The search committee for the position of CEO of the Electric Company convened this afternoon (Sunday) for a first hearing, without the person who is supposed to chair it, the incoming chairman of the company, Dov Bahrav. This, after the Minister of Finance, Avigdor Lieberman, has so far refrained from approving the board of directors to convene to elect Bahrav as chairman, in what was supposed to be only a formal step.
The committee members opened the envelopes and were exposed to the list of candidates who approached the position, including a number of the company’s vice presidents. One of them is Itzik Belmes, who currently serves as the network’s deputy director and VP of services.
In front of the internal candidates from the Electric Company, an internal-external candidate will run: Meir Spiegler, who serves as the director general of the National Insurance Institute and recently also as the immigration absorption project from Ukraine and Russia.
Spiegler, who is at the end of a tumultuous term in the National Insurance Institute, did not hide his desire to first be appointed chairman of the Electric Company in place of Yiftach Ron-Tal. He stuck to his job as a director of the company and made sure to attend meetings at the IEC even at the height of the Corona period crisis, while the National Insurance Institute he headed was tired of dealing with the wave of unemployment that plagued the economy.
The Minister of Energy, Karin Elharar, preferred external candidates and appointed Dov Bahrav to the position of chairman a month ago, after the Companies Authority’s appointments committee disqualified its first candidate, Amy Palmor. – but did not say when.
Lieberman is on good terms with Spiegler and three different parties with whom we spoke estimate that he supports his appointment as CEO of the Electric Company. That the rabbi’s entry into the position of chairman that Spiegler wanted would also reduce his chances of being accepted as CEO.
The IEC told Globes that “this morning, the board of directors held a discussion regarding the procedures of the search committee for the company’s CEO. The committee decided that due to its responsibility for the continued proper management of the company, the committee will continue its activities but will postpone the scoring phase. It was also decided that when the board of directors appoints a new chairman, he will serve as chairman of the search committee, even if his appointment as chairman has not yet been approved by the two ministers. “.
However, until Lieberman’s signature is received, the board will not be able to convene and appoint Bahav as chairman. It was initially claimed that Lieberman would sign the appointment when he returned from a visit to England and Cyprus. Start preparing a portfolio for each candidate and prepare for the scoring stage, to which the rabbi will drop, after his appointment is completed.
In the run-up to his resignation from the IEC board, Spiegler stopped attending board meetings that dealt with the appointment of the next CEO to avoid a conflict of interest. He is Avraham Manela, known as the protégé of Yaakov Litzman, serves as CEO of Hevra Kadisha Tel Aviv and has in recent years been a member of a long list of boards and government committees, such as the Drug Basket Committee. The temporary chairman of the Electric Company, Shlomi Arbiv, Brigadier General (Res.) Deborah Hassid and Adv. Diana Halabi, also sit on the search committee.