The Authority has been without a permanent CEO for over eighteen months, during the most testing period in Israel’s aviation history.
Today, the government approved the recommendation of Minister of Transport Miri Regev to appoint Sharon Kedmi as CEO of the Israel Airports Authority. Kedmi was selected for the role by the Israel Airports Authority Council in June, and the appointment was cleared by the appointments committee of the Government Companies Authority in September.
In the midst of an unprecedented crisis in aviation in Israel because of the war, the Israel Airports Authority has not had a permanent CEO for more than a year and a half, since the resignation of the previous CEO Hagai Topolansky, after Regev threatened to remove him.
Kedmi’s appointment follows Regev’s failed attempt to appoint her associate Ofer Malka, who in her previous term as minister of transport served as CEO of the ministry. Regev recommended Malka for the post of CEO of the Israel Airports Authority despite criticism by people who had worked with him that he was not suitable for it. In April this year he was ruled out by the Government Companies Authority appointments committee, on the grounds that he did not possess the threshold qualifications for the position.
Kedmi, a former journalist (including a stint at “Globes”), served as director general of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor in Benjamin Netanyahu’s second government. He headed the Kedmi Committee that examined competition in the food sector. He later entered the private sector, setting up a business consultancy firm, and then became head of the local branch of French railway engineering company Alstom, and was subsequently appointed head of the Middle East and Africa Sub-Region at Skoda Group. He replaces Amnon Cohen, who has been acting CEO of the Israel Airports Authority for the past eighteen months.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on October 31, 2024.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.
Sharon Kedmi credit: personal photograph
