An economics major in college, Robert Moskowitz says he always knew his strengths lay in the financial arena, “negotiating transactions, playing with numbers, working on deals.” These have served him well during a stellar career in private equity finance as, he says, has his decision to pursue a law degree instead of an MBA.

“On a global basis, I got a better background to do what I do in law than if I had gone to business school. You can’t pick up the kind of training you get in law school, or the type of training or experience you get practicing law at a major corporate law firm.”

Moskowitz joined Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson in New York on graduating from Duke, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, as well as cross-border corporate and tax transactions during three years in the firm’s London office. He took the lead role in client Shamrock Holdings’ 1985 $400 million buyout of Central Soya, then the third-largest soybean processing company in the United States. The work was pivotal in his career; Moskowitz spent the next year focused almost exclusively on the Central Soya purchase, re-financing, and the sale of its ancillary businesses – four branded food labels – finally leaving Fried Frank to become Shamrock’s general counsel in Los Angeles.

With a little bit of “Shamrock luck,” Moskowitz recalls, Shamrock closed its sale of Central Soya to one of Italy’s largest conglomerates on Friday, October 16, 1987, three days before the stock market crashed. “‘Black Monday’ created a lot of good opportunities for us,” he says. It also unofficially marked the start of his transition away from the role of general counsel and into Shamrock’s private equity side, leading to his current focus: investments in Israeli-based companies.

A small joint venture between Central Soya and a kibbutz was Moskowitz’s entrée to Israel, where he found a number of opportunities for Shamrock to make “small investments,” through the late 1980s, TV and cable start-ups among them. Pleased with the return on those investments, in 1995 Shamrock purchased a 20 percent stake in Koor Industries, then Israel’s largest industrial holding company.

“That was our largest investment and a terrific one for us,” Moskowitz says, noting that Shamrock netted a 30 percent annual return when it sold its Koor stake in 1997 to a group led by Charles Bronfman.

The contacts Moskowitz made through the Koor investment led to others and, in 1999, Shamrock joined with an Israeli partner to back Polish entrepreneurs in the establishment of Poland’s first privately-owned, fixed line telephone company, now known as Netia. Investing $40 million, Shamrock and their partners raised almost a billion dollars in the European and American debt and equity market, bringing in Telia, the Swedish telecommunications giant, as a strategic operating partner. Shamrock sold its interest to Telia in early 2000 when Netia stock was trading in the U.S. at $35 per share; a year later it plummeted “to about one dollar” when the telecom bubble collapsed. “It was one of my better exits and one of which I am particularly proud, for recognizing that it was the right time to get out,” says Moskowitz.

Other deals, including one in the military communications sector that Moskowitz calls “the single best investment we made anywhere in the world,” have established Shamrock – which counts the Roy E. Disney family as a key client – as one of the largest foreign non-strategic investors in Israel. In 2004, Shamrock established its first stand-alone fund, which Moskowitz now heads, dedicated solely to investing in private equity in Israel.

“Israel is a relatively small place when it comes to the business community, and we built up a network of contacts and relationships with people who either served as management teams in our various companies, or have partnered with us in deals,” says Moskowitz. The Shamrock Israel Growth Fund, now with $125 million under management, makes investments in companies headquartered in Israel or with significant research, development, or production there. These include several investments in kibbutz-based companies, including Teva-Naot footwear, a supplier of valves for European automotive fuel tanks, a manufacturer of agricultural plastics, and a manufacturer of hoists for GM light trucks and SUVs.

His frequent trips to Israel – at least six each year – have resulted in many friendships as well as business contacts. “I probably have more friends in Tel Aviv than I have in any other particular place,” says Moskowitz. He has also made deep connections with Duke alumni in Israel, one of whom, Avraham Ortal LLM ’96, SJD ’98, serves as Shamrock’s lead Israeli attorney.

Moskowitz has stayed connected to the Law School through membership on the Board of Visitors and his reunion committees, and has also established a scholarship fund which gives preference to Israeli lawyers seeking to pursue LLM degrees at Duke. “It’s a great thing for lawyers in Israel to be able to come to Duke – Avi [Ortal] is very happy with the time he spent there – but for a lot of them, the expense is prohibitive. I see the scholarship as a way of benefiting and giving back to two places – Israel and Duke – that I care a lot about.”