Iscar Ltd. founder and honorary chairman Stef Wertheimer is staying in Israel, and like on every other day over the past 55 years, he is going to work at the Tefen industrial park in the Galilee. He is emotional, but is keeping his usual stern visage. Even now, when his family has become Israel’s wealthiest, he believes, “Money isn’t important, only creativity.”
“Globes”: Are you excited?
Stef Wertheimer: “There were a lot of phone calls, but I’m just doing my job.”
Whay didn’t you go [to Omaha] with your son, [Iscar chairman] Eitan Wertheimer? Didn’t you want to participate in the celebrations for the sale of the company you founded in 1952, which has grown from a small business to a huge enterprise?
“I thought it was enough for two men to go, Eitan and [Iscar president] Jacob Harpaz. They’ve been doing the work for 20 years, and deserved to go. Most of my work during these years has been to stay out of their way. My interests are in industrial parks and education.”
How do feel about ceding control of Iscar?
“We agreed that Warren Buffett would have control, because we thought about what this influence would do for the company and the other things I mentioned, and that’s how he does business. He owns all or most of the shares.
“We’re keeping 20% of Iscar, but that won’t matter in terms of creativity or business. On the contrary, it was his condition that we’d continue to run the company. I don’t think that anything will change, because we found a man who believes in the same things we do.”
What will you do with the proceeds from the sale?
“This gives me the chance to finally build my industrial park. I’ll be pleased if the Americans want to finance it, or if Israel changes its attitude towards vocational education and industrial parks. But now there’s money and there’s a market, and Buffett has something to say at a great many enterprises worldwide, so if we want to create something good, it will be possible change something in the region.
“I still dream of a Middle East Marshall Plan for the establishment of 100 industrial parks at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars that will replace struggle with common industrial parks and the training of workers who will be employed at the parks, rather than being unemployed and joining terrorist organizations. But I’ve learned to speak cautiously, because governments want everything cheaply and fast.
“I’d like to bring to end the situation in which Israel educates only the smart people, and learns that doesn’t accept that there are no jobless people, only people who haven’t been trained in the right professions.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on May 8, 2006
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