Maxine Fassberg

Fassberg was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1953.[1][2] She immigrated to Israel in 1975, arriving in her early twenties as a new immigrant.[1] After settling in Jerusalem, she earned a master's degree in applied chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[3]

Fassberg taught at ORT College on the Hebrew University campus and subsequently taught chemistry and physics at Jerusalem's Rene Cassin High School.[4] She married Dr. Joseph Fassberg, a Jerusalem physician, and together they have two children, Guy and Liat.[4]

In 1982, Fassberg applied to become principal of a new Jerusalem municipal school, but interviewers told her she was too young and should return in twenty years.[4] That rejection proved a turning point. A year later, a friend suggested she apply to Intel, and in 1983 she joined the company as a lithography engineer at its Jerusalem fabrication plant.[4][3] She later said the move was unplanned and that she did not initially know what Intel did.[4]

Fassberg began at Intel in process management and lithography, then advanced to group leader.[3] Shortly after joining, she was sent to Arizona for a year of training at Intel's most advanced plant at the time, and returned to help establish the company's Jerusalem manufacturing operation.[3] In the early 1990s she spent roughly a year and a half in Oregon learning advanced manufacturing technology.[3] After returning to Israel in 1992, she temporarily shifted from technical work into community, academic-relations, and public-relations roles before joining the team establishing Intel's Kiryat Gat fabrication plant as engineering manager.[3]

Fassberg became engineering manager at Intel's Fab 18 in 1995 and later served as factory manager alongside Alex Kornhauser.[4] She managed Intel's Kiryat Gat Fab 18 from 2000 to 2004.[5] She later led the startup of a 45-nanometer chip plant and oversaw its successive upgrades to 28-nanometer and then 22-nanometer production — manufacturing milestones that were central to Intel's Israeli business.[6]

In 2006 she was appointed manager of the new Fab 28 plant in Kiryat Gat, which employed 2,000 people when it opened.[4][5] In June 2007 she became general manager of Intel Israel, succeeding Alex Kornhauser, while also serving as a vice president of Intel Corporation.[5] During a period of overlapping senior leadership, Mooly Eden served as president of Intel Israel activities while Fassberg continued as CEO with responsibility for manufacturing.[7] In 2015, following Eden's departure, Intel confirmed Fassberg as the sole head of Intel Israel, with Daniel Benatar assuming her manufacturing-management responsibilities.[8]

Fassberg announced her departure from the general-manager role in December 2016. Yaniv Garty formally succeeded her on January 15, 2017, and she remained through the end of March to support the transition.[5] Her Intel career did not end there, however: after Intel acquired the autonomous-driving company Mobileye for $15.3 billion in 2017, she was asked to lead the integration.[9] During approximately three years overseeing that process, she argued the transaction should be treated as a "non-merger" and that Intel should provide Mobileye only what it needed, rather than imposing Intel's information systems, compensation structure, or corporate culture.[9] She finally retired from Intel in March 2020 at the age of 67, after approximately 37 years with the company.[9]

In 2020, Fassberg co-chaired the government-appointed Fassberg–Kandel Committee alongside economist Eugene Kandel.[10] Identified by the government as former CEO of Intel Israel and former vice president of Intel Global, she led an examination of how Israel could strengthen ties with Jewish communities worldwide and adapt the Zionist project to contemporary realities.[10] The committee recommended a comprehensive strategy focused on investing in formal and informal Jewish education, reinforcing Jewish identity and connection to Israel, and coordinating government activity with the Jewish Agency, philanthropists, and Jewish communities around the world.[10]

In 2021, Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli appointed Fassberg chair of Ayalon Highways, a company responsible for major metropolitan transport infrastructure including rapid lanes, public-transport lanes, terminals, and bicycle paths.[11] In describing the management experience she brought to the role, Fassberg cited her Intel work connecting employees, systems, and objectives. One example was a shuttle arrangement for outstanding Intel employees from Julis who had previously lived near the Kiryat Gat plant during the workweek.[12] Her term was not extended by Transportation Minister Miri Regev, and she left the chairmanship in November 2024.[11]

In July 2025, Fassberg was reported to have been appointed chair of the board of directors of MATAL, Israel's Center for Educational Technology.[13]

Throughout her tenure at Intel, Fassberg was a consistent advocate for increasing women's representation in technology. In a 2015 interview she noted that only 21 percent of Intel Israel's employees were women, attributing part of the disparity to family and parental expectations.[7] She argued that women should not be expected to abandon their careers after having children, and under her leadership Intel Israel introduced recruitment bonuses for employees who helped recruit women, as well as scholarships for female university students.[7]

Fassberg also promoted measuring employees by productivity rather than hours worked, and supported workplace arrangements that protected family time.[7] She cited as a model a senior manager who prohibited meetings between 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. so she could spend that time with her children — presenting the arrangement as fully compatible with effective leadership.[7] Intel said that her leadership contributed to the creation of thousands of jobs in Israel and that she actively encouraged women, minorities, and the ultra-Orthodox community to enter the country's high-tech sector.[6]

Fassberg received two Intel Achievement Awards.[14] She was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 2007.[2] CNN named her one of the ten most powerful women in technology in 2010 and again in 2012.[15][14] The Manufacturers Association of Israel honored her with its Israel Industry Award for 2011, and she received the Hugo Ramniceanu Prize in Economics for 2012.[2]

In 2014 she was selected to light one of the ceremonial torches at Israel's Independence Day ceremony on Mount Herzl.[2] The ceremony that year emphasized women's contributions to Israeli culture, economy, government, and society.[14] Fassberg said she regarded the honor as recognition not only of herself but of women across Israel's technology sector.[14]

During her time as general manager, Fassberg was at the center of a publicly contested dispute over Intel's practice of keeping production lines operating on the Sabbath at its Jerusalem factory, which bordered a Haredi neighborhood. Ultra-Orthodox protesters demonstrated at the facility in response. A commentary in the Jewish Review of Books argues that Fassberg warned that if the protests continued, Intel might be forced to close the facility and could decide to leave Israel entirely — taking 6,500 jobs with it.[16]