Bank Leumi Le Israel BM : Organizational Change in Leumi's Technologies Division and New Appointments to the Bank's Senior Management

May 25, 2017

President & CEO of the Leumi Group, Ms. Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, announced today an organizational change in Leumi's Technologies Division, alongside new appointments to the Bank's Senior Management. As part of the organizational change, the technology and information field in Leumi will be managed by two members of management.

Shay Basson joins Leumi's Management as First Executive Vice President and will serve as Head of Leumi Technologies Division (Chief Information Officer). Basson has served in a number of senior positions in leading organizations, bringing with him extensive experience in technologies and in-depth familiarity with the financial sector. In the past seven years, Basson served as Deputy CEO and Head of Technology and Resources Division at the Migdal Group. Prior to that, he served in senior positions in the Malam Team Group, having served for more than 20 years before then in senior technological positions in the IDF - the last of which was as Commander of Technological Computing Units.

Basson holds a BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from Tel Aviv University, an MBA from Tel Aviv University, and a Masters degree in Political Science and National Security from the University of Haifa. The date of commencement of Basson's term in office has not yet been determined and his appointment is subject to the approval of the Bank of Israel.

Ilan Buganim, who currently serves as Acting Head of the Leumi Technologies Division, will be appointed First Executive Vice President and will serve as a member of the Bank's Management as CTO (Chief Technology Officer) and CDO (Chief Data Officer). Buganim will report to Shay Basson and lead the Technology Research & Development Department and Data Infrastructure in Leumi.

Buganim has served at Leumi for several years in various senior positions in the Leumi Technologies Division, and prior to that he served for 15 years in senior positions at Amdocs, the last of which was as Vice President. Buganim holds an engineering degree from the Technion and an MA in Information Systems from Tel Aviv University. 
Leumi CEO's decision to appoint two members of management to lead the Leumi Technologies Division emphasizes the centrality of technology to the implementation of the Bank's vision. The appointments are a testament to Leumi's intention to continue implementing the Bank's strategy for the development and assimilation of advanced and innovative technological tools for the benefit of customers.

The definition of a new position in the organization, the Chief Data Officer (CDO), reflects the great importance that Leumi's President & CEO places on leveraging the information available to the Bank in order to maximize the value proposition to customers, better manage the range of relationships between the Bank and customers, optimize the Bank's resources, and upgrade risk management capabilities. Currently, 44% of the financial services companies listed on the S&P 500 Index have a CDO role, including the world's largest banks such as HSBC, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, CitiGroup and Bank of China.