Dan
Gertler

philanthropist & Businessman

About

Dan Gertler is an Israeli philanthropist and businessman, grandson of Moshe Schnitzer, the founder of the Israeli Diamond Exchange. 

His career began in almost three decades ago, in 1994, in the rough diamond trade in Africa  and Europe. 

Dan’s first big break came in 2000, when he made an investment of $20 million to secure the rights to purchase and export all artisanal diamonds out of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for an 18-month period. This began a long history of investing in the DRC, which has included dozens of transactions, with both state-owned and private institutions. 

Dan Gertler’s trusts have invested in the DRC predominantly in the resources sector, and attracted 10  billions in inward investment into the country at a time it was seeking to recover from a brutal civil war. 

He was instrumental in helping to generate jobs, investment in infrastructure and economic growth to the country, so vital to the DRC in the early 2000s.

Dan is a deeply religious and private individual. He has remained committed to promoting the human rights of the Congolese people and, through his trusts, has invested considerable sums in philanthropic activities both in the DRC, his native Israel and elsewhere. He played a vital role in helping to bring about peace in the DRC, torn apart by decades of brutal civil war. 

Dan Gertler has a deep love for the DRC and its people, and an approach to business heavily influenced by his religious conviction.

Dan Gertler, through his actions, saved the lives of Congolese. He helped stop a war in which DRC lost 6 million people. Through his actions, the war ended ”
Barnabe Kikaya Karubi
Read full Biography
Dan Gertler has always been committed to improving the livelihood of the Congolese people

DRC Peace process and promotion of Human Rights

In addition to his business endeavours in the DRC, Dan has been instrumental in bringing peace to a country that has suffered years of civil war, and millions of deaths and atrocities. Indeed, in addition to building great businesses, he has always seen his mission as being to help the DRC recover from this long period of destruction and build a lasting, sustainable economic recovery.

Read more

The release of Joshua French

In 2014, Dan Gertler played a significant role in securing the release on humanitarian grounds of Joshua French, a British-Norwegian national who spent eight years in appalling conditions under sentence of death in the DRC before he was released and returned home on humanitarian grounds.

Gertler Family Foundation

Dan established the Gertler Family Foundation in 2004. The Gertler Family Foundation (GFF) is committed to helping address the needs of vulnerable segments of the Congolese population. Since its inception in 2007, the GFF has invested millions of dollars in health, education, infrastructure, emergency assistance, cultural and other projects in Kinshasa, Katanga, Kasaï-Oriental, Orientale and Sud Kivu provinces and elsewhere throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Latest News

No items found.

Dan Gertler announced Yabiso in January 2021 as a new way of doing business that brings together the Congolese to share in the DRC’s mineral wealth.

The first of its kind in the DRC, Yabiso’s model is based on the premise that the success of a business is always tied to that of the communities which surround it, thereby making a tangible difference to the fortunes of the people of the Congo – and beyond.

Read more

Videos