After controversy, Yaron Felus chosen as next chief of Central Bureau of Statistics

Prof. Yaron Felus has been appointed as the new head and chief statistician of Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Tuesday.

Felus, 55, was selected unanimously among 13 candidates by a search committee set up by the Prime Minister’s Office. The permanent position of chief statistician has been empty for over a year since the retirement of Prof. Danny Pfeffermann. The selection committee was headed by Prime Minister Director-General Yossi Shelley, and includes Assaf Harofeh Medical Center Director Dr. Osnat Levtzion, former Bank of Israel deputy governor Prof. Avia Spivak, and legal adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office Shlomit Barnea as an observer.

The appointment comes after reports in March that all personnel hiring at the CBS has been frozen after an attempt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to place a confidant at the head of the organization failed. Netanyahu reportedly sought to appoint Shelley, who had been a Likud election campaign manager, as chief statistician, Kan public broadcaster reported, but backed away after the plan became public.

Shelley has served in the past as Israeli ambassador to Brazil, also a political appointment by Netanyahu. Following the report, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of undermining the independence of the key government bureau because it produced facts that were uncomfortable for the government.

Felus, who holds a BSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Ben Gurion University and MSc in Science, has in the past two years served as the CEO of tech incubator Visint Labs. Before that, Felus was the chief scientist and manager of the R&D division at the Survey of Israel, the government agency for mapping, geodesy and geomapping, where he was responsible for the development of land information systems and the national real estate database.

At Ariel University, the scientist is heading the geo-information track, lecturing on areas such as adjustment computation, data science and mapping.

In the past, Felus taught data science, mathematical and statistical computation at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He also holds a PhD in geo-information and worked as a researcher and as an advisor with the US National Intelligence Agency, and NASA. In the Israeli army, Felus served as a C4I Corps officer and managed the development of key teleprocessing systems.

The CBS is an autonomous unit within the Prime Minister’s Office, which describes itself as an “apolitical, independent and professional” body, and prides itself for its reliability and credibility. Its responsibilities include determining the country’s consumer price index, releasing statistical data analysis on unemployment figures and economic growth rates — metrics, published monthly and quarterly, essential to formulating and measuring public policy.