Friday, July 22, 2005

The man to watch

Avishai Braverman has announced he's retiring after 15 years as president of Ben Gurion University.
Braverman, as he himself, I believe, freely confesses, is one of the most arrogant people in the country. He's also intensely charismatic, idealistic, energetic and ambitious, is a visionary, and (on the couple of occasions I've interviewed him) is actually rather pleasant. Trained as an economist, he is widely credited with turning around BGU and putting the Negev on the map, as it were, and a few years ago was touted as a potential leader of the Labour party (he didn't stand).
I'm sure that whatever he does next will be in the public arena and will be worth following. I'm basically writing this post so that in a few months time, I'll be able to say, 'you read it here first.'

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