Translated material
"Young but experienced"
Sberbank updated the composition of the board
The Supervisory Board of Sberbank yesterday appointed five new top managers who will join the board, and approved a four-year contract with the president - chairman of the board, German Gref. At the same time, Sberbank is changing its management structure, as a result of which, according to Mr. Gref, the concentration of powers in the hands of one person will be eliminated. Thus, the bank will no longer have a top manager overseeing almost the entire business, as was the first deputy chairman Alla Aleshkina.As the Vremya Novostei newspaper has already written , Anton Karamzin, who held a similar position in the Russian subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, became deputy chairman and financial director. Mr. Gref's former deputy at the Ministry of Economic Development, Stanislav Kuznetsov, was also appointed deputy chairman of the board and will oversee the administrative activities of the bank. Board member Denis Bugrov, 33, who previously worked at the Moscow office of McKinsey & Company, will be responsible for strategic development. In addition, the bank's board will include Olga Kanovich, who oversees the operational unit (previously worked at VTB-24), and Senior Vice President Viktor Orlovsky, responsible for information technology. “These are young but experienced people,” German Gref told reporters.
Yesterday, the supervisory board approved a temporary management structure for the bank, which will remain in effect until a new strategy appears (it should be developed by the end of the year). As you know, last year, under the previous leadership, the concept of development of Sberbank until 2012 was adopted. However, the new management of the bank needs its own strategy. For now, it has been decided to separate the retail and corporate blocks into independent divisions and create blocks for territorial and strategic development.
Chairman of the Council, Head of the Central Bank Sergei Ignatiev, Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin and Mr. Gref himself came out to comment on the results of the meeting to journalists. However, the comments were very laconic.
“Of the 17 members of the board, five were renewed. Thus, the principle of continuity is maintained. We fully supported the personnel appointments,” Mr. Kudrin said. There remain two vacancies on the board, one of them is the position of first deputy chairman. This position was previously held by Ms. Aleshkina, who oversaw several strategically important blocks in the bank. Now, according to Mr. Gref, “the first deputy chairman will replace the chief executive of the bank in his absence and will not be responsible for the blocks. This way, personnel risks will be diversified.”
The new head of the bank had to solve a personnel problem, since at the end of last year five members of the board left: first deputy chairman Alla Aleshkina and four deputy chairmen - Irina Bokhan, Alexander Brinza, Andrei Manoilo and Andrei Pogodin.
According to Mr. Gref, he does not yet have candidates for the two vacancies, but he plans to finally staff the board within a few months. The new deputy chairman of the board, Stanislav Kuznetsov, said yesterday that there is no point in expecting any quick appointments. “As far as I understand, this is the position of the president, who wants those top managers who have come to start working effectively,” Interfax quotes him. In his opinion, these personnel changes will not lead to mass layoffs of previous employees. As you know, after the appointment of German Gref as head of the bank, such rumors appeared on the market. In addition, according to Mr. Kuznetsov, officials from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade are not expected to move to Sberbank.
Sergei Ignatiev told reporters that the board also discussed the main directions of the bank's dividend policy, but refused to explain what exactly was discussed.
Sberbank shares rose by more than 5% yesterday at the end of the day, outperforming the market.