El Al Israel Airlines (TASE: ELAL) has broken the glass ceiling and appointed a female CEO for the first time in its history. The new head of the airline is Dina Ben-Tal Ganancia (48), currently VP Commercial & Industry Affairs, who has been with El Al for fourteen years. Before that, she served as an external consultant for seven years. The move is not an obvious one, given the management style of El Al and its owners.
Ben-Tal Ganancia, married with two children, is an appropriate appointment in several respects. First of all, she is an experienced veteran with a deep familiarity with El Al and with the aviation industry. Secondly, the number of female CEOs in that industry is very low; in fact there is only a handful around the world, Air France CEO Anne Rigail being an outstanding example. Ben-Tal Ganancia is one of the few managers to have remained at El Al after the change of control a year and a half ago.
Ben-Tal Ganancia will replace Avigal Soreq, who recently made the surprise announcement that he was stepping down after just a year and four months in the post. Soreq was recruited to El Al from refining company Delek US, to which he will return as president and CEO.
Ben-Tal Ganancia's rival for the top job at El Al was Omri Cohen (34), who will be promoted to deputy CEO while retaining his current role as VP Business Operations. El Al controlling shareholder Kenney Rozenberg brought Cohen to El Al after he took over the company. Cohen was previously employed in Rozenberg's health services company in the US.
Before taking up the VP Commercial & Industry Affairs position, Ben-Tal Ganancia headed El Al's revenue management department, a position she held for six years and in which she was responsible for managing billions of shekels of revenue from the airline's passenger operations.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 7, 2022.
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