Gil (Ph.D. Psychology) is an organizational consultant and keynote speaker with 30 years of experience working with some of Israel’s largest organizations. He has also served as a personal consultant to CEO’s and leaders of large organizations such as the Israeli National Chief of Police.
After learning about the extreme worldwide unemployment of people with severe disabilities, he began researching and developing a unique managerial model that enabled people with severe disabilities to achieve regular productivity in free-market businesses for regular market wages.
In 2008, he founded CY, an outsourcing services call center and for-profit social business that was staffed and managed primarily by previously unemployed, severely disabled people and other marginalized populations.
For the past 12 years, CY’s hundreds of employees have proven – in apples-to-apples comparisons to similar call centers staffed by non-disabled employees and based on objective electronic metrics such as calls-per-hour and sales targets – that they are not only as productive as other workers but far more loyal, and engaged. CY demonstrates how a managerial model and corporate culture focused on finding and nurturing potential could benefit companies everywhere, allowing them to identify and employ the millions of people who are likely to be overlooked by traditional screening and hiring approaches.
In 2011, three years after founding CY, Gil was chosen by The Marker – Israel’s largest business newspaper – as one of the 100 most influential people in the Israeli economy. Since its founding, CY has been covered in academic journals and publications, featured in a United Nations brief, been visited by representatives of 70 countries, and has won numerous awards and recognitions, including a commendation from Shimon Peres, the late Israeli President and the Excellence Award in Social Enterprise from the Knesset (Israeli Parliament). His 2020 TED Talk, How to Find Hidden Potential, is part of TED’s The Way We Work series.
Gil has degrees in special education and psychology, a master’s degree in clinical psychology and a doctorate in psychology. All degrees from Tel Aviv University and all with honors. He has also had advanced training in Treating PTSD.
Gil lives with his wife and two daughters and is the identical twin brother of psychologist Guy Winch.
