Leumi Projects and Infrastructure Finance Chief Lior Manzer Steps Down from Hapoalim

Lior Manzer, one of the best-known figures in Israel’s energy and infrastructure financing sector, informed Bank Hapoalim this morning that he is leaving. Manzer headed the bank’s projects finance and national infrastructure unit in the business division and had been a central figure in arranging complex financing deals for power plants, including the Eshkol station and others.

Although he held a senior post below the bank’s top division and department heads, Manzer was considered a brand name in national infrastructure. Industry executives routinely turned to him for advice as the market became increasingly competitive and active, driven by a wave of new power plant and energy facility construction.

He has served in his current role for 13 years and has worked at Bank Hapoalim for 30 years. He will continue as a consultant to the bank on infrastructure matters, and his replacement will be Shachaf Gilad, who worked closely with him on his team.

His departure comes about a month after reports of a broader wave of exits at Bank Hapoalim, including Ilan Peretz, head of commercial banking, Yigal Bindes, who led the infrastructure and energy sector in the business division, and Tom Ben-David, the national mortgage chief. Bank Hapoalim, led by Yadin Antebi, is still implementing a late-2024 efficiency plan to cut 770 jobs, and the article notes that the recent departures amount to a further loss of experienced talent, without evidence linking them to a labor dispute.