe with a turnover of over £3 billion and employing over 50,000 people. The company had operations throughout Europe, Canada and America and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1984.
Since Sir Harry resigned as Chairman of Hillsdown Holdings he has been involved in many businesses and charitable organisations both in England and overseas.
He was the Chairman of the Appeals Committee for the Royal College of Physicians and is an Honorary Fellow of the College. He is also a Trustee of the National Life Story Collection.
He was awarded his Knighthood 1991 for services to the food industry.
Nicola Cobbold
Nicola Cobbold was appointed Managing Director of The Portland Trust in January 2009. She joined the Trust as Deputy Chief Executive in April 2007. Before joining The Portland Trust, Nicola worked as a lawyer, specializing in media and copyright. Her experience spanned performing arts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, film production, television, music and the internet. She lived in South Africa from 1995-1999 and whilst there headed the legal team which bid for and won the first private South African free to air terrestrial television license, subsequently launching e.tv in a record breaking six months.
Interspersed with her legal career, Nicola has worked in reconciliation and coexistence. In addition to compiling a report for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, in 2004-5 she was Director of Middle East projects at One to One Children’s Fund, focusing on coexistence projects for deprived Arab and Jewish children in Israel. From 2001 to 2003 she was a trustee of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, a charity established in 1976 to combat discrimination and promote racial justice in Britain. She is currently co-chair of the Hebrew University Alumni Association in the UK and sits on the Steering Committee of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. Prior to specializing in media, Nicola worked as a corporate lawyer at Linklaters in London and Paris. She is a graduate of Cambridge University.
Brig. Gen (res.) Eival Gilady
Eival Gilady is the Managing Director of The Portland Trust in Tel Aviv. A Brigadier General in the IDF, Gilady had a distinguished military career spanning three decades – commanding field units for twenty years, and serving an additional ten years at the General Staff. From 2001 to 2004 he served as Head of the Israel Defense Force’s Strategic Planning Division, and in 2005 he was appointed Head of Coordination and Strategy at the Office of Prime Minister Sharon.
Gilady is also the Chairman of the Western Galilee College, Chairman of KIEDF, and the Honorary Consul of Slovenia in Tel Aviv. He earned his Bachelor’s and three Master’s degrees from Haifa University, National Defense University and George Washington University, in the areas of Resources Management, Policy Analysis, National Security Strategy, and Public Finance. From 1999 to 2001 he was assigned as a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.
Samir Hulileh
Samir Hulileh is CEO of PADICO and Chairman of The Portland Trust in Ramallah. Samir stepped down as Cabinet Secretary to the Palestinian Authority after the January 2006 elections. He was the former Assistant Under Secretary for the Ministry of the Economy and Trade between 1994–1997. He was the Chairman of the Board of the Palestine Trade centre, as a board member in few other organization like the applied Research Institute (Arij), the Arab Thought Forum, the Palestinian Banking Corporation , Ma’an Centre and others.
