Business programme

The rise of retail brokerages and new technologies has made investing in the markets more accessible than ever before. With just the press of a button, individuals are now able to invest in a wide array of securities without lengthy paperwork, phone calls with brokers and other hinderances. In 2020, the advent of the coronavirus pandemic significantly accelerated this retail investor boom globally and in Russia, with the Moscow Exchange near doubling its retail investor base and already reached 11 million users in March 2021. This trend represents a new frontier for retail brokerages and other market players, embracing this new wave of local investors, whose impact on the markets is set to grow going forward. How does anyone learn to become an investor? What is the role of retail brokerages and other market players in educating novice investors? What is driving the retail investment boom in Russia and abroad? What’s the future outlook for retail investment? Who is the Russian retail investor? How does a new class of local retail investors affect liquidity and other market dynamics?

Moderator
Tom Blackwell, Chairman, Partner, Co-Founder, EM

Tom Blackwell

Chairman, Partner, Co-Founder, EM

Tom Blackwell is the CEO and co-founder of EM, an investor relations and strategic communications consultancy focused on Russia and other emerging markets, with offices in New York, London, Moscow, Hong Kong and Beijing. EM was created following the successful MBO and carve out from M: Communications, where he worked as the head of the UK agency's operations in Russia and CIS. Prior to joining M: Communications, Tom worked for The PBN Company, where he was Managing Director of the firm's Moscow office and led its financial communications practice. Blackwell served as adviser on dozens of IPOs and secondary listings on London and Moscow stock exchanges as well as on a number of high-profile international M&A deals. He is also a well-known expert in crisis communications and special situations in emerging markets. He has lived and worked in Moscow for 15 years and is fluent Russian

Panellists
Maria Gordon, Senior Independent Director, Polyus; Senior Independent Director, ALROSA; Chairman of the Board of Directors, Independent Director, Detsky Mir; Independent Director, Moscow Exchange
Yuriy Denisov, Chairman of the Management Board, Moscow Exchange
Adam Kostyál, Senior Vice President of Listing Services, Europe, Nasdaq (online)
Anton Makhnev, Chief Financial Officer, Fix Price
Marcelo Maisonnave, Founder, XP Inc (online)
Oliver Hughes, Chief Executive Officer, Tinkoff Group

Maria Gordon

Senior Independent Director, Polyus; Senior Independent Director, ALROSA; Chairman of the Board of Directors, Independent Director, Detsky Mir; Independent Director, Moscow Exchange

Masha Gordon is an experienced board executive, an avid
alpinist, and a mother-of-two. She started her career as a
journalist for the Washington Post in Moscow and later
studied in the United States; gaining a BA in political
science from the University of Wisconsin and MALD from
the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Masha spent the next 16 years of her career working in
finance. She spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs where she was
a Managing Director in the Investment Management
Division and most recently led the emerging markets
portfolio management team at PIMCO.
She moved to a portfolio career of non-executive board roles
in 2014 and currently serves as a Chairwoman of the board
of directors of Detsky Mir, Russia’s largest retail chain of
children’s goods, an independent director of Alrosa, world’s
largest diamond company, Moscow Stock Exchange, Tinkoff
Credit Services and Polyus Gold. Her portfolio of non-profit
roles includes being a member of the Board of Advisors for
the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a trustee of the
Girls Day School Trust, UK’s largest network of private girlsonly
schools.
In October 2015, Masha embarked on a journey to set a
women’s world record in Explorers Grand Slam, an
endurance challenge that features climbing highest peaks on
every continent, including Everest and skiing to the North
and South Poles. On June 11, 2016 she set a new Guinness
record at 7 months and 19 days. She has since climbed
Makalu and Lhotse, world’s 3 and 5th highest peaks. Masha
is a founder of GRIT&ROCK, a charity that administers a
largest pool of expedition grants focused exclusively on
women.

Yuriy Denisov

Chairman of the Management Board, Moscow Exchange

Yury Denisov has been CEO of Moscow Exchange since May 2019. He has more than 25 years of experience in the financial markets, including leadership positions at major Russian financial companies. Yury Denisov was a member of the Exchange’s Supervisory Board from 2008–2011 and again from 2013 till the present. Since 2008 he has been a member of the NCC Supervisory Board, which acts as central counterparty on all of the Exchange’s markets, and in 2010–2011 and since 2016 he has served as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Since 2018 he has also served on the Board of the National Settlement Depository (NSD).
In 2002–2010, Yury Denisov was Senior Vice President and Head of the Treasury at VTB Bank, Deputy Head of the bank’s Asset and Liability Management Committee and Member of its Credit Committee.
In 1992–2002, he worked at Eurofinance Bank, where he was Vice President – Head of the Treasury and Member of the Asset and Liability Management and Credit Committees. He began his career at Vnesheconombank in 1987.
In 1993, Yury Denisov graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), specializing in international economic relations.

Oliver Hughes

Chief Executive Officer, Tinkoff Group