Programme

Born on June 9, 1968, in Leningrad (now St Petersburg). 1992: graduated from St Petersburg State University with a degree in Law (1992). PhD in Law. Senior Counsellor of Justice; 1986-1988: served in the Soviet Armed Forces; 1992: assistant prosecutor of the Vyborgsky District of St Petersburg; 1992-1994: investigator at the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Vyborgsky District of St Petersburg; 1994-1997: prosecutor in charge of supervision of compliance with security legislation of the St Petersburg Office of the Public Prosecutor; 1997-1998: Deputy Prosecutor of the Moskovsky District of St Petersburg; 1998-2001: Prosecutor of the Moskovsky District of St Petersburg; 2001-2005: Deputy Prosecutor of St Petersburg; 2005: Prosecutor of Bashkortostan; November 2005: the President's Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District; May 12, 2008: appointed Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation; May 21, 2012: Reappointed Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation by a presidential decree. Member of the Russian Security Council.

Dimitry Afanasiev is the Chairman and co-founding partner of Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, the largest law firm in Russia and the CIS. Dimitry specializes in international corporate transactions, dispute resolution and public policy issues. He has represented the interests of the Russian Federation and leading multinational and Russian corporations, including Bank of New York Mellon, Telenor, BP, ТМК и Evraz. He is a board member of UC RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium company.Dimitry was named European Managing Partner of the Year at The Lawyer European Awards 2015. In 2010, the Financial Times listed Dimitry among the 10 most innovative lawyers in the world. In 2011, the “Russian Reporter” listed Dimitry in the top 10 of the most respected lawyers in Russia. Dimitry holds a state award as an Honoured Lawyer of the Russian Federation (2015). He was awarded by the Federal Chamber of Lawyers and received commendations from the President of the Russian Federation. He is recommended by Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, Legal 500 EMEA, IFLR 1000, Best Lawyers, Who’s Who Legal: CIS and other prominent legal guides as a leading practitioner in the areas of M&A and corporate law, dispute resolution, antitrust, banking and finance, investment, and restructuring/insolvency. Dimitry is a board member of Business Russia, an all-Russia public organization, a founding member of the Russian-American Business Council, a member of the Expert Council under the Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs' Rights, and a member of the Russian Council for International Affairs, a foreign policy body established by the Russian President. He is the Chair of the Non-Profit Partnership for Advancement of Corporate Law, and a member of the Competition Support Association.

Mr. Blair has served as lead counsel in a host of major M&A transactions, advised senior executives and boards of directors on governance matters and handled securities transactions for clients across a range of industries. Mr. Blair joined Debevoise in 1981 and became a partner in 1989. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1977 and his J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1981. Mr. Blair is a Director of The Partnership for New York City and of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, a Trustee of the Smith Richardson Foundation, a member of The Economic Club of New York and a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Before joining Thomson Reuters, David was a partner at McKinsey & Co in London for eight years, where he focused on financial services, media and software companies. Prior to McKinsey, David was a senior partner at AMS (American Management Systems) implementing financial trading, risk and financial exchange systems in the US, Europe and Asia. David is on TheCityUK’s Advisory Council and on the board of the Atlantic Council. David is also steering group leader of the World Economic Forum’s working groups on Banking Regulatory Reform and Disruptive Technology in Financial Services. In 2014, David was ranked number seven in Institutional Investor’s Tech 50 which ranks global leaders and innovators in financial services technology. He is also an authority on technology, innovation and regulation, and has published several leading papers including “Intelligence, Intuition and Information”, "IT as a Competitive Weapon", "The M&A Approach to Outsourcing", and more recently “Public Private Partnerships to Fight Financial Crime” and “The Danger of Divergence” with the Atlantic Council. He talks frequently on the issue of regulation and geographic arbitration.

2013: creation of his own company “THOMAS VENDÔME INVESTMENT”: private Equity, Real Estate Investments and advisory especially for European and Russian companies. 1998 – 2013: LAZARD partner. Former representative of French President Nicolas Sarkozy – French – Russian economic cooperation. March 2012: report on the creation of an economic Euro – Russian area. Appointed by the French Ministry of the Economy to follow cross-boarder investments and programme of privatizations between France and Russia within C.E.F.I.C. (Conseil Economique, Financier, Industriel et Commercial). Political career. NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: one of the leaders in Republican Party. Member of Finance Committee : spokesman on the Economy and the Budget, Special Finance Committee reporter. Author of the Thomas Law (March 1997) for creating pension funds in France. The Euro : Representant of the Parliament at the Euro Committee. Privatisations: in 1998, as a Member of the Parliament, he wrote a book “Les privatisations”. Member of the International Advisory Board of RUSAL, member of the board of RECYLEX Group. Advisor of SANOFI. Senior Advisor of the president of AMUNDI. Member of the “Cercle de l’Union Interalliée”. Born in 1957 in Vosges (France).

Dmitry was born in 1972 in Sarapul. He graduated from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Doctor of Legal Sciences, Professor. In the 1990s he worked in the Prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation. After leaving Government service, he founded a law firm ‘Pravokom’ which merged later with the company ‘Yuracademia: Kutafin & partners’ transforming into ‘Yuridicheskaya Gruppa’ (‘Law Group’), where Dmitry became the Chairman of the Partners' Committee. It became the first Russian law firm to receive the right to support cross-border transactions of the Government of the Russian Federation, including legal advice on the following issues: placement of state securities of the Russian Federation on the Russian and international capital markets; interaction of Ministry of Finance with international rating agencies; provision of state export and financial loans to foreign borrowers; settlement of claims of the Government of the Russian Federation to foreign sovereign borrower; management of sovereign funds of the Russian Federation. In 2006, together with Oleg Kutafin, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitry initiated establishment of centers providing free legal support to financially disadvantaged citizens. As of June 1, 2015 there were over 756 permanent centers in Russia, which only for the period from 2011 to 2015 have provided qualified legal assistance to over 400,000 people on a pro bono basis. Dmitry is the Chairman of the Board of the ‘Center of Legal Initiatives’ (CLI). In accordance with the Instructions of the President of the Russian Federation dated July 17, 2012 No. Pr-1796, CLI was entrusted with collection and synthesis of proposals on improvement of the new edition of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation with a monthly report to the President of the Russian Federation on their feasibility. Dmitry proponed to establish several Russian Law research centers abroad. Dmitry is a member of Presidium of Association of Lawyers of Russia. He won the highest legal prize of the Russian Federation — Lawyer of the Year — in 2012. He is in TOP-10 of Russian lawyers according to the Russian Reporter magazine. Dmitry wrote over 100 scientific publications. He invests largely in real estate and IT.

Doctor of Biological Sciences, the Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Honorary Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kazakhstan National Academy of Natural Sciences, the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, the International Academy of Higher School. In the period from 1980 to 2012, he held academic and administrative positions, including the Ministry of Education and Science - Director of the Department of Higher and Postgraduate Education, Chairman of the Committee on supervision and certification in the field of education and science, the Executive Secretary, in the Administration of the President - the position of the State Inspector. February 25, 2012 presidential decree appointed rector of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He has made a significant contribution to the development of the higher education system of independent Kazakhstan. He is one of the main developers of the State Program of Education Development of Kazakhstan for 2005-2010. He took an active part in the development of the State Program of Education Development for 2011-2020, the Law "On Education" and "On Science" (2011). He was awarded the Order of "Kurmet". For great scientific achievements in the field of Biophysics awarded the medal of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences named after Nobel Prize winner Kapitsa. He has more than 60 scientific papers published in Russia, Australia, Holland, South Korea and the United States.

Alexei Evgenev is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal and heads Alvarez & Marsal’s Restructuring practice in Russia. He specialises in corporate restructuring and managing of large enterprises and has successful experience across a range of industries, including retail business, banking sector, metals&mining, engineering and heavy machinery manufacturing. As a part of the current project Mr.Evgenev heads the department of management of distressed assets in a large Russian bank. Previously, Mr. Evgenev served as a CEO of Wild Orchid, retail chain in Russia. Before that he led the transaction of acquiring the company by new shareholder and was involved in debt restructuring process. Prior to that, Mr Evgenev served as a CEO of Mosmart Group of Companies, where he was responsible for the turnaround strategy implementation and preparing company assets for the sale as a part of multi-component deal involving Group's outstanding debt repayment. Mr. Evgenev served in a number of senior management positions in large companies in Russia for the last fifteen years: he was the head of M&A at Sberbank-Capital, he also served as a CEO of Energoprom group, Russia’s largest electrode and cathode supplier. Mr. Evgenev served as a CEO of Renova-Project. Prior to it, Alexei was a CEO of Severstalmash group of companies, a machine-building and industrial services subsidiary of Severstal group. Mr. Evgenev started his career with McKinsey & Company in Moscow, where he worked primarily with metals and mining in Russia, Finland, Germany and South Africa.