New Volvo and Honda importer CEO: Haggai Dekel replaces Tomer Cohen

Dekel managed the heavy vehicle division at Meir Group, Cohen managed the company for 13 years. Management shuffle also at Colmobil, which is replacing division heads.

  (photo credit: Itzik Barak)
(photo credit: Itzik Barak)

Role changes at Meir Group, the importer of Volvo, Honda cars and motorcycles, Polestar, and Lynk & Co.

Tomer Cohen, who has served as the CEO of the vehicle division at Meir for 13 years, is stepping down and will continue to work within the group. He will be replaced by Haggai Dekel, who managed the heavy vehicle division in the group during the same period, a significant part of its operations, including the sales of trucks, mechanical engineering equipment, and Volvo buses. Dekel will be replaced by Idan Perry, the head of the mechanical engineering equipment division at Meir.

This move comes as part of a reorganization of the group, following the acquisition of 14% of it by Phoenix Insurance Company two years ago. The remaining shares continue to be held by the Shahar and Kaz families.

In recent years, there has been an increase in sales of Volvo private cars and Honda motorcycles and scooters, making Honda the second-best-selling two-wheeler manufacturer in the country for the first time. Meanwhile, Meir launched two Chinese brands and maintained its leading position in the heavy vehicle market but was unable to stop the collapse in sales of Honda private car models due to their withdrawal from the European market.

New division heads at Colmobil

Colmobil, the importer of Hyundai, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Genesis, SMART, ORA, and Omoda&Jaecoo, also announced this week a round of appointments for division heads in the company.

  (credit: HYUNDAI)
(credit: HYUNDAI)

Yaniv Biton was appointed as the head of the Mercedes division. Biton has held various positions at Colmobil over the past decade, including national sales manager in the financing division, national fleet sales manager, and head of the parts division.

Paulina Kotliar Dov was appointed head of the Hyundai division. In her previous role, she served as the head of the Mitsubishi division and before that held various positions at Colmobil for about seven years, including national service manager, luxury trade manager, and luxury sales manager in the Mercedes division.

Rafi Halevi was appointed head of the Omoda&Jaecoo division. Rafi has been with Colmobil for about 20 years in various roles. In his previous role, he served as head of the fleet division and before that as the national sales manager for Hyundai and simultaneously head of the trade division.

Tal Oyzrat was appointed head of the Mitsubishi division. Tal held various positions at Colmobil, and in his last role, he served as head of the trade department for Colmobil Trade Private.

Lian Zaks was appointed head of the fleet division in the private vehicle unit. Lian has held senior management positions and led business units at Pelephone, Tnuva, Schestowitz, and others over the past 20 years.