(BIZ) Israeli Businesswoman Ranked Among Top 50 In The World

"Strauss Group chairwoman Ofra Strauss is ranked 12th on the Financial Times' list of the top 50 businesswomen in the world.

The publication notes that since 1996 she has strengthened the Strauss Group, a food manufacturing group that initially focused on dairy products, through acquiring a number of brands and expanding abroad while simultaneously integrating Elite, another huge local company with which it merged in 2004. Elite focused on chocolate, coffee and dry snacks.

The Financial Times describes the humble beginnings of the group and Strauss' business upbringing: 'What started as a tiny Israeli dairy farm in the mid-1930s had turned, by the time Ofra Strauss was growing up, into a household name, known nationally for its cheeses and ice cream... In the subsequent decades, Strauss watched her father develop the Strauss Group into a global entity, including tie-ups with Danone and Unilever.'

First on the Financial Times list is Indra Nooyi, chief executive of PepsiCo. The paper notes that only three percent of the executives ranked in Fortune and 10% of the directors of large companies in Europe are women. In Asia, the numbers are reportedly even lower." (source)