Transport minister ousts Israel Railways chairman

Doron Weiss will replace Ori Yogev, who has served as acting chairman for the past 18 months.

Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz has appointed Doron Weiss as chairman of Israel Railways, replacing acting chairman Ori Yogev, who has held the post for 18 stormy months, which included confrontations between management and the workers committee over rolling stock maintenance and a slew of other issues. Until recently, Weiss served as deputy director of the Israel Security Agency and is a director of Israel Railways.

Although the Ministry of Transport said that Yogev was not ousted, because he never held his position on a permanent basis, sources close to Yogev say that he was very surprised by the move. Sources at the Ministry of Transport said that Katz preferred a man who would serve as Israel Railways chairman on a full-time basis, in view of the company's complex missions.

Yogev asked to serve as acting Israel Railways chairman because of his other commitments, including CEO of Whitewater Technology Group, a water ventures investment company. His appointment as permanent Israel Railways chairman was delayed for months by the civil service appointments committee, due to claims of conflict of interests. Deputy Attorney General Avi Licht investigated the claims and found no grounds not to appoint Yogev to the post, and, in November 2011, the committee decided to leave the final decision to the ministers' discretion.

A Ministry of Transport source said, "It is not possible to oust a person who is not serving as chairman. Yogev was reelected chairman at every board meeting. There was a problem in principle with Yogev, who said that he could not serve as executive chairman. This was the key issue for the minister. Since there is a suitable director, we decided to promote our candidate."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 1, 2012

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012

Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018