# Eli Harari

> Eli Harari is an Israeli-American engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded SanDisk in 1988 and served as its founding CEO until retiring at the end of 2010. His work on floating-gate EEPROM and flash storage systems helped make semiconductor storage practical for portable devices. He founded SunRise Memory in June 2016 and is its chairman and CEO.

- **Role:** Chairman and CEO at SunRise Memory
- **Organizations:** SunRise Memory, SanDisk, Wafer Scale Integration, Intel, Hughes Aircraft, Synertek
- **From:** Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine
- **Nationality:** Israeli-American
- **Education:** Undergraduate studies in mathematics and physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, B.Sc. in Physics, University of Manchester, Ph.D., Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (solid-state sciences research), Princeton University
- **Known for:** Developed practical floating-gate EEPROM, enabling electrically erasable nonvolatile memory., Co-founded SanDisk and led the company from 1988 through 2010., Helped develop System Flash architecture for practical semiconductor storage.

## Career timeline

- **1945** — Born in Tel Aviv.
- **1973** — Earned a Princeton doctorate and subsequently joined Hughes Aircraft.
- **1970s** — Developed practical floating-gate EEPROM at Hughes; subsequently worked at Intel and Synertek.
- **1983** — Founded Wafer Scale Integration.
- **1988** — Co-founded SunDisk with Jack Yuan and Sanjay Mehrotra.
- **1991** — SunDisk introduced its 20-megabyte SSD for IBM.
- **1994** — SanDisk introduced CompactFlash cards.
- **1995** — SunDisk became SanDisk and went public.
- **2009** — Received IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal.
- **2010** — Retired as SanDisk chairman and CEO at year end.
- **2014** — Received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a November 20 White House ceremony; the award is listed under the 2012 laureate class.
- **2016** — Founded SunRise Memory in June.
- **2017** — Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

## Achievements

- Developed practical floating-gate EEPROM, enabling electrically erasable nonvolatile memory.
- Co-founded SanDisk and led the company from 1988 through 2010.
- Helped develop System Flash architecture for practical semiconductor storage.
- IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal (2009).
- National Medal of Technology and Innovation, presented in 2014.
- National Inventors Hall of Fame induction (2017).
- Member of the National Academy of Engineering.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Research check: SunRise Memory’s official leadership page lists Harari as chairman and CEO. Its website describes ongoing development of 3D ferroelectric RAM and a 2026-and-beyond scaling roadmap; this date records verification, not a new announcement.

## Links

- Website: https://www.sunrise3d.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-harari-a964b8283

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/eli-harari
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-23