The council is named after Yitzhak Dubnov, who was nicknamed "Yoav", and who fell while defending Negba in the 1947–1949 Palestine war.

The immediate past mayor of the Yoav Regional Council is Rani Traynin from Beit Nir.

Traynin resigned his position as mayor to become the Vice Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

He was succeeded by Matti Sarfati Harkavi, the first woman ever elected Mayor of the Yoav Regional Council.

For several years she served as the Yoav Chairperson of the Partnership 2000 Committee, linking the Yoav Regional Council with the Jewish community of the Lehigh Valley based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.