Yair Shamir (Hebrew: יאיר שמיר; born 18 August 1945) is an Israeli politician, businessman and former military officer.

He was named after Avraham "Yair" Stern, founder of Lehi, a Jewish underground movement that functioned in the years before the founding of the modern State of Israel.

[1][2][3] Shamir served as the general manager of Scitex Israel and as corporate vice president of Scitex (1988–1994), CEO of Elite Food Industries (1994–1995), vice president of the Challenge Fund, an Israeli venture capital fund (1995–1997), president and CEO of VCON Telecommunications (1997–2002) and as chairman (2002–2006) and managing partner of Catalyst, a venture capital fund (since 1999), chair of Shamir Optical Industry Ltd. (2005–2007) and as a member of the boards of high-tech companies such as Mercury Orckit, Mirabilis, Comfy, Longitudinal, DSP Group and Poalim Capital Markets.

[8][9] After the end of his first tenure, the Finance Minister Roni Bar-On made its renewal conditional on Shamir's signing a document barring him from engaging in political activity.

During this period the company entered the Russian market, established a leading position in the drone industry and launched four satellites into space.

[11] According to Shamir, when he voluntarily left the army to go into business, his father would not talk to him for several months because he had held service to the country higher than material gain.

[1][3][8] Shamir is the chairman and co-founder of Gvahim, a non-profit organization that helps highly qualified new immigrants accomplish their professional goals in Israel.

He also criticized Benjamin Netanyahu for caving in to pressure too easily, and believed that Israel should do what it thinks is right without regard to global opinion.