Board chooses Seroussi as IAI chair as Erdan freezes candidacy

Israel Aerospace Industries(IAI) board has chosen Gabi Seroussi as chair, even though he did not to go through the preliminary process of the Government Companies Authority senior appointments review committee, headed by retired Judge Shulamit Dotan. 

Earlier today, former minister and ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan announced at a meeting of the board of directors of state-owned IAI that he was freezing his candidacy for the post of chairperson of the company for three months.

After the Government Companies Authority senior appointments committee decided not to approve the candidacy of Gabi Seroussi, the candidate promoted by Minister of Defense Israel Katz, and Seroussi chose not to participate in the pre-selection process, Erdan proposed to the board that Seroussi should be required to submit forms to the committee. The board, however, voted against the proposal. Erdan subsequently announced that he was temporarily withdrawing his candidacy, because “the considerations are not the good of the company, but extraneous, political considerations.” 

Seroussi has a majority in his favor on the IAI board. The workers’ representatives, Eliyahu Ederi and Adi Raviv, and the external directors Hava Shechter and Adi Bershadsky, who will end their terms before Seroussi, voted for him.

The vote in favor of Seroussi comes despite “Globes’” exposure this morning of the fact that Seroussi competed for the post of CEO of IAI in 2018, and the committee headed by then IAI chairperson Harel Locker disqualified his candidacy.

This morning, as mentioned, the Government Companies Authority notified the IAI board that Seroussi’s candidacy would not be approved by the Dotan committee. The Authority stated that “the length of a candidate’s term can be extended to a third term only in exceptional cases and on special grounds; at this date, the stance of the ministers on this smatter concerning their wishes has not been received.”

IAI has operated without a permanent chairperson since November. Before he was replaced by Israel Katz, the previous minister of defense, Yoav Gallant, agreed with the minister responsible for the Government Companies Authority, David Amsalem, on the appointment of Gilad Erdan as chairperson. The decision was made in consultation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Erdan’s appointment as a director of IAI took place before the change of defense ministers. Since then, however, Katz has adamantly refused to appoint Erdan to a post that will give him a security halo, in the power struggle anticipating “the day after Netanyahu” in the Likud party.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on March 12, 2025.

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