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Education: 1979-1983 School for Foreign Languages, Zagreb; 1983-1988 Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb. Professional Training: 1994 – Austrian Federal Institute of Statistics, Vienna; 1995 – Managing and Marketing of Statistical Data, Business Statistics, USA; 2003 – General Management Program, Zagreb; Since February 2000 up to now appointed Head of Export Credit Insurance; 14th September 2005 appointed Member of the Managing Board of Hrvatska banka za obnovu i razvitak (HBOR). From July 1998 to February 2000 Senior Officer in the Export Credit Insurance Department, International Division, working on the development of a new insurance system. Iryna Akimova is the Deputy Head of the Committee on Economic Policy and Shadow Economy Minister in the Ukrainian Parliament (Verhovna Rada), which she joined in September 2007. She is also the General Director of the analytical centre BEST and teaches Economic Policy at the Economic Educational and Research Centre in Kiev as a guest professor. In previous positions, she was Director of the Blue Ribbon Analytical and Research Centre at UNDP (2005-2006) and Director of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting in Kiev (1999-2004), which was established on the initiative of the Ukrainian and German governments. During 1999-2002 she was a Research Fellow at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg. Her research fellowship was supported by the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation, DAAD, Konferenz der Deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften and Vokswagen Stiftung. From 1986 to 1996 she worked as an Assistant Professor and as Associate Professor at the Economic Department of Kharkov Polytechnical University. Between 1997 and 1998 she was as a Research Fellow at the Central and East European Economic Research Centre founded by Warsaw University (Poland) and Columbia University (USA). She holds an MA in Economics (1982) and PhD in Economics (1986) from Kharkov State University (Ukraine). Joaquín Almunia is the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs. He graduated in Law and Economics at the University of Deusto (Bilbao) and completed postgraduate studies at L’École Practique des Hautes Études de Paris. Having worked as an economist at the Council Bureau of the Spanish Chambers of Commerce in Brussels, in 1976 he went on to become the Chief economist of the Spanish trade union, UGT. From 1979 to 2004 he served as a Member of the Spanish Parliament, in 1982 becoming Minister of Employment and Social Security, and in 1986, Minister of Public Administration. Joaquín Almunia served as leader of the Parliamentary Party from 1994 to 1997, preceding his appointment as leader of the Spanish Socialist Party from 1997 to 2000. In 2000 he stood as Socialist candidate for Prime Minister. A Member of the European Commission since April 2004, he is the author of several books and numerous academic articles and press columns. Dr Anna V Andreenkova is Co‐director of the Institute for Comparative Social Research (CESSI) and the National Coordinator of the European Social Survey in Russia. She joined CESSI in 1992 as a Senior Researcher and was promoted to her current role in 1997, when she received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 1993 to 1999, Ms Andreenkova coordinated the RUSSNET survey, conducted on an annual basis with the University of Amsterdam. She was also a Lecturer on “Methodology of Public Opinion Research” in the Sociology Department of Moscow State University from 1994‐1995. Her major areas of research are political values, political cleavages in new democracies, the formation and development of democratic electoral systems in new democracies, the methodology of cross‐national comparative survey research and methodological studies. Jan Krzysztof Bielecki is President of the Managment Board and CEO of Bank Pekao SA since October of 2003. Formerly Prime Minister of Poland, Minister for European Integration, co‐founder of the Liberal‐Democratic Congress and Freedom Union, and an Executive Director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, he has been active in political and economic affairs of Poland for over two decades. Mr Bielecki started his career as an economic lecturer at Gdansk University in 1973, until losing his job in 1981 for his anti‐Communist political activities and participation in the historic strike in Gdansk Shipyard. Jan Krzysztof Bielecki was the Prime Minister of Poland from January to December of 1991. His cabinet successfully negotiated foreign debt reduction and the EC Association Agreement and resigned after democratic parliamentary elections in December 1991. Mr Bielecki had also been the Chairman of the Liberal‐Democratic Caucus, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Sejm (Polish Parliament) and Chief Delegate of the Polish Parliament to the European Parliament until July 1992, when he was nominated as a Minister for European Integration in the new coalition government. In December 1993 Mr Bielecki was appointed to the Board of Directors at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, where he represented Poland until September 2003. Mr. Bielecki has published a number of articles for both foreign and Polish specialist papers and magazines, including the most recent ones for the Wall Street Journal, Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Bankowa, Gazeta Wyborcza, Wprost, Die Welt and many others. He is also a coauthor of the book ʹHistoire de lʹEuropeʹ published in Paris (1997). Dr. Fruzsina Szilvia Biró graduated and laureated at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and earned a post‐graduate law certificate at the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences. She held different positions as financial officer at Bankár Holding Rt., a private company owned by Hungarian private persons and owning and managing capital investments worth of app. HUF 50 billion in almost every sector of the economy (private hospital, agriculture, industry, real estate). As the chief executive officer of KA‐VOSZ Rt., a company owned by the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the National Alliance of Entrepreneurs and Employers, she developed the so called Szechenyi Card, a banking product including a credit line and a debit card of a commercial bank, state subsidies and a state payback guarantee, marketed in 46 offices nationwide through an on‐line system. The program started to work within 6 months after the idea was accepted by the Hungarian government in 2002. As a public servant at the Ministry of Economy and Transport she managed the further development of the Széchenyi Card and introduced a similar factoring program for SMEs, the Lánchíd factoring program. Ms. Biró was the chief negotiator on behalf of the state during the renegotiation of the M5 motorway concession agreement and the awarding of the M6 Phase I motorway concession agreement. She was also head of the secretariat of the PPP Interdepartmental Committee. In the case of the M5 motorway an agreement was concluded within 9 months – after 8 years of fruitless negotiations – about the construction of the second phase of the motorway (45 km), the replacement of the direct toll collection by the national vignette system and the refinancing of the whole project by raising EUR 750 million. For the construction of the third phase of the motorway the concession agreement was modified again and an additional EUR 150 million financing was raised in March 2005. In the case of the M6 a new concession was awarded within 10 months including the raising of EUR 450 million financing and the usage of 750 million tones of secondary industrial building materials (furnice slag). Since 2005 she has been supporting the private sector at various infrastructure development, PPP and complex project finance projects and advising various governments on their PPP programmes. Goran Blagojevic is Financial Advisor to the Board of Directors at Victoria group. Mr Blagojevic has over 24 years of broad experience in the financial sector. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Economics at Belgrade University and started his career in 1984 with Tehnogas Company as a Commercial Manager. After three years, Mr Blagojevic moved to work for AGA of Sweden (AB Gas-accumulator and AB Svenska Gasaccumulator), the world’s leading industrial gas company, as a Manager for Central & Eastern Europe. In 2001 he established Pediment consulting with a mission to assist enterprises in South-East Europe helping them enhance their business performance during the transition period. Mr Blagojevic joined Victoria Group as a Financial Advisor to the Board of Directors in 2003. Victoria Group is a leading company in Agri-business both in Serbia and in the region. Willem H Buiter is Professor of European Political Economy at the London School of Economics. He obtained a BA in economics at Cambridge University and a Ph. D. at Yale University. He has held academic appointments at Princeton University, the University of Bristol, the London School of Economics and Political Science, Yale University and the University of Cambridge. He has published widely on subjects such as open economy macroeconomics, monetary and exchange rate theory, currency unions, financial markets, financial (in)stability, fiscal policy, social security and pension reform, economic development, emerging markets and transition. In June 1997, Professor Buiter was appointed a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. From June 2000 till August 2005, he was Chief Economist and Special Adviser to the President at the EBRD. On September 1, 2005 he was appointed to the Chair in European Political Economy in the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has been a consultant and advisor to the IMF, the World Bank, The Inter-American Development Bank, the EBRD, the European Commission and a large number of national governments and government agencies in developing countries, emerging markets and advanced industrial countries. From March 2005 till March 2007, he chaired the Council of Economic Advisors of the Dutch Parliament. Since September 2005 he is an Advisor to Goldman Sachs International and a member of the Academic Advisory Board of ABP Investments. He is a Correspondent Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the British Academy. In 2000 he was made a CBE for services to economics. Andrei Burz-Pinzaru is a Senior Manager with Reff & Associates, the correspondent law firm of Deloitte Romania. Before joining Deloitte in 2002, he worked as capital markets and finance expert, as well as compliance officer and securities broker in the securities industry. Mr Burz-Pinzaru has a law degree (LLB) and a Bachelor of Science degree, and is currently studying for an LLM in International Professional Legal Practice at the College of Law in London. He specialises in Romanian finance and securities laws and regulations. He has contributed to the drafting of the Romanian Mortgage Lending Law, Mortgage Bonds Law and Securitisation Law and assisted the Romanian Securities Commission in drafting the securities regulations for securitisation and mortgage bonds. Sarah Carey is Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Eurasia Foundation and Senior Partner at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. She leads the firm’s CIS practice. Ms. Carey has been named for many years as a corporate and M&A expert (CIS; Russia) by European Legal Experts. She also has been listed in Who’s Who in America (as well as other Who’s Who directories) for the past twelve years. Ms. Carey provides legal counsel to a broad range of multinational and other companies on matters such as the structuring of complex investments, mergers and acquisitions, and compliance with local regulatory regimes. She is often called upon to advise regarding investment strategies and to structure creative collaborations between industry and government, particularly in regard to large investment projects. Ms. Carey was instrumental in the implementation of many of the business forms and procedures now available in the CIS including joint ventures, joint stock companies, holding companies, production sharing arrangements, and others. She is also called upon by government officials to advise regarding policies that affect foreign investment. Ms. Carey is the presidentially appointed chair of the board of directors of the Eurasia Foundation and was a director of Yukos Oil Company from 2001‐2004. She currently serves on the board of Akbars Bank (Russia). Ms. Carey serves on numerous other boards and advisory committees. She also writes and speaks frequently on US‐CIS relations. She holds a law degree from Georgetown University. Cristian Carraretto is a Senior Consultant with the MWH S.p.A. Energy Department since 2007. He was involved in different energy efficiency assignments, at the Rubezhnoye Board and Packaging Group paper mill in Ukraine, and at different sites of Pratt & Whitney and Procter & Gamble. He was also involved in a technical due diligence for the construction of a new CCGT power plant at the Alchevsk Iron & Steel Works facilities in Ukraine. Mr Carraretto graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Padova in 1999. After a PhD in Energy Sciences in Europe and the US, he managed several research projects at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Padova for the study of the deregulation of the electricity system, management of power plants fleets in the market, the optimization of high-efficiency power plants fuelled by fossil or renewable fuels and the implementation of Best Available Techniques in the power sector. Mr Carraretto has published extensively in various academic journals. He is a recipient of the European Talent Award for Innovative Energy Generation, as well as the Edward F. Obert Award. Narendra Chaudhary is Executive Vice President at ArcelorMittal. He is a member of the Management Committee for ArcelorMittal and is responsible for the AACIS Segment (Asia, Africa & CIS), which includes the plants in Ukraine (Kryviy Rih), Kazakhstan (Temirtau) and South Africa. Mr Chaudhary was appointed CEO of Mittal Steel's Ukrainian operation in January 2006. Prior to that, Mr Chaudhary was Director, Operations and Maintenance for Mittal Steel. He joined Mittal Steel in 1993 at its Mexican operations and has held a number of positions at Mittal Steel since then, including as CEO of Mittal Steel Galati in Romania and CEO of Mittal Steel's operations in Kazakhstan. Mr Chaudhary possesses over 40 years of experience in a variety of technical and managerial functions in the steel industry. He worked at the Steel Authority of India Limited in various capacities for 28 years. Mr Chaudhary has a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from Bihar Institute of Technology, India. Evgen Chervonenko is Chairman of the Ukrainian National Agency for Euro 2012. Prior to assuming this post in December 2007 he headed the Zaporozhian Regional State Administration from December 2005 until April 2006 whereupon he held the position of Deputy of the Zaporozhian Regional [Soviet]. Mr Chervonenko was Minister of Transport and Communication from February until September 2005. Prior to the ministerial appointment he was a Member of Parliament in Ukraine’s Supreme Rada between 2002 and 2005. Evgen Chervonenko is a member of various organisations and committees and has held the position of advisor to the former President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma. From 1997 to 1998 he was appointed Head of the Ukrainian Entrepreneurs Council by the Ukrainian Government. He started his career as an entrepreneur and created a joint enterprise “Lviv Van Pur”, the first of its type in the CIS in 1992 and then headed up the Product Group of “Ukraine Van Pur” from 1994 until 1995. Mr Chervonenko has received many awards and merits ranging from sports, business management to civil service and has been recognised by countries outside of his native Ukraine such as Sweden and Poland. Dr Igor Chestin has been WWF International Representative and WWF Russian Programme Office Director since 1996. Over time, WWF Russia developed from a small Moscow based organisation with 10 employees into a leading Russian environmental NGO with over 100 employees. Dr Chestin and his team are long standing members of the Public Councils of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, Federal Forest Agency, Ministry of Energy and Industry, Federal Agency of Nuclear Energy etc. Between 2006-2008, Dr Chestin served as a member of the Russian Public Chamber. His work experience includes years of research and teaching at Moscow State University. He has received grants and awards for his research and published over 40 scientific publications in various journals. In 2004 Dr Chestin became a Knight of the Order of the Golden Ark, an international environmental recognition award established by Prince Bernard of the Netherlands. Dr Chestin graduated from Moscow State University with a higher education in Zoology and Botany in 1995. In 1991 he obtained a MSc in Pollution and Environmental Control from Victoria University in Manchester. In the same year, he received a PhD in biology from Moscow Sate University. 2007 up to present -University of National and World Economy, Assistant Professor; October 01, 2005 up to present - Agency for Economic Analysis and Forecasting, Executive director; November 01, 2000 - September 30, 2005 Bulgarian National Bank, Chief Expert Analysis. Education and training: June 2006 University of National and World Economy, PhD in Finance. 2002 – 2005 University of National and World Economy, PhD student in International Finance. 1995 – 2000 University of National and World Economy, Masters in Macroeconomics. Kwang Young Choi joined the Kyrgyz Investment and Credit Bank (KICB) in January 2001 as a founding member and has since been serving as the CEO of the Bank. Mr. Choi has over 30 years of experience in the banking industry both in whole sale and retail banking. He commenced his career with the Korean Exchange Bank and has held various management positions in the banking sector in New York, London, as well as Seoul. Prior to joining the Kyrgyz Investment and Credit Bank, Mr. Choi established UzKDB bank in Uzbekistan and where he was CEO for four years. Mr. Choi is also actively participating in the business circle of Kyrgyzstan as a Board Member of the International Business Council, which is the biggest business association for foreign and local businessmen. Frederique Dahan is Senior Counsel at EBRD. Frederique has been responsible for the EBRD Secured Transactions Legal Reform Project since 2000, and led projects in a number of jurisdictions (Hungary, Moldova. Mongolia, Russia, Serbia, and Slovakia), on pledge law reform, collateral registries development, mortgage law reform, etc., as well as a number of research and standard‐setting projects. Before joining the Bank, she was a Lecturer at the University of Essex, UK, teaching Comparative Law, European Company Law, Cross‐Border Insolvency and Business and Corporate Law Issues in Central and Eastern Europe. She was also a Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, UK. Frederique has published a wide range of articles on secured transactions, including in the Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, The Uniform Law Review, Uniform Commercial Code Law Review, and European Business Law Review, and is the Co‐ Editor of the forthcoming volume on ʺSecured Transactions Reform and Access to Creditʺ. Frederique, a French national, is qualified as a French solicitor. She received her Doctorate in Law from the University of Paris 1, Pantheon‐Sorbonne. Anna Derevyanko is Executive Director of the European Business Association (EBA), the biggest association for foreign business in Ukraine. The EBA is also involved in the EU-Ukraine negotiation process. Mrs Derevyanko is a member of many intergovernmental working groups under the Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Economy, public councils and collegiums and is actively involved with the Foreign Investors Advisory Council under the President of Ukraine. She is also a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Centre for Foreign Investments Promotion, as well as the Board of the Union of Small, Medium and privatized enterprises in Ukraine. In previous positions Mrs Derevyanko was Financial Director at the foreign investment company Ukrainian Construction Business. In 2000 Mrs Derevyanko joined the EBA as Deputy Director. Ms Derevyanko attended the International Economics & Law Faculty of the Kiev National Economic University and holds a Masters degree. Bozidar Djelic is the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia in charge of European integration, sustainable development, implementation of the poverty reduction strategy and cooperation with international financial institutions. He also is the Governor for Serbia at the World Bank, Chairman of the governmental committee for restructuring and privatization of public enterprises and Chairman of the Council for Pension System Reform. From 2005 to 2007 he was Director for Central Europe at Credit Agricole SA Group. As Minister of Finance and Economy (2001-2004) he established a strong and sustainable administration in one of the fastest and most successful public finance reforms in the transition countries. Serbia has been recognized as the leading reformist country by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in 2001 and 2002. During his mandate, he was Serbia-Montenegrin Governor at the EBRD and Vice Governor at the World Bank. In his early career, Mr Djelic was a Partner with McKinsey&Company (1993-2000) where he specialized in financial institutions and media. Prior to this he worked as a privatization and banking sector advisor to the Russian, Romanian and Polish governments. Recognizing his achievements in business and politics, the World Economic Forum (Davos) nominated him as Young Global Leader for the period 2005-2010. His book Serbia: Things will get better sold over 15000 copies. Mr Djelic graduated in HEC business studies at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris in 1987. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Arkadiy Dobkin is CEO and President at EPAM Systems. Under Mr. Dobkinʹs leadership, EPAM Systems has grown to be one of the worldʹs leading offshore software development outsourcing services firms. Mr. Dobkin began his career in Minsk, Belarus where he worked for several emerging software development companies. After immigrating to the United States, he held thought and technical leadership positions in Colgate‐Palmolive and SAP Labs. Being one of the first who opened the software development talent pool from the former Soviet Union region and Central and Eastern Europe to the global business community, Mr. Dobkin keeps actively promoting capabilities of the regionʹs untapped skill base across the US and Western Europe. Mr. Dobkin has been a speaker at various international industry and technology events, such as Gartner Outsourcing Summits, Forresterʹs GigaWorld IT Forum Europe, Russian Outsourcing & Software Summits, SAP TechEd, etc. In 2004, along with the CEOs of Wipro Technologies and CGI Group, Arkadiy Dobkin was spotlighted as a key industry influencer in the Foreign Relations category of CRNʹs ʺTop 25 Executivesʺ issue. In 2006 EPAM CEO was named to ʺTop 25 Most Influential Consultantsʺ by Consulting Magazine. Mr. Dobkin holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from the Byelorussian National Technical University. Igor Dodon is the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova. Prior to this he was Minister of Economy and Trade (May 2005 to September 2006). Between 2003-2005 he was Chairman of the Moldovan Commodity Exchange and between 2001 and 2005 he was Chairman of the National Security Depository of Moldova. In his early career he held various positions with the Moldovan Stock Exchange, including Senior Specialist in the Clearing and Listing Department, Manager of Electronic Systems of Negotiation and Director of the Marketing, Listing and Quotations Department. Until 2005, he was also actively involved in the academic community as Professor at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, the Free International University of Moldova, the International Institute of Management and the State University of Moldova. Mr Dodon is a graduate of the Agrarian University of Moldova, as well as the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova and the Department of Economic Law at the International Institute of Management. He holds a PhD in Economics. September 2006 up to present - Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Finance, Poland, Member of the Administrative Council of Council of Europe Development Bank, Alternate Governor of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on behalf of the Republic of Poland; June - September 2006 Director, Fiscal Policy Department in the Ministry of Finance, Poland; April 2004 – May 2006 - Counsellor Minister, Coordinator of the Budget and Finance Section at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the European Union; October 1998 – April 2004 - Financial Counsellor, Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the European Union; Since October 2003 Member of Civil Service Corps; October 1994-September 1998 Head of the Section of Law Harmonization, Department of International Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Finance. Yigal Erlich is the founder and managing partner of the Yozma Group, one of the leading venture capital groups in Israel. Mr. Erlich is considered as the founding father of the Israeli venture capital industry and one of the most prominent figures in the Israel high‐tech arena. At the beginning of the 1990s, Mr. Erlich established Yozma which was the first VC fund, sponsored by the government of Israel. Within a period of three years, the Yozma Group established ten venture funds, which are the backbone of the Israeli venture capital market. Following its privatization in 1997, Yozma established: Yozma II and Yozma III. The group manages over US $ 200 million and has invested in over 45 Portfolio companies. Between 1984 and 1992, Mr. Erlich served as the Chief Scientist of Israelʹs Ministry of Industry and Trade. During his eight‐year tenure as Chief Scientist, Mr. Erlich commanded an annual budget of $200 million, primarily directed at research and development projects of high technology companies. Mr. Erlich planned and started the Technology Incubator Program that led to the creation of 24 Incubation Centers throughout Israel. In addition, Mr. Erlich initiated the Generic Technology program, which fostered cooperation of long‐term R&D activities in consortia of companies and universities. Erlich was also instrumental in establishing several bi‐national R&D cooperation agreements. Mr. Erlich is the chairman of MATIMOP – a non‐profit organization, which is responsible and coordinating the industrial R&D cooperation between Israel and the international Hi‐Tech community. Mr. Erlich is the deputy chairman of the National R&D Council of Israel and the former Chairman of the Israel Venture Association. Mr. Erlich holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemistry and a MBA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Thomas Eymond‐Laritaz is President of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. Chief of Staff of Victor Pinchuk since 2004, Thomas Eymond‐Laritaz designed and created the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and became its President, CEO in 2006. In 2003‐2004, he worked as Senior Advisor on European Issues to the Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe‐Cobourg in Sofia. From 2001 to 2003, under the authority of the Senior Advisor on European Issues to the French Prime Minister, he was responsible for the interministerial coordination and the establishment of the position of the French government for EU negotiations on industry, energy, post, telecommunications, research, and environment. From 1998 to 2001, he was head of the regional service in charge of controlling industrial plants to reduce their risks and emissions in the environment in South‐Western France. He graduated from the Ecole des Mines de Paris in 1995 and the Corps des Mines in 1998, and had several working experiences in NGOs and in the business sector internationally. Nicolas Fournier is Regional President for Central Europe, CIS and Turkey at Lafarge. Nicolas Fournier joined the Lafarge Group in 1993 as a marketing manager in the French Gypsum business unit. Two years later, he became project manager for the China plasterboard project and relocated to Shanghai where he remained based for 10 years. In 1996 he was appointed General Manager of Lafarge Onoda Gypsum Shanghai Ltd. After the acquisition of the Korean plasterboard business, he took over its responsibility and became in 1999 Vice President North‐East Asia and member of Executive Committee of Lafarge Gypsum Division. In 2000, Nicolas Fournier became the CEO of the newly formed Lafarge Boral Gypsum in Asia Ltd. (LBGA) holding company resulting from the merger of Lafarge and Boral gypsum assets in Asia. In 2005 he took in Paris head office his current responsibility of Regional President for Central Europe – CIS – Turkey and member of Executive Committee of Lafarge Cement Division. Nicolas Fournier is French and was born in France in 1962. He is married and father of 3 children. He graduated from ‘Ecole Polytechnique’, the famous engineering university in France, then specialized in forestry in the French University of ʹEaux et Forêtsʹ (ENGREF). He also did in parallel a Master Degree in Economics in the University of Economics of Nancy. After some research work on China timber industry, he joined Lapeyre Group in 1988 in France and worked for several years in several plants of the Group in various functions such as engineering and IT to end up as a plant manager before joining Lafarge. Professor Louise O Fresco is a member of the Supervisory Board of Rabobank Nederland, one of the world's largest food and agricultural banks. She is a so-called Crown Member of the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) and a member of the Trilateral Commission. She currently chairs the review of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). In addition, she is a member of the Dutch Delta Commission for the study of future plans to deal with sea level rise and climate change. Professor Fresco started her field career with the UN in the 1970s in Papua New Guinea and Zaire/Congo. She served as Assistant Director-General of the Agriculture Department of the FAO from January 2000 to May 2006, and before that as Director of Research (1997-1999). She was also president of the Advisory Council for Research on Nature and Environment in The Netherlands. She co-founded and chaired the Land Use and Land Cover Change Project (LUCC) of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). Since 1986 Fresco has served the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in many capacities, including as evaluator of the International Potato Institute and long-standing board member of the West African Rice Development Association. She was also on the Board of the Asian Vegetable Research Center in Taiwan. Professor Fresco was appointed University Professor of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in June 2006, and holds a chair in the field of the foundations of sustainable development in an international perspective. She is a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry in Stockholm and corresponding member of the Real Academia de Ingeniería in Madrid, as well as a member of the North Netherlands Society for Sciences. She also holds visiting professorships at the Institute of Earth Sciences at Stanford University and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation in Palo Alto (US). In addition, she is Distinguished Professor at Wageningen University and a member of the council of the United Nations University. She obtained a PhD in tropical crop science at Wageningen University (NL) in 1986 where she served as Professor of Plant Production Systems from 1990 to 1997. Professor Fresco has published extensively in both scientific journals and in the popular media and is a member of the international writers association PEN. Hildegard Gacek is the Country Director for Serbia, at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Hildegard Gacek has over 25 years of broad experience in international project finance. In early 1999 she started working for the EBRD in Project Evaluation. Between 2000 and 2001 she was the Country Director for the Caucasus, Belarus and Moldova followed by five years in Bucharest as the Country Director for Romania. Since July 2007 she is located in Belgrade as Country Director for Serbia. Prior to this she worked for Union Bank of Switzerland in Zurich, Project Finance Europe, Central Asia and Africa. She started her project finance career at DEG, the German Bilateral Development Bank and held several managerial functions, one of which was Head of Arab Countries, North and West Africa. Vitaly Gaiduk is the co-owner of the Industrial Union of Donbass. Prior to this, he was the President of the Industrial Group Consortium and the joint owner of the Industrial Union of Donbass Consortium, one the main financial industrial groups in Ukraine. Until May 2007 he was the Secretary of National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. From 26 November 2002 to December 2003, he was Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine. Between November 2001 and November 2002 Mr Gaiduk acted as Minister of Power and Energy of Ukraine, after having served as First Deputy Minister of Power and Energy between 2000-2001. Jean‐Louis Gourbin was appointed CEO of Bunge Europe in January 2004. He has more than 30 years experience in the consumer food business in 3 continents (Europe, North America and Asia). He joined Bunge from the Danone Group, serving since 1999 as president of the companyʹs biscuits and cereal products division.Previously, Mr. Gourbin worked for more than 15 years with the Kellogg Company in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, in his last position he was executive vice president of the Kellogg company and president of Kellogg Europe. He has also held positions at Ralston Purina and Corn Product Company. Mr. Gourbin holds both a bachelorʹs and a masterʹs degree in economics from the Sorbonne (1972). Hanna Gronkiewicz‐Waltz is Mayor of Warsaw. In 1975 she graduated in Law at Warsaw University. In the same year she began to work as academic at Warsaw University. In the year 1981 she defended her doctoral thesis entitled: ʺIndustry minister role in state economy managementʺ and got doctorʹs degree in law. In 1989 she was an expert of Sejm [Polish parliament] and Senate within the scope of administrative, economic and banking law. In 1993 she got a title of assistant professor on the basis of the book entitled: ʺCentral Bank ‐ from planned to market economyʺ. From 6 March 1992 to 31 December 2000 she was the president of Polish National Bank (NBP). When performing the function as NBP president she strengthened the independence of the Central Bank, put the banking system in order, she carried out zloty denomination and its liquidation. In the years 2001‐2005 she was Vice‐President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Now she is a professor at the Warsaw University and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University at the Faculty of Law and Administration and director of Administrative Law, Economic Law and Banking Law Institute. From September 2005 she was a member of parliament in Sejm and Chairman of State Treasury Commission. From June 2006 she has been performing a function as deputy president of Civic Platform. She took part in many international conferences. She is an author of over 40 scientific publications including manuals and monographs. On 26 November 2006 she was elected to the post of the Mayor of the City of Warsaw. Arie Gutman is CEO at Fine Tech Farmaceutical. Arie Gutman was born in the USSR, immigrated to Israel in 1973 and was educated in Israel and England. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. and returned to Israel to become Professor of Chemistry at the Technion – Israel’s main technical university. He supervised more than 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, published more than 40 articles in leading scientific journals and was the main inventor of several patents. Dr. Gutman received numerous research grants and won several National and International awards for excellence in Teaching, Research, and Entrepreneurship. In 1990, Dr. Gutman founded FineTech, as an innovative chemical synthesis company. The company’s aim was to commercialize the synthetic and pharmaceutical technology developed at the Technion and to capitalize on the ideas and expertise of scientists who immigrated in large numbers from the USSR to Israel in the 1990s. The company was profitable already in the second year of its life. In 2001, Dr. Gutman merged FineTech with the Fine Chemicals division of a large American company (ISP) and was appointed President of the joint company, named ISP‐FineTech with headquarters in New Jersey. In 2002, Gutman initiated and concluded a sale of this joint company to Par Pharmaceutical Co., one of the top five generic pharmaceutical companies in the USA, traded on NYSE and became an Executive Director and Board Member of Par Pharmaceutical Co. as well as President and CEO of FineTech, Par’s newly acquired Israeli subsidiary. During his term with Par (2002‐ 2006), Dr. Gutman was responsible for commercialization and market launches of several generic pharmaceutical products, for the construction and FDA approval of a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Israel and for conducting “road shows” to raise significant capital, including a $200m convertible bond issue. During this period Par’s stock price appreciated from $2 per share to $75 per share; and in 2003 it was named “the best performing stock” of the New York Stock Exchange! In 2006, Dr. Gutman bought back from Par Pharmaceutical Co. its FineTech subsidiary (which was loosing money at the time) and within a year turned it from loss to profit. In January 2008 he merged FineTech with RxElite, a U.S. generic pharmaceutical company traded on the NASDAQ Bulletin Board. As a result of this merger, Dr. Gutman became a Board Member and the largest shareholder of RxElite. Levon Hamapartzoumian became Chairman of Unicredito-Bulbank in September 2001. Between 1999 and 2000 he was Deputy Minister of Economy in Bulgaria. In previous positions he was Executive Director of the Privatization Agency in Sofia, as well as Director of Management Consulting Services and Corporate Finance at Ernst&Young AFA. Between 1994-1999 he was Director for Business Development and Management Consulting Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Until 1994, he was a Partner at the Bulgarian Audit Co where he directed early privatization and restructuring projects in Bulgaria and the CIS. In his early career, Mr Hamapartzoumian was a Research Associate at the Institute of Computer Technology, conducting R&D in computer manufacturing technology. Mr Hamapartzoumian is an Honorary Consul of Canada to Bulgaria since 1997, a member of the Board of Trustees of the American University in Bulgaria and a non-executive member of the Board of the Institute for Market Economy, a macroeconomic think-tank. He is also Chairman of the Bulgarian Banking Association, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Bulgarian Telecommunication Company, Chairman of the International Banking Institute since and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Pirelli RE Bulgaria since 2007. George Handjinicolaou is Deputy CEO of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc (ISDA), and also Regional Head of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). His extensive involvement with all aspects of derivatives markets dates back to the early 1980s. Before joining ISDA, Mr Handjinicolaou was the founding member and managing partner of Etolian Capital Management, LLC, a proprietary trading and investment advisory firm. From 2002 to 2005 Mr Handjinicolaou was also the founding partner of Etolian Capital Group, LP, a market-neutral biased, relative value hedge fund specializing in credit and capital structure arbitrage. Prior to forming Etolian Capital, Mr Handjinicolaou was managing director at Merrill Lynch with responsibility for the Global Fixed Income Emerging Markets business (2000-2002), while from 1998 to 2000, he was executive vice president and head of fixed income for the Americas at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson with responsibility for all of the firm's fixed income activities in the Americas. From 1986 to 1998, Mr Handjinicolaou was involved with the fixed income derivatives trading in a variety of functions, including head of global swaps group at Security Pacific/Bank of America, and head of fixed income derivatives for the Americas at UBS. In the early 1980s (1983 to 1986), and for a brief period in the 1990s (1994-1995), he was with the World Bank Group, including serving as the Treasurer of the IFC. Over the years, Mr Handjinicolaou has been an active member of the financial community, has served on the Board of Directors of ISDA and Brokertek, and on the Advisory Boards of Polytechnic University, and the International Association of Financial Engineers (IAFE). He has also taught at N.Y.U. and Baruch College and has published several articles. He holds a BA in economics from Athens University, and MBA and Ph.D degrees from NYU. Ricardo Hausmann is Director of Harvardʹs Center for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Kennedy School of Government. Previously, he served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter‐American Development Bank (1994‐2000), where he created the Research Department. He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992‐1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF‐World Bank Development Committee. He was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (IESA) (1985‐1991) in Caracas, where he founded the Center for Public Policy. His research interests include issues of growth, macroeconomic stability, international finance, and the social dimensions of development. He holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University. Alex Herdt is the CEO of the Ogilvy Group, Central and Eastern Europe. Alex, born in Mannheim, Germany, in 1965, started his international career 1986 with Charles Barker, Frankfurt ‐ then part of Y&R Inc. In 1987 he moved to New York as an AAE with Young&Rubicam. In 1989 he joined Saatchi&Saatchi, Frankfurt working on P and G accounts and British Airways. In 1992 Alex relocated to Saatchi and Saatchi, Prague, to run the P and G business for the CEE region. Between 1994 and 1997 Alex worked in Shanghai building up the local S&SA office. Finally, 1997 Alex joined Ogilvy to run the Prague office which he built up to become the leading advertising agency in the country and eventually moved 2001 to Austria to take over Ogilvy in Vienna and took on the role of Vice Chairman for Ogilvy in Central & Eastern Europe. In 2004 Alex became CEO of the Ogilvy Group in Central & Eastern Europe and is working out of the Frankfurt office. Arthur Iliev is a partner at Clifford Chance CIS Limited. He heads the Capital Markets Practice in the firmʹs Moscow office for the past 7 years. The practice includes 3 partners and 27 Russian, UK and US law qualified associates who focus on a variety of cross‐border capital markets issues, such as IPOs, debt offerings and securitisation transactions. Arthur advises on all aspects of securities and derivatives transactions involving both international and domestic capital markets. Arthur began his career with Coudert Brothers, NY, where he worked on privatisations and aircraft financing, and joined Clifford Chance in July 1996. Arthur was promoted to the position of partner with Clifford Chance in 2000. He originally graduated with a degree in law from Moscow State Institute for International Relations in 1993, and received an L.L.M. degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1994. Dimiter Ivanovski has been the Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Finance since September 2005. Between July 2003 and September 2005 he was Deputy Minister of Economy. Prior to this he was Programme Director and Director at the Centre for Economic Development in Sofia (1997 -2003). He was Executive Director at Bulcoop Ltd. (1995-1997) and Director of the Securities Department at Investment Trust Development in Sofia (1993-1995). Between 1993 and 2003 he also worked as an expert for Bulbank, Sofia. In 1992-1993 he was a Financial Reporter and Analyst at the Pari (Money) daily. He holds a diploma in "Management of Investments Funds" from the Central European University in Budapest, as well as an MSc in International Economic Relations from the University for National and World Economy in Sofia. Alexander P. Karmanov is Chairman of board of directors of the ETK Group. ETK Group is a first-rate operator in the market of large diameter pipes for oil and gas pipelines in Russia and the CIS. Prior to this he was General Director of CJSC Leman Pipe responsible for the delivery, sale and purchase of the pipe production as well as pipe supply materials for the construction of the Oil and Gas Pipe Line Systems. Between 2004 and 2005 he was President of JSC, an investment company specialising in business technologies. From 2002 to 2004 he was General Director of the Chimservice Ltd an affiliate of JSC Gasprom, Moscow. Between 1999 and 2002 he was Head of the Moscow office of the Irish company Houkly Maritime Co Limited. He was also the Commercial Director and General Director of CJSC WIDE and General Director of the CJSC Deltrade consulting. Mr Karmanov holds a diploma from the Faculty of Law and Economics at Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University, where he specialised in economics and management. Kalle Kiigske is the CEO of the private equity fund Freenergy AS and a partner of the private renewable energy company Nelja Energia OÜ. He is responsible for acquisitions and financial management. In previous positions he was a partner at United Partners Group, the Estonian based investment bank, responsible for merchant banking and investments. He was a member of the board and head of factoring at AS Hansa Capital, the industry’s largest company in Eastern Europe. He further held several positions at Factor Chain International (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) where he was a member of the communication committee and member of the internal audit. Mr Kiigske graduated from Estonian Business School with a major in banking and financial management, international business. Einari Kisel is the Deputy Secretary General for Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia. He graduated from Tallinn University of Technology in 1995 in Thermal Engineering, and in 1998 received an M.A. in Social Sciences. During his studies he undertook additional practical studies in USA, Germany and Denmark. During 1995-2001 Mr Kisel held various positions at the power utility Eesti Energia AS including the Director of Trade. In 2002 he became the Director of Energy Department in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia, and in 2008 was nominated to his current position. He is the official representative of Estonia in the High-Level Group of the Energy Working Party of the European Council of Ministers and in several other national and international committees. Current position: CEO and owner of Senoplast Klepsch & Co. GMBH and other Companies of the Klepsch Group – the plastic power network. Carreer: Studies of “Montanwesen” - metallurgical engineering – University of Leoben, Austria; Special Field: Bearings-Comparison between brass and polyamide; Founder of more than 30 companies; Founder of several education programmes for local and international employees for production and management. Memberships: Since 1985 Member of Chamber of Commerce/Section Industry in Salzburg; 1991 – 2002 Section Chairman of the Section Industry; Since 2002 Deputy Section Chairman of the Section Industry; President of the EPEX Group till 2007: The European Performance co-Extruders – an association formed by a group of leading European ABS/PMMA sheet extruders. Dr Rodion Kolyshko is the Head of NGO Relations at the Industrial Union of Donbass Corporation and Legal Adviser for the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine. He is also a member of the national tripartite social-economic council representing the employers’ side. Since 2007, he is a member of the national Mirror committee on ISO 26000 development. Mr Kolyshko graduated from the International law department at Kiev National University in 1998 and received a PhD for his work on decentralization of public power in an unitarian state in 2003. He worked as lecturer in comparative administrative law, comparative social and labour law and comparative court systems law. Mr Kolyshko has published several articles on CSR in Ukraine. Miodrag Kostic is President of MK Group. An economist by profession, he has been active in private business for more than 20 years and is one of the leading businessmen in Serbia and the region. He assumes the position of the President of MK Group, a leader in the region in agribusiness, particularly in the area of primary production and export of agricultural cultures. Mr Kostić has more than a decade of business experience in the sugar production sector and is perceived as an expert in this processing industry. A special area of Mr Kostić’s business expertise is agribusiness management, since his company is among the largest operators in agribusiness in the region (cultivating nearly 100,000 ha of land in Serbia and Ukraine). Dimitar Kostov is a Member of the Governing Council of the Bulgarian National Bank and Deputy Governor in charge of the BNB Banking Department. Prior to taking up these positions in 2005, he was Chairman of the Governing Council of the Association of Commercial Banks in Bulgaria and Executive Director of Allianz Bulgaria AD Commercial Bank. From May 1997 to August 1999, he was the Executive Director of Central Cooperative Bank AD. He also held the following positions: Minister of Finance (1995-1997), First Deputy Minister of Finance (1993-1995), Deputy Minister of Finance (1990-1992), member of the External Debt Committee (1993-1994), member of the BNB Plenary Board (1991-1997), Governor for Bulgaria at the World Bank (1995-1996). Presently, Dimitar Kostov is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Service AD and of the National Payment Systems Board, Alternate Governor for Bulgaria at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Financial Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Mr Kostov graduated in economics from the University of National and World Economy in 1981. In 1992 he attended a fellowship program at Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Prinston University, USA and completed further studies at the Economics Institute, Boulder, Colorado, USA. Ratko Krakovic is the Head of Healthcare Sector at Siemens Belgrade. He started his career 28 years ago, as research and development engineer in the factory “Teleoptik”/Belgrade before turning his attention to scientific development in the field of automation and robotic control at the Institute “Kirilo Savic”. He used the opportunity to upgrade his post-graduate orientation towards expert systems controlling electronic implants in humans. He continued as head of engineering and investment at the Clinical Centre of Serbia, a huge medical institute with more than 8000 employees. He has been with Siemens for 20 years, has been Head of Medical Solutions (Healthcare) for over a decade. Mr Kravokic holds a degree and MSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Belgrade. Martin Kruus is Chairman of the Board of the private renewable energy company – 4energia, at Pakri Wind Park, Estonia’s biggest wind park. The company operates five other wind projects in Estonia and Lithuania. Their total onshore wind capacity today is 120 MW. The mission of 4energia is to initiate, oversee and finance new projects in the renewables sector. Mr Kruus became active in the renewable sector in 2000, first as an independent consultant, later as a renewable energy project manager at the Estonia’s state electricity company AS Eesti Energia (Estonian Energy ltd). In 2005 he became managing director of Pakri Wind Park. Mr Kruus graduated from Tallinn Technical University as a thermal engineer. He also completed an MBA at the Estonian Business School. Dr. John Llewellyn is Senior Economic Policy Advisor at Lehman Brothers. He is a New Zealander, received his undergraduate degree at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and his Doctorate at the University of Oxford. In 1970 he was appointed a Research Officer in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Cambridge. From 1972 he was a Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, and in 1974 he was appointed Assistant Director of Research in the Faculty of Economics at Cambridge. He then spent seventeen years at the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where for the first eight he was in charge of international economic forecasting and policy analysis; he was also editor of the OECD Economic Outlook. He then became Deputy Director for Social Affairs, Manpower and Education, and for the last five years he was Head of the Secretary‐General’s Private Office (Chief of Staff). From 1995 to 2006, he was Global Chief Economist at Lehman Brothers. Dr. Llewellyn has published on a number of academic subjects in economics, and on a wide range of other topics including: international economic policymaking and co‐ordination; economic forecasting, and climate change. Together with two former colleagues, he has also published two books: one on the international aspects of forecasting, modelling, and economic co‐operation; and the other on economic policies for the 1990s. In February 2007 Lehman Brothers published his report The Business of Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities, and in September 2007 its sequel. The Business of Climate Change II. Dr. Llewellyn is a member of the President of the European Commission’s Group of Economic Policy Analysis; a member of the Council of Chatham House; a member of the Council of the Society of Business Economists; a member of the UK Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Secretary of State’s Panel on Monitoring the Economy; a member of the International Advisory Board of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation; a Trustee of the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society; and an Adjunct Professor at Imperial College, London. Mr. Mahon was educated both in Ireland and the US; Mr. Mahon has an undergraduate degree as well as advanced degrees in Law and an MBA; Career: Mr. Mahon has extensive experience in industrial and infrastructure development and international project financing, including the development of projects in Central and South America, Europe, Asia and the US. Mr. Mahon had his own financial advisory/consulting firm that specialized in the overall negotiation, development and financing of infrastructure projects in emerging market economies. Mr. Mahon worked with Alstom S.A. for more than 14 years as a consultant/ advisor to GEC Altshom Infrastructure Group’s Board on Strategy for start up. Prior to joining Basic Element, Mr. Mahon was the beneficial owner and Managing Director of an Irish private equity fund, Mathghamhain Partners Limited, which primarily invested in Russia and the CIS. Zdravko Marić is State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance in Croatia. Prior to this he worked as assistant at the Institute of Economics, Zagreb, working on a National Research Programme financed by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports. He has worked on various projects including the introduction of CPI and HICP for Croatia; a World Bank project on the grey economy; macroeconomic projections; the implementation of a System of National Accounts (SNA 1995) in Croatia; and a Community Innovation Survey in Croatia (1998-2002). Mr Marić holds a BA and Masters in Economics from the Faculty of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia. He also completed an executive education program in Public Financial Management at Harvard University, J.F. Kennedy School of Government in 2007. Mr Marić has published extensively in various leading journals. Yuriy Melnik was appointed Minister for Agrarian Policy of Ukraine in August 2006. He served as Vice Prime Minister betweem 2005-2006 and adviser to the Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2005. During his long and distinguished career in agriculture, he served as Deputy Minister for Agrarian Policy (2003-2005), Deputy State Secretary in the Ministry for Agrarian Policy (2002-2003), Head of the Department for Livestock Production Markets, State Pedigree Stock Breeding Inspectorate (1996-1997 and 2000-2002), Deputy Minister for Agriculture (1998-2000) and General Director of the National Association for Pedigree Stock Breeding (1996-1997). After completing his postgraduate studies at the Ukrainian Research and Development Institution for Pedigree Stock Breeding, he became a senior scientist, as well as head of the selective breeding department and First Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Ukraine Industrial Scientific Association at the Ministry of Agriculture. Mr Melnik is an associate member of the Ukrainian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and has received a Certificate of Merit from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. He was also awarded the Ukraine Science and Technology Prize in 2004 and received an award for his services to agriculture in Ukraine in 2007. Jock Menodoza‐Wilson is Director of Corporate and Investor Relations at System Capital Management. Jock has extensive experience of developing communications strategies and running international public relations campaigns for leading global corporations, as well as instigating public affairs programmes to develop government, institutional and investor relations. He is also an experienced crisis communications expert. He joined the leading Ukrainian holding company System Capital Management as Director of Corporate Communications in 2005. Since then he worked on developing and implementing the company’s corporate communications strategy. Prior to this he was Regional Director for eastern European public affairs and communications consultancy, MMD. Previously he had worked with Promoseven Weber Shandwick PR in Dubai where he was Regional Director covering the Middle East and North Africa. Jock has an honors degree in economics. Viktor Mizo graduated in Mechanical Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he also received his Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He started his career as a design engineer and a member of the Technical Leadership Program at General Electric where he worked on locomotive design culminating in a Black Belt position in the Six Sigma quality initiative. He received his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He worked as a consultant at McKinsey concentrating on technology and financial services. He was part of the founding and senior management team of an internet start-up in the media and entertainment field, and later on worked as manager and agent of major international artists in the music industry. Prior to his position as the CEO of Invest Macedonia, he co-founded a technology company in the field of digital file distribution for 3G mobile phones based in Japan. Marin Molosag is Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM). During his long career with NBM he was also Head of the International Financial Institutions Section (IFIS) and Head of the Foreign Relations Division. He currently coordinates the following activities: Foreign Exchange (FX) operations, FX market regulation, Relations with IFSs (IMF, WB, EBRD, UE, etc.) and foreign banks, balance of payments, technical assistance. Mr Molosag graduated from the Law Faculty at the State University of Moldova (SUM) in 1993. During 1996-2000 he pursued Doctoral studies in the field of banking Law at SUM. In 2005 he graduated in economics from the International Institute of Management. Kenji Nakazawa is a Senior Banker and Head of Bishkek Resident Office of the EBRD since November 2007. Prior to his current assignment, he was Head of Resident Offices in Skopje and Pristina (November 2004-November 2007). As Head of EBRD’s Resident Office in Tashkent (April 1999-Oct 2004), he supervised the preparatory process for the Bank’s 12th Annual Meeting (Tashkent, May 2003). During his time with the EBRD’s Power & Energy Utilities Team (1993- 1999), he was Operation Leader of a number of power sector projects. He also worked at UNIDO as a member of the secretariat for the Conference on Ecologically Sustainable Industrial Development (Copenhagen, October 1991). He started his career in the energy sector at the Tokyo Electric Power Company Ltd. – (TEPCO). He holds a Master’s degree in Governmental Administration (MGA) from the University of Pennsylvania (1988) and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Tokyo (1979). Nejira Nalic is Director of MI‐BOSPO, the oldest micro‐credit organization in Bosnia, with whom the Bank signed a €3 million micro loan at the end of last year. MI‐BOSPO was established in 1995 as humanitarian organisation that helped women recover from the emotional wounds of the Bosnian war. MI‐BOSPO is a part of the global network of Women’s World Banking, of the Micro‐finance Center, of the Reference Group and of the AMFI – Association of Micro‐finance Institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under the leadership of Ms Nalic, in the years that followed MI‐BOSPO underwent an impressive transformation and today it is a leading commercial micro credit organisation which provides financial support to low‐income women in Bosnia. Prior to working for MI‐BOSPO, Nejira worked as project manager in the Danish Refuge Council (1995) and in the Danish Save the children organisation (1993‐1995). Neijra studied at the Faculty of Medicine in Tuzla and her studies were suspended by the war. From 1976 until 1986 was educated in residential school in Chakolvsk city. After graduation of the residential school in 1986 gained Tajik State University and was graduated in 1992 with a specialization in national planning. From 1988 until 1989 served in Soviet Army. From 1992 he worked as economist of the financing and credit department in the branch on “Oriyonbank” in Chkalovsk. Since 28 February 1995 was appointed as the Chairman of the OJSC «Eskhata Bank” in Khujand City. Arkady Ostrovsky is the Moscow Bureau Chief for The Economist. He joined the paper in March 2007 after 10 years with the Financial Times where he had spells as a Moscow Correspondent, International Capital Markets reporter and features writer for the Arts and Books section of the paper and its weekend magazine. As the FT’s Moscow correspondent he covered Russian politics, economy and business, including the Yukos Affair, the resurgence of Russia’s Security Services, Gazprom, Media and Culture. At The Economist, Arkady also write about Ukraine, Georgia and other former Soviet republics. Arkady holds a doctorate degree in English Literature (University of Cambridge, 1998). He has particular interest in the history of Russian and English theatre and Russia’s perception of England. He has contributed to the first Cambridge History of Russian Theatre as well as to collections of essays on theatre history published in the America, UK, France, Russia and Brazil. He has recently completed a book about Stanislavsky and Shakespeare. Arkady’s translation of Tom Stoppard’s trilogy, The Coast of Utopia, has been published in Russia and was premiered in Moscow in October 2007. He is the author of a BBC Radio program about Siberia and is a regular contributor to radio and television programs around the world. Dmitry Pankin took up the position of Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation in January 2008. Prior to assuming his current role he was first Deputy Director and then Director the Department of International Financial Relations, State Debt and State Financial Assets at the Ministry of Finance. From 2004 until 2005 Mr Pankin headed the Unified Energy System department at RAO UES. He was Chairman of the St. Petersburg Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1999-2000. Prior to this he held various positions within the municipal government of St Petersburg such as Deputy Chairman of the Economics and Finance Committee of the Mayor’s Office between 2000 and 2003 and previously as Acting Deputy Head of Directorate and Deputy Chairman of Financial Committee of the Mayor of Leningrad’s office. After completing his post-graduate studies at Leningrad State University in 1987 Mr Pankin lectured at the Leningrad Architectural University and held the position of senior lecturer at the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema from 1990 until 1991. He holds a degree in political economy at Leningrad State University and a post-graduate diploma in economics. Serdar Poladov has been the Director of Hasar Enterprise since 1999. He speaks Turkmen, Turkish and Russian. Cristian Popa is Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Romania (NBR). In this capacity, he coordinates monetary and exchange rate policy, research, publications, econometric modeling and forecasting, European integration and international relations. His responsibilities include heading the NBR task force responsible for inflation targeting, as well as coordinating NBR participation in the ratings agency and investment bank dialogue. Dr Popa is vice-president of the NBR Monetary Policy and Supervision Committees and a member of its Board of Administration. Dr Popa additionally serves as alternate World Bank governor for Romania and as member of the ECB International Relations Committee and of the Economic and Financial Committee, as well as accompanying person/alternate member of the ECB General Council. He also sits on the editorial boards of the Romanian Journal of European Affairs and Oeconomica and is an honorary member of the Board of Directors of the Romanian Academy’s Institute for Economic Forecasting. Dr Popa joined the NBR in 1998, as Senior Advisor to the Governor and Chief Economist. He was previously employed in research (between 1991 - 1998, he was Senior Research Fellow with the Institute of National Economy in Bucharest) and government (in 1993-4, Governmental Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Economic Reform; also, Director of Macroeconomic Policy Coordination within the Department of Economic Reform of the Romanian government). He completed a first mandate as NBR deputy governor in 1998 - 2004. His current 5-year mandate started on October 11, 2004. Dr Popa has been Fulbright fellow with Harvard University (1994-5), ACE-PHARE visiting fellow with the NIESR (London, 1997), and visiting scholar with the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI, 1997). He has delivered lectures at, among others, Harvard University, the London School of Economics, the London Business School, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), St. Mary's College of Maryland, the Austrian National Bank, the Economic Planning Agency of Japan, the Global Forum (Tokyo), and the Basque Country University, Spain. Dr Popa is the author of numerous research papers focusing on monetary policy, international trade, inflation, exchange rates, financial indiscipline, privatization, banking system reform, and other issues pertaining to emerging and developed market economies. Angela Prigozhina is Head of Corporate Communications & Research at Raiffeisen Bank Aval in Kiev. She has over 15 years of professional experience in banking and development finance, including 5 years of commercial banking and 11 years with the World Bank, focusing on research activities, project management and supervision of the World Bank’s financial sector projects in Ukraine, Estonia, Croatia, Serbia, extensive policy dialogue and donor agencies coordination. Ms Prigozhina holds a degree in International Business from Kiev National Economic University and has received finance training at David Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee. She is the author and co-author of financial sector research papers for Ukraine and Serbia. Ljerka Puljic is Senior Executive Vice President for Strategic Business Groups at Agrokor. In her current position Mrs Puljić is responsible for Agrokor’s Strategic Business Groups, comprising the management and control of businesses belonging to the Agrokor Group. Mrs. Puljić is Management Board Member of Agrokor, President of the Supervisory Board of Ledo, Management Board Member of Frikom, President of the Trade Association at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and Member of the Executive Committee of the Employers’ Association of the Republic of Croatia. Prior to this, Mrs Puljić held various positions at Ledo, including as Head of Planning and Analysis, Director of Marketing and Development and General Manager. Mrs. Puljić graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb in 1979. Elżbieta Pustoła is President and CEO of the Management Board of KDPW S.A. (Polish CSD). Graduate of the Economics Faculty of the University of Warsaw. After finishing her studies, she joined her old university as a lecturer, also lecturing at the Warsaw School of Planning and Statistics. Between 1990 and 1991 she worked in the Capital Markets Department of the Ministry of Ownership Transfers before becoming Vice-president of the Warsaw Stock Exchange responsible for clearing and depository services. She has been the President and CEO of KDPW S.A. since November 1994, after separation of its clearing and settlement activities from the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Elżbieta Pustoła is a member of the Coordination Committee for the Development of the Stock Exchange Trading System, the Payment System Council by the Central Bank and the Capital Market Development Council by the Ministry of Finance. In 2000, she became the annual Chairman of the Central and Eastern European Securities Depositories and Clearing Houses Association, a position to which she was elected in May 1999. She has been a member of the Polish Capital Market Council appointed by Prime Minister since December 2004. Since May 2007, she has been the Secretary of the Steering Committee of ECSDA (European Central Securities Depositories Association). Alfonso Querejeta is Secretary General at the European Investment Bank. Alfonso Querejeta has been appointed Secretary General, Director General of Human Resources and General Counsel with effect from 1 January 2007. Mr Querejeta, a Spanish national, started his career as University professor in commercial law. Afterwards he became Head of the Legal Department of Compañia Vascongada de Seguros y Reaseguros S.A. (Groupe Bâloise). He joined the Legal Affairs Directorate of the EIB in 1986. Until 2000 he held various posts within this Directorate. From 2000 until 2003 he was Director of the Department for Lending Operations in Spain and Portugal. In 2003 he was appointed Director of the Department responsible for Legal Aspects of Operations in and outside the Union, a post he held until 2005. In 2005 he was named Director of Human Resources. Mr Querejeta holds a Law Degree from the University of San Sebastian and a PhD in Law from the University of Bologna, Italy. Tatiana Radomyslskaya is the Acting CEO of Slobozhanska Budivelna Keramika (SBK) and is one of the youngest CFOs in Ukraine. She was appointed Chief Financial Officer at SBK in July 2006 where she oversaw direct financing from foreign financial institutions (EBRD and BNP Paribas) and participation of export agencies such as COFACE and CESCE. As a board member she is responsible for providing the Supervisory Board and shareholders with the 5‐ year financial and business development models. Prior to this Ms Radomyslskaya was the CFO at CJSC “Rise”, an agribusiness company, where she oversaw direct financing from foreign financial institutions (IFC, EDC & US Exim). During her time at “Rise” (2004‐2006) both sales and profits increased substantially. Ms Radomyslskaya held various positions at KPMG (Ukraine) starting as an audit assistant in 1997 and later as a Supervisor and Business Analyst from 2002 until 2004 where one of her key responsibilities included analysis of business performance and forecast modelling. Prior to working for KPMG, she completed an internship at Ernst & Young Ukraine after completing her studies at Kyiv National Economic University. Alexander Rahr is head of the Russian/Eurasia Center at the German Council on Foreign Relations. The Center is being supported by the Eastern department of the German Federal Association of Industry. Before joining the Council in 1994, he was a senior analyst at the Research Institute of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Munich and project manager at the Federal Institute for East European and International Studies, Cologne. He is member of the executive boards of the Petersburg Dialogue and of Yalta European Strategy (YES). His recent book ʺRussland gibt Gasʺ has been published in Germany and Russia. He holds an M.A. in History and Political Sciences from Munich State University. He was awarded the Federal Merit Cross (2003) and is Honorary Professor at the Moscow State University for International Relations (MGIMO). Gediminas Rainys is the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania since 2002. Between 1999-2002 he was Vice Minister of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania. In previous positions he was Director of the Enterprise Bankruptcy Management Department under the Ministry of Economy; Advisor to the Prime Minister; Advisor to the Mayor of Vilnius City (1998-1999); Director of the PI Economic Research Centre (1992-1997); Economist at the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Lithuania (1991-1992); Research fellow in the Scientific Research Institute of the National Economy and Economics (1986-1991); and Economist at Motor Transport Enterprise No 7 (1981-1986). From 1976-1981 he attended the Faculty of Industry at Vilnius State V. Kapsukas University (present Faculty of Economics of Vilnius University) from where he received a diploma in labour economics. Wilfried Rammler is Managing Director of Hochtief PPP Solutions (Essen, Germany). He is responsible for the acquisition, development, financing, construction and operation of PPP and concession transport projects in Europe and overseas. In the past, Mr. Rammler has been responsible for the implementation and operation of major toll road concessions & large infrastructure projects world‐wide. Charles Riemendschneider is Director of the Investment Centre Division at FAO. Mr Riemenschneider has been Director of the Investment Centre Division (TCI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since January 2006 with responsibility for managing FAO’s cooperative programmes with the World Bank and other international financial institutions. Prior to taking up his current post, Mr Riemenschneider served as Director of FAO’s Liaison Office for North America (LOWA) in Washington, D.C. from 1994. Before joining FAO, Mr Riemenschneider was Chief of Staff of the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry from 1987 to 1994. He was a Vice President of Chemical Bank in New York from 1982 to 1987 where he was initially Senior Agricultural Economist and subsequently in the Global Portfolio Management Unit. From 1978 to 1982, he was a Senior Analyst for the United States Senate Committee on the Budget. Mr Riemenschneider, a national of the United States of America, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Rutgers University (USA), and a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the Michigan State University (USA). Medet Sartbayev has been the Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan since March 2006. Prior to assuming this role he was Vice President of the Board of the Center of Marketing and Analytical Research at the Ministry of Economy and Budget Planning of Kazakhstan. From 2004 until 2005 Mr Sartbayev was President of the joint-stock company Kaisar Asset Management. He was Vice President of The Bank of Development of Kazakhstan between 2001 and 2003 and Vice President of The Halyk Bank of Kazakhstan from 2000 until 2001. From January until July 2000 he was Vice Minister of Economy of Kazakhstan. Prior to joining the government in 2000 he was Director of the Treasury Department. Mr Sartbayev started his career as an economist at AgropromBank om 1991 and from there held various positions in the National Bank of Kazakhstan. He graduated from Ural State University in Yekaterinburg in 1991 and received his post-graduate degree at the Finance Academy in Moscow in 1997. Oleksandr Savchenko has been the Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine since September 2005 and held the same position between 1991 and 1992. Dr Savchenko was General Manager at JSCB “International Commercial Bank” from 1999 until 2005 and General Manager at JSCB “Austria Creditanstalt” from 1997 until 1999. Dr Savchenko served on the Board of Directors at the EBRD from 1993 until 1996. He received a Master’s degree in Industrial Planning from the Kyiv National Economic University and he also holds a Ph.D. in Economics. Deputy Chairman of the Mogilev Regional Executive Committee. Education: Belarussian Agricultural Academy (1991), Academy of Management under the President of the Republic of Belarus (2001). Employment: 1990 – 1991 – economist of the controlling and trial station of the pig-breeding, 1991 – 1992 – Chief Economist of the EPJC “Pisarevchina”, Mstislav region, Mogilev District. 1992 – 1994 – accountant of the Dribinskij regional Manufacturing Association of the housing and communal services. 1994 – 1996 – Economist, Chief Economist of the credit department, deputy of the manager of the Dribinskij department of “Belagroprombank”, Mogilev District. 1996 – 2000 - vice-chairman on the economy’s problems, market relations and privatization, Gorecky Region Executive Committee, Mogilev District. 2000 – 2007 – Head of the Financial department, Mogilev Regional Executive Committee. Since 2007 – Deputy Chairman, Mogilev Regional Executive Committee. Ludwik Sobolewski is LLD President of the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the National Depository for Securities. In the course of his career, Mr Sobolewski worked at the Law and Administration Faculty of the Jagiellonian University (1989-1995), in the Office of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland (1992-1993) and as an Advisor to the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (1994). From 1994 to 2006 Mr Sobolewski was the Executive Vice President of the Management Board of the National Depository for Securities. He is a former Arbitrator at the Warsaw Stock Exchange Court and at the Court of Arbitration of the National Depository for Securities. He has also worked with the Bureau of the Government Plenipotentiary for Pension System Reform (1997-1998) and acted as expert for many Sejm (Parliament) and Senate commissions. From 1997 to 2002 he was an Associate at the Faculty of Management of the Warsaw University (Civil Law Issues in Management Department). Since 2005 he is active as Executive MBA lecturer in Legal Aspects of Managerial Decisions (a joint program run by the Universities of Warsaw and Illinois). He is a member of the European Commission's Legal Certainty Group and, since 2006, President of the Association of Polish Lawyers. He is a member of the Board of the National Centre for Research and Development and the Supervisory Board of the WSEInfoEngine. Mr Sobolewski is a graduate of the Law and Administration Faculty of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (LLM) and the Panth Assass University (Paris II). He is a Doctor of Laws (LLD) and Legal Counsel. He is the author and co-author of numerous books and articles on capital markets and corporate law. Rory Spain is Partner at Progressive Banking Solutions Ltd Dublin. Mr Spain is a banker with 25 years of banking operational and management experience, with special emphasis on mortgage lending. Throughout his career, Mr. Spain has carried out numerous mortgagerelated international assignments, focusing specifically on the development of standardized mortgage lending procedures and documentation, assessments of mortgage and housing markets, and lender training programs. In 2003‐2004, he served as the as the lead consultant for EBRD for development of its Manual on Minimum Standards and Best Practices, which has served as a model for minimum quality standards in mortgage lending and documents in numerous countries in transition. He has worked as an international consultant in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union (Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Ukraine, and Moldova), as well as in Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and Jamaica. In addition to his international experience, Mr. Spain has substantial experience with mortgage lending for the Bank of Ireland, where he was responsible for the creation of the Mortgage Service Centre and served as Head of Learning and Development, the Bank’s training department. He held leadership positions in establishment of the Bank of Ireland’s Group Mortgage Business, and also led projects in strategic and business planning, human resources development, and change management. Jack Stack is the former CEO of Ceska Sporitelna (a member of the Erste Bank Group). Mr Stack became CEO of Ceska Sporitelna after the Czech Government sold its majority control to Erste Bank of Austria in 2000, whereupon he turned around the fortunes of the bank from substantial losses in 1999 to 20% ROE (return on equity) in 2003. Along with the award of Best Bank, Mr Stack received the Best Banker in the Czech Republic award several times along with numerous other accolades. Prior to this appointment, Jack Stack held various senior management positions in Chase and Chemical Bank, overseeing the merger of savings operations between Chase and Chemical between 1996 and 1998. He also oversaw the merger of Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover during the early to mid 1990s and cut expenses by $180 million as a result. Mr Stack started with Chemical Bank in 1977 and worked in various departments where he consistently reversed loss‐making services and departments into profit‐making sectors within a few years. Jack Stack has been a member on various boards of companies and foundations and his current memberships include Erste Bank Supervisory Board and Shorebank International Board of Directors. Herbert Stepic is Chief Executive Officer of Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG and Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB), who are among the leading banking organisations in central and eastern Europe (CEE). He has over 30 years of experience in international banking and trade finance and is a renowned expert on CEE. Dr Stepic is the mastermind and the driving force behind the rapid expansion of the Raiffeisen network. The cornerstone of its operations was established in Hungary in 1986, and today the group covers 17 markets of the region. He joined the group in 1973 and established the Foreign Trade Promotion Department. In 1987, he became a Member of the Managing Board and was appointed Deputy Chairman in 1995. He presides over the Supervisory Boards of numerous CEE-subsidiaries and, among other supervisory positions, is a Member of the Supervisory Boards of Oesterreichische Kontrollbank Aktiengesellschaft and OMV AG, both based in Vienna. In 2007, Dr Stepic was awarded "European Banker of the Year" and "European Manager of the Year". Mark Tolley is an Australian Petroleum Engineer with over 24 years of international experience in the oil and gas sector. He is resident in Kiev and fluent in Russian. He spent the last 13 years managing projects in the FSU, and between 1996 and 2001 he worked with JKX Oil and Gas, Momentum Energy and Cardinal Resources in Ukraine. He is CEO of Cadogan Petroleum, a UK oil and gas company which owns and operates gas field assets in Ukraine. Evgeni Utkin is Chairman of Supervisory Board at Kvazar‐Micro Corporation. Prior to this Mr. Utkin was President of JSC SITRONICS and led the company to IPO (LSE) in February 2007. Earlier Mr.Utkin founded and headed Kvazar‐Micro Corporation, one of the biggest IT companies in CIS to ally with Sitronics in 2004. Before founding Kvazar‐Micro, Mr. Utkin directed laboratory research at Kvazar Plant in Kiev, Ukraine, a centre for the study of microelectronics in the Soviet Union. As a former student of the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering, Mr. Utkin worked as an engineer at the Scientific Research Institute of Precision Technology in Moscow. Mr. Utkin holds a diploma from the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering (graduated in 1982). Mr. Utkin studied at HP Academy, and completed some executive programs at INSEAD and IMD business schools. In 2000 Evgeni Utkin served as Chairman of the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet Lauri Veijalainen is CFO at IKEA in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Lauri has worked in Russia for 10 years and for the past 4 years he has been responsible for all finance functions for IKEA Russia and CIS and has participated in expanding the company from 2 IKEA stores to 10 IKEA stores and 10 MEGA Shopping Centres in 2008 in Russia. He is also working currently closely with IKEA’s entry to Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Lauri has an extensive knowledge and experience on the finance functions and processes and taxation in Russia and the CIS countries. Prior to IKEA, he worked as a Finance‐ and Administrative Director for Skanska in Moscow and has also experienced a brief career in the public sector, working for the Finnish Embassies in Lithuania and Ukraine. Anca Vlad is the President of Fildas Group in Romania. In 1991 Anca Vlad founded the first Romanian private distribution company. Under her direction the company registered a spectacular rate of growth in the Romanian market ‐ from a turnover of 1.5 million dollars and just a few employees in 1992 to 300 million dollars and over 1600 employees in 2007. Fildas Trading has become one of the largest pharmaceuticals distributors in Romania, with 14 branches and two warehouses. Throughout continued business success, she has remained passionate and committed to social and cultural causes, initiating Fildas Art Foundation as an active supporter of Romanian artists. Her contribution was recognized by magazines such as “VIP” and “Musical News” who both awarded her titles and diplomas. She is member of the “Leading Women Entrepreneurs of The World” and the Honorary President of the Creative Women Association in Romania. Ms Vlad was officially recognized as Business Woman of the Year in Romania both in 2004 and 2005 by Capital magazine. She has received many awards and accolades in recent years and was interviewed by Fortune magazine back in September 2005 and was quoted that: "Romania is a country with a great human potential”. Steve Walsh is President of AES Ukraine and Vice President of AES Corporation. Steve joined AES in 1999, serving in both the distribution and generation sectors and in 2001 he was selected to lead AESʹs business operations in Bogota, Colombia. In July of 2004, he was recalled to active military service at Presidential direction to manage the rebuilding of the electricity grid in Iraq for the US Mission, Baghdad, Iraq. He served in this capacity until May of 2005, when he returned to the AES corporate office to serve as VP, Government and Regulatory Affairs. In June, 2006 he assumed the duties as President, AES Ukraine where he runs two distribution companies employing some 4500 people serving over 1.4 million customers. Prior to AES, Steve served as an active duty US Marine Officer for 20 years, primarily in special operations assignments in Latin America and the Middle East. Steve is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, Strayer University and Harvard Business School. Toby Webb is the Founding Editor of Ethical Corporation magazine, ethicalcorp.com and ClimateChangeCorp.com. Webb is also co‐director of the Ethical Corporation Institute, a research arm of Ethical Corporation, with Peter Davis. See www.ethicalcorp.com/eci for more. Webb co‐founded Ethical Corporation in 2001 with Christian Braun. Webb studied the media at university in Liverpool and has a Masters degree in Corporate Governance and Ethics from Birkbeck College, University of London. Andrew Wilson is Regional Vice President for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova at Eurasia Foundation. He is president of the East Europe Foundation, a non‐profit organization based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Established by the Eurasia Foundation in 2007, the East Europe Foundation runs economic and community development programs with funding from governments, corporations and other foundations. Wilson also currently serves as chairman of the New Eurasia Establishment (Belarus) and as regional vice president for Eurasia Foundation for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Ksenia Yudaeva is Chief Economist of Sberbank, the largest Russian bank. At this position she is responsible for establishing the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis at Sberbank, and designing the Sberbank Corporate University. Previously she worked as the Director of Research of the Center for Strategic Research, the leasing Russian economic policy think‐tank and consultant to the Ministry of Economy and Trade. Before that she held the position of the Director for Policy Studies of the Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR) in Moscow, and a Scholar in Residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center. She also taught and advised students at the New Economic School. Her main research and policy advise interests include international economic policy, particularly the role of foreign direct investment and trade. As an adviser to the Ministry of Economy and Trade she worked on the Russian International Economic Policy Strategy, Scenarios of the Socio‐Economic Development of Russia, Programs of Increase of Economic Cooperation with China and India and other projects. Her academic research includes several studies of the effect of foreign direct investment and foreign trade on the productivity of Russian manufacturing firms. She recently participated in the joint World Bank and Higher School of Economics study of Competitiveness of Russian economy, and wrote the Chapter on business climate and competitiveness for the project. In 2003 she published The New Political Economy of Russia with her colleagues from CEFIR. This book examines the economic, institutional and political sources and obstacles to long‐term growth of the Russian economy. She studied economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned her PhD in 1998. Bolat Zhamishev was appointed Minister of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan in November 2007. His career with the Kazakh government started in 1993, when he joined the National Bank of Kazakhstan. In later years Mr Zhamishev served as the Director of the National Pensions Agency, Vice Minister of Labour and Social Protection of Population, First Vice Minister of Finance, Vice Minister (in charge of finance) in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, Chairman of the Agency on Regulation and Supervision of Financial Markets and Financial Organisations. From 2006 to 2007 he worked as Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Development Bank. Mr Zhamishev graduated in economics from the Kazakh Agricultural Institute . He also has a PhD in Economics. |
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