Chief Executive Officer of UBS in Russia Elizabeth Sullivan about her work in the USA, Russia, charity and adopted daughters

I arrived in Russia in December 1993, on election day. The time was interesting, but everything was very uncertain - no one knew what he wanted or what needed to be done. I was hired by London Business School to provide training for entrepreneurs who had recently privatized a business and were looking for investors. We taught accounting, finance, marketing, and taught how to develop business plans. It was not easy, but I understood: there would definitely be no failure, any result compared to zero is already a success.

The qualities you need to work in New York and Moscow are largely the same. You must be hardworking, intelligent and must be able to work under challenging conditions. In Russia, as in the West, you must show leadership qualities and show your employees that you know how to proceed. In 1998, when the crisis happened, I was working at Brunswick (later bought by UBS. - Forbes Woman). Markets fell, we laid off 60% of our employees, and closed our New York office. I had to convince employees that we intended to stay in Russia and that we had a plan to save the business. In just six months, we again reached break-even and in June 1999 we were able to pay all employees a bonus of two salaries.

In Moscow, a more creative approach to finding the right solution is needed, since much here is not yet settled. It takes creativity to solve problems in a legitimate field while maintaining ethical standards and ensuring financial results. When working in a financial company in America, it is very important to follow the rules and show analytical skills. In Russia, it often turns out that first you have to write the rules yourself, and then follow them. Sometimes the requirements here can be frustrating because they contradict each other. The documents of the Central Bank may establish one thing, and the documents of the Federal Financial Markets Service - something completely different. But at the same time, you feel a great sense of satisfaction when you finally find the right solution that allows you to conduct business in full compliance with the law.

In the West they dress more modestly. It seems to me that Russian women are very fashion-conscious and tend to update their wardrobes frequently; they have a lot of clothes. If in the West a person often wears the same suit, this is absolutely normal. And there you definitely need to say “please” and “thank you” all the time. In Russia you can simply say: “This is a stupid idea,” but in the West it will be seen as an insult, so you need to phrase it differently: “Oh, this is very interesting, but have you taken into account the fact that...”

Those who have made a career in the West and now want to work in Russia, first of all, need to look at the country with an open mind. Your experience is very useful, it is highly valued, but you need to understand that everything here is not organized the same way as in the West. We need to change our way of thinking in order to find solutions that are suitable for Russia.

In Russia it is extremely important to be a professional in your field. There is a feeling that here they show less tolerance for other people’s mistakes, people remember them longer. In the West, the attitude is different: there it is more important that the person realized his mistake and corrected it.

Russian people show more interest in each other's personal lives than in the West. There is no need to strictly separate work and personal life; there is no need to be afraid to ask people how they are doing, how is the mother’s health, how is her daughter doing, how was her son’s first day at school. After celebrating my birthday in Moscow for many years in a row, one day I found myself in London on that day and felt very lonely. In Moscow, employees celebrate the holiday with you, but there everyone keeps their distance. Every time I fly to London, I bring cookies to the office and treat my colleagues, as is customary in Moscow. Everyone is happy and says: “Oh, Elizabeth has arrived!” They like this tradition, it brings some variety to their monotonous life, but there are no followers yet.

People in Russia are more responsive. If something happens in your family, you get a lot more sympathy at work than in New York. Here you need to be tolerant of the personal problems of employees. For example, a month after I took over management of the office, one of the employees contacted me: “Sorry, my boyfriend is sick. I need to take him to the hospital, pay the nurses and doctors. Tomorrow I will go to work." And I said, “Okay.” What else can you say? If you work in London, it's hard to imagine sometimes having to deal with such problems. Over the 15 years of working in Russia, I have been convinced more than once that if you show respect to people, they will respond in kind. For example, we know that on September 1, most employees take their children to school, and we allow them to come to work later, we are sure that they will then make up for this time.

If we talk about the balance between work and family, my life in Russia is also very different from what it was in the USA. When you're young and don't have kids, you work a lot and that's how you get ahead in your career. Having a family—and I adopted two girls in Russia—has greatly changed my routine. I think I have become more efficient in using my work time during the day, I have a strong motivation to do what I have to do and go home no later than 19:00 to spend time with the children.

When I brought home my first daughter, Victoria (now nine), in 2004, I decided that I would not travel as often as before, but only once every 3-4 months, sending managers to London and Zurich in my place junior level. This was good for both me and the company: employees had the opportunity for professional growth. Three years ago, in January 2009, I brought my second daughter, Katerina, from Vladikavkaz. She recently turned 5 years old. Katya was very sick and at two years old she weighed only six kilograms. Once in the family, she began to eat and grow very quickly - by a centimeter per month. It took a whole year to restore it. But in a few years she will have a kidney transplant operation, and now she is taking medications that are not sold in Russia; I bring them from America.

The process of adopting Katya was difficult, but my colleagues were very supportive. In Vladikavkaz they didn’t want to give me a girl because I was a foreigner, although I said that I had been living in Russia for a long time, the child would live in Moscow and speak Russian. One of the main arguments for the court was a letter signed by 137 UBS employees, in which they supported my application to adopt Katya.

Both girls speak Russian and English fluently. I read to them at night in both languages, although my Russian is far from perfect. Vika once told me on the playground: “Mom, it’s better not to speak Russian, you make a lot of mistakes.” However, I prefer to communicate with other parents and children in their own language. Unfortunately, at the playground in the center of Moscow we have to make sure that children do not cut themselves on the fragments of broken bottles. But I like that children here often share toys with each other and play together. In America, to play with another child's toy, you must ask his parents for permission.

It is important to understand that life is not limited to work and family. The charitable work I have been doing in Russia with the United Way since 1999 is of great importance to me. I advise charities on how to manage finances, pay employees, increase donors, and resolve problems with landlords and city officials. We are talking about the possibilities of improving the management of the organization and spending the budget more efficiently. My goal is for foundation leaders to learn to run their organizations like businessmen. We also award grants for specific projects. Just last year I held meetings with two dozen charitable organizations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Bryansk.

I am glad that, following my example, more and more UBS employees are taking part in charitable events. It is very important that people think not only about themselves, their family, their company, but also about the well-being of all of Russia.

“In Russia they are intolerant of other people’s mistakes”