Ron Huldai

Ron Huldai (רון חולדאי; born 26 August 1944) is an Israeli politician, academic administrator, former fighter pilot and current mayor of Tel Aviv.

He was born in 1944 in Hulda (his surname is taken from the name of the kibbutz) to Polish parents from Łódź. He is a history graduate of Tel Aviv University, Auburn University Montgomery (Alabama), the U.S. Air Force Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base (Montgomery, AL), and the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In the course of his twenty six years of military service in the Israeli Air Force (1963-1989), he served as a combat pilot and held several key senior command positions. As Brigadier General, he was in charge of the Air Force Pilots Training School. He also served as a coordinator of the government authorities and supervisor of civilian construction projects for the IAF.

Following his retirement from active duty in 1989, he entered the private sector. Three years later, he became headmaster of the prestigious Herzliya Hebrew High School and remained in office for six years.

A member of the Labour Party, Huldai was first elected mayor of Tel Aviv in 1998, was re-elected in 2003 with 62% of the vote, and again in 2008 with 50.6%.

Huldai ran for mayor in 2008 municipal elections as part of the One Tel Aviv list, a partnership between Labor and Kadima. He was supported by the Pensioners, the city council's largest faction.