Head of Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital Steps Down

On Wednesday, Ronni Gamzu announced that he would step down from his position of director the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv to make room for new blood.

Also called the Ichilov Hospital, Gamzu has been at its helm for the last seven years and has been part of its senior management for about 20 years.

New leadership

Gamzu wrote a letter to employees in which he said that he had decided to step down from the position of hospital director in recent weeks because he wanted to pave way for groundbreaking and new leadership.

He stated that the measure of public leadership was when you are willing to let the next generation take over your position, even though you feel secure and comfortable.

He said that this is when a leader needs to refresh the management style and also allow continuity. However, Gamzu did not indicate as to who would take over his role once he leaves.

Moreover, Gamzu also added that he did not have any intention of severing his ties with the hospital just because he was stepping down from the position of director.

Instead, he said that he would continue assisting in development of the medical center, which includes engaging in international activities, promotion of medical technologies and working on innovation.

The future

As a matter of fact, Gamzu also hinted the possibility of him running for public office, as there was speculation in the media that he may want to become the mayor of Tel Aviv.

He stated that he would look into integrating business and public positions, but also added that he had not made a decision in this regard as yet.

Gamzu had said in a podcast almost six months ago that he had not ruled out the possibility of running against Ron Huldai, the veteran Tel Aviv mayor, but he had also said that it was not something he was thinking about.

At that time, he had said that he was mentioned as a candidate and he accepted that with a lot of appreciation and with responsibility as well.

Gamzu’s background

Before he started working at Ichilov Hospital as its director, Gamzu had worked as the Health Ministry’s director-general from 2010 to 2014.

He had also been appointed the national coronavirus czar in July 2020, but he quit that role within six months amidst rumors of a bad relationship with the government.

Benjamin Netanyahu had been the prime minister back then. He had also made accusations against the political leadership later on for hindering the efforts he had made to tackle the pandemic.

As a matter of fact, he had gone as far as calling the political leaders ‘cowards’ and had stated that these people were less concerned about substance and more concerned about optics.

It remains to be seen whether he would run for the position of Mayor of Tel Aviv, but it is certainly something that Gamzu may want to explore, even if he has not made up his mind as yet.