The Russian investment banking market isn’t what it was: banks have scaled back their ambitions and repatriated staff to London. But there are still some powerful men and women you need to know if you want to get a foothold in Moscow. According to Russian headhunters they are:
1. Nick Jordan at Goldman Sachs
Nick Jordan is to Russian banking what barista is to coffee. The two things have been inseparable since the mid-2000s, when Jordan oversaw the creation of Deutsche Bank’s Russian business. A Russian-speaking American, Jordan is every international investment bank’s dream man in Russia. He now works for Goldman Sachs as co-head of its Moscow-based operations.
Nick Jordan (looking wistful 11 years ago)
2. Paulo Zannoni at Goldman Sachs
Zannoni is Jordan’s co-head in Moscow. An Italian by birth, he first moved to Moscow in 1992 in order to head Fiat’s representative office in the country. In 2000, he was appointed a partner at Goldman. Zannoni took over as co-head of Goldman’s Moscow office in 2012.
3. Ilya Sherbovich, ex-head of Deutsche Bank in Russia
Ilya Sherbovich is no longer a banker: he’s managing partner of United Capital Partners, a ‘private investment group.’ However, when Sherbovich was a banker, he was reportedly one of Vladimir Putin’s favourites. At one point he was Deutsche’s head of global banking for Russia.
4. Irackly Mtibelishvily, chairman of corporate and investment banking for Citigroup in Russia
Last year, Citigroup did some serious trimming of its expat bankers in Russia. However, it did not trim Irackly Mtibelishvily, its most senior investment banker in Russia, who is believed to be of Jordanian descent.
5. Dmitry Ankudinov, head of investment banking for Citigroup in Russia
Ankudinov also survived Citi’s cull. He was hired by Citi from Renaissance Capital in 2011, at which time Citi was expanding in the country.
6. Pavel Teplukhin, chief country officer for Deutsche Bank in Russia
Jordan and Sherbovich quit years ago, but Deutsche has a new set of faces in Russia. One of them is Pavel Tepulkhin, who was made chief country officer for the bank in September 2012. Tepulkhin seems to have spent most of his career at Deutsche.
7. Igor Lojevsky, vice chairman of Eastern Europe for Deutsche Bank’s Asset & Wealth Management and Corporate Banking & Securities divisions.
Lojevsky was Tepulkhin’s predecessor at Deutsche in Moscow. Now based in London, he’s got a broader remit encompassing the whole of Eastern Europe, but is still said to be a good Russian banker to know.
8. Ruben Vardanian, co-head of Sberbank CIB
Ruben Vardanian is best known for throwing a $1m party, paying $10m in bonuses and shaving off his hair and beard for a bet. While you may want to know him on that basis alone, he’s also one of Russia’s most powerful investment bankers, having set up Russian investment bank Troika Dialog which was sold to Sberbank in 2011.
9. Steven Hellman, co-head of Credit Suisse in Moscow
An American by birth, Hellman has been at Credit Suisse’s Moscow office since 2007. He cut his teeth as an energy banker in London and Moscow, as any Russian banker should. Credit Suisse closed its Moscow-based investment banking operations in December 2012 and moved many of its staff to London to reduce costs. Hellman stayed behind.
10. Diana Gindin, chairman of Credit Suisse in Moscow
Like Hellman, Gindin stayed behind in Russia when Credit Suisse shunted its Moscow-based staff back to the City. While Hellman is an energy man, Gindin is equities-focused.
11. Bernard Sucher, former country head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Russia who is now at the Russian investment firm Aton
An American by birth, 53 year-old Sucher has spent two decades living in Russian and used to be country head for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He quit the bank in 2010 to pursue ‘other opportunities’. Those opportunities turned out to be becoming a board member of Aton Capital, one of Russia’s oldest investment companies. Sucher now spends most of his time in the US, but can be found in Moscow occasionally.
12. Gordon McCulloch, senior Russia-focused equity banker at JPMorgan
McCulloch seems to fly below the radar. After stints at Goldman Sachs and Renaissance Capital (where he was deputy chief executive), he was hired by JPMorgan to head the bank’s Russian equities business in 2010. Not much has been heard of him since, although McCulloch is still working for JPM in London according to the FCA Register.
13. Alexander Pertsovsky, chief executive of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Russia
Pertsovsky has been chief executive of BAML in Russia since December 2012. Like many others, he’s also occupied a senior position at Renaissance Capital Group. Russian banking is a small world.
14. Yan Tavrovsky, president of JPMorgan in Russia
Tavrosky is JPM’s most powerful man in Russia. If you’re interviewing for a job at JPM Moscow and want to know who you’ll encounter, JPMorgan’s other top Russian bankers can be identified here.
15. Elena Titova, chief executive of UBS in Russia
Titova was formerly one of Morgan Stanley’s top bankers in Moscow, and before that she spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs. Since January, she’s been chief executive of UBS in Russia. If you want to work for Andrea Orcel in Russia, Titova is the person to know.