Bezeq's board of directors today approved the appointment of Ilan Biran as president and CEO, after recommendations by Minister of Communications Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Biran was appointed unanimously. Before the vote, Biran presented an outline of his views and aims, and said, among other things, that Bezeq would be privatized within twelve months.
The decision to appoint Biran to replace Ami Erel who is leaving for Elron was imposed on Bezeq from above, by Ben-Eliezer. Biran is currently director-general of the Ministry of Defense, after being appointed at the time by Yitzhak Modaii. It is estimated that Barak wanted to remove him from the Ministry of Defense, and so recommended him to Ben-Eliezer for the Bezeq post. The candidate to replace Biran at the Ministry of Defense is Amos Yaron.
Senior sources in the communications market sharply criticized the manner in which the Bezeq president and CEO was appointed, firstly, for the fact that Ben-Eliezer announced the identity of his preferred candidate before the tender was published, which prevented other suitable candidates from proposing themselves for the position, and secondly, for Ben-Eliezer's letting it be known that he would not approve any other candidate, which took away all discretion by the Bezeq board of directors during discussion of the appointment.
A senior source in the communications market told "Globes" today that "the appointment of Biran is an unprecedented farce". A Ministry of Communications spokesperson was unwilling to comment.
Biran, 53, is a major-general (res.). His last commission in the Israel Defense Forces was Commander of the Central Region, and three years ago, he was appointed Ministry of Communications director-general. He has a BA in economics and business administration from Bar Ilan University, and studied at the Tel Aviv University School of Business Administration. He is a research fellow for strategy and political economics at Georgetown University.
Biran's appointment is subject to approval by the Ben Dror committee, the Minister of Communications and the Prime Minister.
See feature: "I’ll Privatize, I’ll Sell, I’ll Succeed" - Binyamin Ben-Eliezer Interviewed
Published by Israel's Business Arena on September 23, 1999