Three days after the dramatic removal of his candidacy to become the next Governor of the Bank of Israel, Prof. Leo Leiderman has broken his silence and explained why he decided to forego the job. In an interview with Yehuda Sharoni on the site The Post of the "Sofhashavua" newspaper Leiderman said, "It hurts me that the dream of being governor which I so much wanted now won't be realized."
He added, "I recommend focusing on the process of choosing choose somebody for the role of governor and on the question of who will be the next governor, and not on charges against me that are groundless."
Leiderman withdrew his candidacy on Friday after intensive discussions with his family, which led him to the conclusion he would prefer to remains as Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) chief economist and a lecturer at Tel Aviv University. Five days previously, Prof. Jacob Frenkel withdrew his candidacy after what he described as a "campaign of defamation and lies that harmed his good name and integrity."
Leiderman saw what Frenkel had been through and preferred not to get his feet wet.
There were allegedly accusations against Leiderman of sexual harassment that resulted in him leaving Deutsche Bank in 2002. However, Leiderman denies this version of events and insists that he decided to remove his candidacy for Bank of Israel Governor to avoid going through the same nightmare as Frenkel. He said, "My resignation from Deutsche Bank was on my own accord to return home to my family."
Leiderman continued, "My record is completely clean. No suit or complaint has ever been filed against me of any type in all my 34 years employment at Tel Aviv University, in 10 years at the Bank of Israel, 10 years at Bank Hapoalim, and two and a half years at Deutsche Bank."
He continued, "I have no doubt that the Turkel Committee would have approved my appointment, if I had continued, but it would have taken more than two months, and my health and my family would not have been able to take that."
Regarding the allegations of sexual harassment he said, "I spoke to Turkel on Friday and asked if the letter of complaint against me had mentioned the words 'sexual harassment.' Turkel said that there was no such thing. In the letter, that was sent by someone that I know, it was written, 'I recommend checking the circumstances of Leo Leiderman's unexpected resignation from Deutsche Bank,' and nothing beyond that."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 4, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013