Kanfei Nesharim, the holding company through which Eli Rozenberg controls El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL), has announced six new candidates for the airline's board, and a new chairman, and wants to call an immediate shareholders meeting to approve them.
Rozenberg's candidate for chairman is former Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) chairman and former Ministry of Finance director general David Brodet.
The six candidates for the board are: Prof. Gabriela Shalev, a former Israeli Ambassador to the UN and former Bank Leumi director, who is a jurist currently serving as a member of the Higher Academic Council at Ono Academic College; Amikam Ben-Zvi, a former chairman of the Israel Standards Institution whose daughter heads Bank Leumi's risk management division; aviation executive Moti Engelman; Jason Greenblatt, the former US envoy to the Middle East; Doron Cohen, a former coordinator of staff in the Ministry of Finance's budget division and a former head of the Government Companies Authority, who is currently a director on the board of Harel and Champion Motors; Reem Aminoach, Head of the UHY Shtainmetz Aminoach & Co. and a reserve Brigadier General, and the husband of former Bank Leumi CEO Rakefet Russak-Aminonach.
The deep rooted connections to El Al of the proposed new board indicates who might have been leading the deal.
Kanfei Nesharim said, "The team that we have formed will lead El Al to a secure future. With these appointments, Eli Rozenberg has marked out the direction of El Al under his control. The new El Al board of directors has a weighty responsibility to restore customer confidence in the company and in partnership with the management and employees pull the company out of the crisis in which it has found itself and put El Al back on the runway for takeoff. El Al has been in a protracted crisis that only became more severe and deepened due to the coronavirus pandemic."
"El Al will resume flying on a major scale while expanding its operations on profitable routes to the east, North America and Europe. El Al's board of directors needs to work together with management to add new destinations, enlarge operations and expand due to the large options and potential that have opened up in aviation after the signing of the peace agreements by the State of Israel with the UAE and Bahrain."
In July 2019 when Brodet stepped down after nine years as Bank Leumi chairman and 50 years of activities, he told "Globes" that he was planning to rest. It is to be hoped that he has recharged his batteries because being El Al chairman is not a very restful job.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 7, 2020
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020