Four days after Eli Yones resigned as CEO of Bank Hapoalim (LSE:BKHD; TASE:POLI), the bank’s CEO search committee held its first meeting. Bank Hapoalim chairman Shlomo Nehama heads the committee, which includes Shari Arison, vice chairman Dan Dankner, board members Ido Dissentchik, Adv. Haim Samet, Jay Pomerantz, and Signature Bank chairman Scott Shay.
The first meeting is expected to discuss whether to pick a CEO from within the bank or from outside. The committee will probably not choose between the alternatives, but will utilize both options.
The leading candidates at this time are Bank Hapoalim deputy CEO Zvi Ziv, responsible for retail banking, and Bank Hapoalim head of corporate banking Shai Talmon. So far as is known, there are no suitable outside candidates capable of taking on Israel’s highest available financial post.
Despite Yones’s lightning resignation, after only a year in the job, on the grounds of “strained relations” with the bank’s controlling shareholders, Yones continues to work as usual, and is expected to do so until a replacement is found.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on April 10, 2003