When Adi Leviatan received an offer to move from a senior position with a huge US corporation to become CEO of fast growing Enlight Renewable Energy (Nasdaq: ENLT; TASE: ENLT), she did not imagine she would soon be facing a reality of daily alerts and running to a protected space. She also never thought that the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic artery for global oil, would close and give a boost to renewable energy — the field in which Enlight is a leader.

"Every country that wants energy independence and security can simply look up to the sun," Leviatan tells "Globes" in an interview. Enlight develops and operates solar power generation facilities, wind turbines and energy storage systems, and she insists she has absolutely no regrets about the move she made. "I wanted to give the kids a taste of real life. It builds resilience and adaptability," she explains.

In business terms in the current circumstances, Levitan also sees the half of the glass that is full. "The current security situation only reinforces the need for renewable and decentralized energy," she says. "20% of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and the world still depends on oil for transport, shipping and aviation. And this is not the first supply chain disruption in recent times. There has been the Covid pandemic and then the Russia-Ukraine war. Any country that wants energy security needs to harvest renewable energy."

The recent Iranian missile attack on oil refineries in Haifa Bay, only further illustrates the importance of energy decentralization. "If there are kinetic arenas, the impact on a gas and coal facility is much more difficult than the impact on a transformer of a solar facility," Levitan explains. "There are a lot of small facilities and energy storage is an additional backup."

Israel is a sunny country, it has a lot of energy potential, and yet introduction of renewable energy here is relatively slow. What is the barrier? "First of all, when you compare Israel's renewable energy rate, 17%, to that of Europe, which has about 40% or 50%, it's not entirely fair, because we don't have hydropower, and there isn't much potential for wind outside the Golan Heights. If we only compare solar energy to solar energy, Europe is more comparable to us."

Still, we are far from achieving the government target of 30% produced from alternative energy by 2030. The growth in the transmission network simply is not keeping pace and this is the most important problem. There are planning and environmental challenges, and no matter how many projects the developers bring, there are land and planning restrictions in the country."

Leviatan assumed her position at Enlight last October. The company ended 2025 with about $582 million, up 46% from 2024, and net profit, which jumped 142% from 2024. Continued dramatic growth is expected in 2026. Leviatan herself began as "the only female CEO on the Tel Aviv 35 index," a position she now shares with Danna Azrieli, who appointed herself as the group's permanent CEO in February.

"I don't know why there aren't more women in the index companies, but this isn't just an Israeli problem," she says. "Maybe it's a little more extreme here, because in Nasdaq, women make up 10% (of CEOS). Not all of them want to reach such positions. In terms of abilities, I have no doubt that women can do everything, and they also bring with them advantages such as communication and listening, conflict resolution, mental flexibility, cooperation, creativity and sensitivity. I believe this is only a temporary situation."

Do you feel the pressure and expectations that Enlight's momentum is creating for you as the new CEO?

"I officially started the role in October and the stock had started gaining in April and of course it has continued since then. I see it as a tailwind that helps a lot. There's a lot of patting on the back, which of course I cannot take the credit for yet, but it's encouragement for the company's strategy and shows that we're on the right track, and it gives me a lot of confidence. We're no longer asking how we're going to ride the wave."

Leviatan reached her current summit after a worldwide journey. She was born to academic parents in Tel Aviv, and spent time moving around university campuses in cities across the US in the 1980s. As an adult, she studied for a bachelor's degree in East Asian studies and economics. "China has been the thing that has interested me the most since I read Pearl Beck's 'The Good Land.' I like big things with a lot of impact, and that's exactly that. The whole time I was in school, I was just worried about how much I was missing out on there."

She realized her dream and in the early 2000s she traveled to China and found her first-ever job at a company that helps businesses enter the country.

This was at a time when the Chinese market had become a global manufacturing engine and many jobs were opening up. "It was a time when I helped foreign companies enter China and set up factories and purchasing organizations, and then an opportunity arose to be accepted into a branch there of global consulting firm McKinsey. It wasn't easy, but I was accepted. To this day, I can still give presentations in Mandarin."

At McKinsey, she started at the bottom. "At first, I even delivered mail in Zhejiang province on a project we did." She gradually advanced to the position of project manager, until at a certain point she returned to Israel and joined the firm's Tel Aviv office. In Israel, she also met her husband, Prof. Eli Muchtar, and the couple had two children. Then Eli, a hematologist, was accepted into a residency at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and Leviatan got back on the plane.

At that point, she decided to make a change and leave McKinsey after 15 years. "In the last five years, I realized that I didn't want to be next to the driver, but the actual driver. I moved to 3M, one of the largest industrial corporations in the world. I served there as CEO of the abrasives division."

She already knew she wanted to return to Israel, and then one day the phone rang and Leviatan received an offer from Enlight. Gilad Yavetz, one of the company's founders whose son, Captain Iftah Yavetz, was killed on October 7 fighting the Hamas invasion, decided to move from CEO to chairman, and was seeking a successor. Leviatan did not hesitate and grasped the opportunity with both hands: "What particularly attracted me was the rare combination between a company that had already achieved extraordinary accomplishments, and the knowledge that the sky is the limit and that it still has enormous space to grow and develop."

When she became Enlight CEO, she immediately felt the difference from her previous job. "3M is like an aircraft carrier that is difficult to change direction, and there is gatekeeping and approvals for everything. It is a 120-year-old company with 60,000 employees where things move more slowly. Enlight is a more entrepreneurial company. It is true that there is an orderly decision-making process and board meetings, but still, it allows decisions to be made that would have taken a lot of time there."

How does it feel to enter as a hired CEO of a company whose founders (Gilad Yavetz, Zafrir Yoeli and Amit Paz) not only founded it, but also identify with it very emotionally? They say that at one time they themselves were still carrying solar panels on their backs.

"Gilad and I come from complementary worlds and we know how to listen to each other. He has a lot to give. We don't have ego problems. Maybe it wouldn't work with everyone. Gilad has instincts in transactions, he knows how to look from the bottom up and the top down, and when he sees that I am in control of something, he knows how to take a step back.

"I didn't have a problem with authority with anyone. I learn quickly, speak confidently, know how to ask what's needed and distill things. I used all these tools with everyone, even when I didn't know so very much to make the right decisions."

In her opinion, the advantage she currently brings to the table is mainly the ability to look ahead: "I worked with the largest companies in the world, I was in the senior management of a Fortune 100 company, and before that at McKinsey. Startups in Israel don't scale up. They haven't seen what a large company looks like, I'm a corporate soul. People in the company remember Enlight as a small company, and I run it the way it should be run in five years time. Our competition is with large international companies in the US. We're in the top ten or even five of solar developers in the US. I don't know small things."

"The company is Israeli and everything is in Israel. We are very proud of this, and still a lot of the activity is in the US and Europe. It has to be managed. The big challenge is growing the company. Enlight is a growing company, and we are bringing in new people from outside, in addition to maintaining the existing core. It is not always possible to grow from below."