Introduction
Eynat Guez (Hebrew: עינת גז) is an Israeli technology entrepreneur and executive. She is the CEO and co-founder of Papaya Global, a payroll and payments provider.
Biography
Eynat Guez was born in France, the second of three children.She immigrated with her family to Israel when she was four years old. The family settled in Netanya.In her youth, she was a journalist for TV shows on Channel 2 and Israeli Educational Television and the newspaper Ma'ariv La'noar, and was a competitive swimmer. She served in theIsrael Defense Forces as an F-16 Squadron adjutant.
Guez holds a BA in political science and Business administration from the Open University of Israel. She lives in Emek Hefer with her husband and three children.
Business career
Guez served for seven years as a COO of LR Group, a holding company that built infrastructures and established projects in Africa. In 2008, after seven years in LR Group, she quit her job.Early 2009, she founded Relocation Source, her first company, which supports corporate relocation and worldwide mobility needs and still exists today. Four years later, she established a second company, Expert Source, which assisted companies expanding into East Asia. In 2016, she founded Papaya Global, with Ofer Herman (CTO) and Ruben Drong (CPO). As of September 2021, the company is valued at $3.7 billion. It is the first Israeli unicorn led by a woman.
In 2023, in order to prevent a negative publication by Business Insider, Guez falsely stated to the newspaper that her family was kidnapped by Hamas and that security forces instructed her to stay out of the media. She subsequently appeared in other media.
Awards and recognition
- 2018 – No. 4 among 20 Women in HR Technology by People Matters.
- 2021 – No. 8 in The Jerusalem Post's 50 most influential Jews.
- 2021 – No. 82 in TheMarker's most influential people.
- 2021 – No. 49 in Calcalist's most influential people.
- 2022 - No. 31 in Forbes Israel's Power Women.
- 2022 – Globes' 50 influential women.
- 2022 – Fintech's top 10 founder-CEOs, Fintech Magazine.
- 2022 – No. 9 on Fortune's The 15 Most Powerful Women in Startups.