Yael Almog, Attorney at Law from the District Attorney’s Office in Tel Aviv (taxation and economy), was recently appointed as the Senior Adviser to the Chairman of the ISA and as Director of International Department of the Israel Securities Authority. Almog will replace Lisa Haimovitz, who filled these positions during the last years and had announced her intention to retire from the ISA, about two months ago, in favor of joining the private sector.
Lisa Haimovitz started to work at the Israel Securities Authority in 1992 as an investigator. Within a year she had moved to the Legal department and was later appointed Deputy Director of the Secondary Market Supervision Department. In 2002 Lisa was appointed Senior Adviser to the Chairman of the ISA, Mr. Moshe Tery, and acted in this capacity for the last four years.
During the last years Lisa Haimovitz was involved in all the major reforms, involving the ISA, initiating some of them. She also represented the ISA in professional discussions held by the Bachar Committee and was a party to the drafting of the Bachar legislation and its passing in the Knesset. Lisa was a member of the committee chaired by Reuben Bachar, which in August 2003 had recommended a far reaching reform pertaining to prospectuses of bonds and commercial securities and by doing so had removed quite a few barriers which prevented or delayed the use of these financial instruments. In October 2005, the inter-departmental committee, chaired by Lisa Haimovitz (along with Moshe Asher, CPA, from the Tax Authority) had submitted a report recommending steps for the regularization of securitization (issue of asset backed bonds) and its supervision.
At the beginning of 2005 Ms. Haimovitz had created the International Department of the Israel Securities Authority, in order to broaden the cooperation with securities regulators all over the world. From that day onward, the ISA became a significant player in the international regulatory activity. Among the many achievements of the last 18 months are – 15 bio-lateral agreements of cooperation signed with various countries. Another noticeable achievement of the Department was Israel’s joining of the prestigious multilateral agreement, compelling all 34 states – who are signatories to the agreement, to cooperation, within the framework of securities law enforcement, on world financial markets. Last months, a common effort, had made it possible for Israel to win the bid to host a prominent international IOSCO conference (International Organization of Securities Commissions) in the summer of 2009.
For details contact:
Ori Katzir, ISA Spokesman
050-5772525
