Programme

Stephen Sedgwick co-anchors CNBC's flagship program "Squawk Box Europe ." Sedgwick is also CNBC's OPEC reporter, covering major meetings and interviewing top OPEC oil ministers, non-OPEC ministers and heads of bodies such as the IEA and EIA. In addition, Sedgwick has reported from across Europe throughout the European debt crisis and has attended all the major G8 and G20 gatherings in recent years. Prior to joining CNBC, Sedgwick worked for the UK Press Association on the City desk and at Dow Jones on the European Markets desk. At Dow Jones, Stephen regularly broke market-moving stories and was a contributor to The Wall Street Journal Europe. Before his career in journalism, Stephen spent 11 years trading in the financial markets, specialising in equity and bond market derivative products. In 1988, Stephen joined Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (formerly Kleinwort Benson Securities) and worked as an equity option marketmaker before moving on to Credit Lyonnais where he became Head of the London option market-making team on Liffe. Sedgwick studied politics at the University of London, with a focus on world economic development, IMF, World Bank and WTO; and journalism at the National Council for Training Journalists.

Alexander Afanasiev has been Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Moscow Exchange since June 2012. Prior to joining Moscow Exchange, he spent 13 years at Bank WestLB Vostok, a subsidiary of the German banking group WestLB AG, most recently as a Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board. Prior to his work at WestLB, Mr Afanasiev was an Executive Board member of Bank Imperial. From 2005 to 2011 Mr Afanasiev was Chairman of the MICEX FX Market Council. From 2009 to 2013 he co-chaired the National Foreign Exchange Association and from 2011 to 2014 the National Securities Market Association. Mr Afanasiev has been working in the Russian financial sector since 1991. He worked at the Bank of Russia earlier in his career, and was among the founders of the Russian Project Finance Bank, the first investment bank with foreign capital in Russia. He subsequently served as Executive Director of this bank. Alexander Afanasiev graduated from the Moscow Financial Institute with a degree in international economic relations and holds a PhD in economics.

Before joining the MDM Bank Board of Directors in 2007, Oleg headed the Federal Financial Markets Service of the Russian Federation, a position he had held since 2004.Between 1999 and 2002 he was Executive Vice-President at Troika Dialog, Russia’s oldest investment company. Oleg has also held a variety of senior positions within the Russian government, including First Deputy Minister of Finance, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, and extraordinary advisor to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.After graduating from the department of mechanics and mathematics at Moscow State University in 1974, Oleg successfully defended his PhD in physics and mathematics at the same university in 1977.

Irackly has worked on a broad range of M&A transactions in Russia including buyside, sellside, mergers, and privatisations and has extensive experience working on cross-border transactions assisting Western multinational players to expand in Russia / Russian clients to acquire assets abroad. Recent notable M&A experience includes advisory to Pharmstandard on spin-off of OTC Pharm and acquisition of Biocad, advisory to Severstal on $2.4bln sale of its North American steel-making business and separation of Nordgold; advisory on $10bn worth of capital return to shareholders by Norilsk Nickel as part of its defence against hostile take-over attempts of UC Rusal, advisory on Gazpromneft’s acquisition of 50% shares of Tomskneft, advisory to International Paper in connection with its acquisition of a 50% interest in Ilim Pulp Enterprises, advisory to Norilsk Nickel in connection with acquisition of a controlling interest in OGK 3, advisory to Guta Group on the private placement of 6% stake in Mosenergo, Smart Hydrogen on its 35% investment into Plug Power, Severstal on the consolidation of Severstal Resurs Mining assets, Gazprom in connection with $13.1bn acquisition of 72% stake in Sibneft, fairness opinion to Gazprom Board of Directors in connection with a $7.12 bln sale of 10.74% of Gazprom to the Russian Government.

Education: 1986: Graduated from the Economics Faculty of the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. 1991–1992: Chief specialist in the Directorate on Economic Reform of the Standing Committee of the USSR Scientific and Industrial Union Board, Moscow. 1992–1994: Chief specialist, consultant for the Directorate of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on Economic Policy Issues. 1994–1994: Adviser at the Expert Institute of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. 1994–1995: Deputy Head of the Economic Reform Department — Head of the Division for State Regulation of Economy of the Russian Federation Ministry of Economy. 1995–1996: Deputy Head of the Economic Reform Department of the Russian Federation Ministry of Economy. 1996–1997: Head of the Economic Reform Department of the Russian Federation Ministry of Economy, member of the Ministry’s Board. 1997–1998: Deputy Minister of Economy. 1998–1999: Deputy Chairperson of the Promtorgbank Board. 1999–1999: Executive Director of the Eurasian Ratings Service. 1999–2000: Vice President of the Centre for Strategic Research Foundation. 2000–2003: First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation. 2003–2005: President of the Centre for Strategic Research Foundation. 2005–2007: Head of the Expert Council of the Organising Committee for Russia’s Presidency of the G-8 in 2006, Head of Research at the Centre for Strategic Research. On September 24, 2007, appointed Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation. From May 12, 2008: Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. May 2012—June 2013: Aide to the President of the Russian Federation. From June 2013: Governor of the Bank of Russia. Member of the Bank of Russia Board of Directors according to Article 15 of the Federal Law “On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)”. On the allocation of duties between the Bank of Russia Governor and Deputy Governors.

Viatcheslav has 15 years of investment and financial experience with leading international institutions. During the global crisis Viatcheslav was the Advisor to the Minister of Economic Development of Russia focusing on diversification and growth initiatives, including the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Viatcheslav moved to Russia from Citigroup in New York where he was Managing Director. Prior to Citi he was Partner at Old Lane, a hedge fund sold to Citi, where he ran $1bn in global investments focused on natural resources and growing consumer. He transitioned from Third Point, a New York hedge fund, where he was Portfolio Manager, named Partner, investing $500mn in emerging markets. Earlier he was Investment Analyst at Relational Investors in San Diego and at Everest Capital in Miami. Before moving to the US he worked at the Rothschild group and AXA in Paris. Viatcheslav holds a Stanford MBA, MA with high honors in International Economics from the State Management University, and BS from the American University of Paris. He is a CFA charterholder.

Denis Shulakov is the First Vice-President of Gazprombank since September 2012, in charge of capital markets across international and domestic debt, equity and equity-linked products as well as trading, brokerage and market research. Over the last 3 years Gazprombank has established itself within top 5 bookrunners for Russian eurobonds and #1 bonds arranger in Russian Oil&Gas and Energy industries (Gazprom, Gazpromneft, Novatek, Rosneft, Sibur, Federal Grid mandates executed). Prior to joining Gazprombank Denis worked as a Managing Director of Barclays in London (2003-2012) heading Russian investment banking and lately CIS public sector. During this time, Barclays became the #1 bookrunner for Russian Eurobonds (2010) and was among top-3 bookrunners for a number of consecutive years. Denis managed over 70 eurobond placements and liability management mandates for largest Russian and CIS clients, including re-entry of the Russian Federation in theEurobond market in 2010, debut international debt offerings of Vhesheconombank, Russian Development Bank and Russian Railways, numerous eurobond issues for Lukoil including USD1.5bn convertible bonds in 2010, loan portfolio restructuring of Rosneft with USD7.5bn pre-IPO bridge financing, IPO and debut eurobonds, rating advisory, positioning of Ukrainian Railways for international debt issue and many others.

Alexei Yakovitsky, one of the pioneers of VTB Capital, has been working at the company since its early days in 2008. He is responsible for the strategic and operational development of VTB Capital holding companies. Alexei moved to VTB Capital from Deutsche Bank, where he worked as Head of Research for Russia and the CIS. Prior to that, he was co-Head and then Head of Research at leading Russian investment bank United Financial Group (UFG), which was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 2006. Alexei had joined UFG in 2000 as a telecommunications analyst, after a stint as the Moscow Telecommunications and IT correspondent with Bridge News. Institutional Investor rated Alexei one of the top three Russian telecom analysts four years in a row (2004-08), while in 2007 the organisers of the Financial Olympus named Alexei the best analyst on the Russian market. The telecoms team headed by Alexei took first place in EMEA emerging markets in Extel’s 2005, 2006 and 2007 surveys. Alexei holds an MA in Political Science from the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy in the U.S. and a PhD in History from Moscow State University.