Ehud Barak was born Ehud Brog in 1942 in Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon. Significantly, both sets of grandparents were murdered leaving his parents orphans. He joined the IDF at 17 and devoted 35 years to the military, rising to various leadership positions including Head of Intelligence Branch (1983) Chief of General Staff (1991) and Lt. General, the highest rank in the Israeli military. The most decorated Israeli in history, Barak was awarded the “Distinguished Service Medal” and four other citations for courage and operational excellence. A military man devoted to the two-state solution, Barak also spearheaded the peace treaty with Jordan (1994), was involved in Syrian-Israeli talks, and ended 22 years of Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon. After being elected to the Knesset in 1996, he was elected Chairman of the Labor Party. He went on to unite Labor, Gesher and Meimad to form the One Israel Party and became Prime Minister in 1999. In March 2001, he was defeated by Ariel Sharon in a special election for Prime Minister and left Israel for the US. Six years later, Barak returned to politics, was elected to head the Labor Party and was elected to the Knesset in February 2009, serving for four years. He was Deputy Prime Minister to Netanyahu (in 2009) and Minister of Defense. He again retired from politics in 2013, but returned in 2019 as head of the Israeli Democratic Party. Barak holds a B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1976), an M.Sc. in Engineering - Economic Systems from Stanford University, California (1978) and has substantial business interests