Abdullah Zilkha

Abdullah K. Zilkha (1913–2000) was a Swiss investment banker.

Abdullah Zilkha
Born	Abdullah Khedouri Zilkha 1913 Baghdad, Ottoman Empire (now Iraq)
Died	2000
Citizenship	Swiss
Occupation	Banker
Parent	Khedouri Zilkha
Relatives	Selim Zilkha (brother) Ezra Zilkha (brother) Maurice Zilkha (brother)

Early life

Abdullah Zilkha was born in Baghdad, Ottoman Empire the son of Khedouri Zilkha and Louise (Bashi) Zilkha.

Career

He was a member of the Zilkha Iraqi-Jewish banking family.^[1][2] Three of his seven siblings were also prominent in banking and finance: Selim Zilkha, Maurice Zilkha and Ezra Zilkha.

In the early 1970s, Zilkha's investment banking firm Ufitec, S.A., was a central player in the saving of the Penn Central from bankruptcy. At the direction of Lloyd Cutler, the Washington, D.C. attorney, Zilkha met with Donald Prell, an executive with Union Bank Corp., in Zürich in late December 1971, to facilitate gaining consent of all bondholders to a refinancing so the U.S. railroad's assets could be preserved.^[3]

Personal life

He married Zmira (Mani) Zilkha, of the well-known Mani family of Hebron, great-granddaughter of the revered Kabbalist Rabbi Eliyahu Mani. She and her family survived the 1929 Hebron massacre. They had a son, Daniel A. Zilkha, born October 1, 1942, who became a New York City-based executive and philanthropist.^[4][5]