The Calcalist website reports that the latest round of appointments by Ukrainian businessman Alexander Granovsky to the board of directors of Willy Food included "rabbinically qualified" people.
According to the report, Granovsky, who recently completed the purchase of 61.71% of the shares of the food company Willy Food, through the 'Chabad 770' charitable foundation, recently appointed his board of directors at Willy Food, including Shneur Zalman Wigler, 35, from Kfar Chabad, whose education - Calcalist takes the trouble to point out - is a rabbinical qualification, and he currently serves as assistant to the Chief Rabbi of Odessa and Southern Ukraine, Avraham Wolf, and as a director at BGI, which is controlled by Granovsky's 'Chabad 770' foundation.
""When examining the new directors appointed by Alexander Granovsky, the new controlling shareholder of Willy Food, it appears that some of them could still gain experience before sitting in the director's chair," the website writes.
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Another worthy new director - they emphasize there - is Israel Yosef (Yossi) Schneerson, who was the CEO of the real estate company Boymelgreen, who also has a rabbi's education and lives in Kfar Chabad, and is currently the CEO of Emblaze and a financial advisor to the controlling owner Granovsky.
David Amsalem (53), director of the City Improvement Department in the Jerusalem Municipality, who also ran in the city council elections as Moshe Leon's number 2 on the Likud list, was appointed as a director. Amsalem does have a bachelor's degree in economics and business administration, as well as a course in directors, but it is not clear how much experience he has in supervising listed corporations or companies in the food industry. Also appointed to the board were Gershon Hanoch Vinderbaum (57) from Bnei Brak, a lawyer in the field of real estate and taxes, and Eyal Mardler (35), who was the CFO of Emblaze, who was also the CFO of Tao Tshouot from the Ilan Ben-Dov Group — and served in the position until the company was placed on a moratorium in mid-2012.
Schneerson yesterday commented on the appointments to the Willy Food board of directors and told Calcalist: "Everyone you see there has their own experience and their own diversity, no less than the previous board of directors, and we have every respect for everyone.".
Alexander Granovsky is a Jewish oligarch from Odessa who was introduced to Judaism by the Chabad emissary in the city, Rabbi Avraham Wolf. Today, he is an observant Jew who distributes his fortune to charity. Several years ago, he founded the 'Chabad 770' foundation, which owns several companies in the Israeli market and is managed by his Chabad Hasidic associates. All of the foundation's income is earmarked for charity.
One of Granovsky's associates is Yossi Schneerson, one of the new dictators at Willy Pod, who is practically his emissary in many of his business branches in Israel.
