Monte Toole

Born Mordechai Toolchinsky, to Eastern European immigrant parents in Winnipeg, Canada, Monte Toole has lived the quintessential twentieth-century Jewish life. As a child, he studied Yiddish at the socialist Peretz Shule. As a teenager, he cut his political teeth with the Habonim socialist youth group and Zionist summer camps. And as an adult, he helped the Jewish State through his investment in high-tech Israeli business, and his support of the Hebrew University.

Toole, the founder of GaSonics, lived another life as well - that of Silicon Valley visionary. First at Fairchild, then with his own company, Toole developed a series of products and processes that was crucial to the development of microchips during the latter third of the twentieth century. GaSonics' close connections with Intel, Applied Materials, and the U.S. government ensured American competitiveness at a moment of exceptional technological promise.

Monte Toole has lived by the maxim "Bet Your Ass" - taking risks to create something extraordinary.