Specialty foundry A target=new href=http://www.towersemi.com>Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Nasdaq: TSEM; TASE: TSEM) has named a new chairman of the board to replace Dov Moran.
Migdal Ha'Emek-based Tower said that its board of directors has nominated Amir Elstein to serve as the new chairman.
Dov Moran sought to spend more time on developing his start-up mobile phone venture Modu.
Elstein was recently appointed to the board of generic pharmaceutical giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA), and previously oversaw Teva's global pharmaceutical resources as executive vice president in the office of the CEO for Teva.
Elstein also was general manager of Intel Electronics Ltd., an Israeli subsidiary of Intel Corporation, from 1998 to 2004.
Dov Moran will continue to serve as a member of the board of directors. Moran said that compared to when he came to Tower, the firm is more efficient, and with the recent acquisition of Jazz Technologies, has a better basis of international operation. He also said that "it will now have a better chairman that can dedicate his time to the company more than I could and has great experience in semiconductor and management."
Tower CEO Russell Ellwanger said the Elstein "is a semiconductor industry veteran with an outstanding reputation, and I am confident that with Amir we will capitalize on the opportunities that the present worldwide economic situation offers to the bold."
Two other new members of Tower's board of directors are Dana Gross and Alex Kornhauser. Gross was formerly SanDisk Corporation (Nasdaq:SNDK) Senior Vice President and Israel Country Manager. Kornhauser is Numonyx senior vice president and general manager of manufacturing. Numonyx was formed through the merger of Intel and STM’s flash businesses.
Tower maintains two manufacturing facilities in Israel with access to Jazz Semiconductor’s fab in the US.
Shares in Tower closed at $0.168 on Nasdaq, giving it a market cap of $21.75 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 6, 2009
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