TEL AVIV, Israel, May 17 (UPI) -- Hewlett-Packard Israel on Wednesday began to replace the 14 executives fired in connection with a gray-market scandal by hiring a new PC division head.
Shmulik Elbaz, who had served as the company's PC division marketing manager, will take over for Yitzhak Benvenisti, who along with 13 other executives and the chief executive officer was implicated in a scheme to sell computers on the gray market, according to a report in the Israeli business newspaper Globes.
An HP statement on the company decision to fire the executives, released in late March, said: "The parties have held open discussions in respect of Hewlett-Packard's internal investigation of diversion of HP products into secondary markets, commonly referred to as 'gray marketing.'
"After considering the facts presented, Hewlett-Packard believes neither Mr. Benvenisti nor (Ofer Heilig, another executive implicated in the scandal) personally initiated any of the gray marketing activities investigated."
HP Israel's CEO, Gil Rosenfeld, was also among the executives who received pink slip e-mails in March. His successor has not yet been named.
