10:18 19.04.2017

Ex-economy minister of Ukraine Abromavicius heads supervisory board of Ukrainian Corporate Governance Academy

3 min read
Ex-economy minister of Ukraine Abromavicius heads supervisory board of Ukrainian Corporate Governance Academy

Former economic development and trade minister of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius heads the supervisory board of Ukrainian Corporate Governance Academy that was recently created. Members of the board are also International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative Jerome Vacher, Managing Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Francis Malige and International Finance Corporation (IFC) Country Manager for Ukraine Olena Voloshyna.

"This will be a non-commercial project supported by international financial institutions (IFIs). The goal is to teach people corporate governance both from the private and public sectors," Abromavicius told Interfax-Ukraine.

According to the public register, nongovernmental organization Ukrainian Corporate Governance Academy was registered early March 2017. Its founders are a member of the Group of Strategic Advisors for Support of Reforms in Ukraine and a member of the committee appointing heads of state-owned companies Andriy Boitsun, a managing partner of Odgers Berndtson recruiting company Roman Bondar and former head of the target team of public property management reform at the Economic Development and Trade Ministry Adomas Audickas who heads the academy as president.

Boitsun told Interfax-Ukraine that members of the supervisory board are also Horizon Capital Investment Company CEO Lenna Koszarny, Director of the Investment Promotion Office Daniel Bilak, Director of the Investment and Banking Division at Dragon Capital Investment Company Brian Best and ex-member of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market of Ukraine who recently joined the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Olyana Gordiyenko.

"The founders and members of the supervisory board of the academy are people who were pioneers of corporate governance in Ukraine," Abromavicius said.

He recalled that IFC under management of Voloshyna financed corporate governance development projects in 2003-2004. Boitsun drew up corporate governance reform concept for Naftogaz Ukrainy in 2014, and jointly with Gordiyenko and Malige – the corporate governance action plan for this company in 2015.

Boitsun said that Abromavicius and Audickas launched the corporate governance reform for Ukrainian state-owned enterprises and create the committee appointing heads of state-run companies in 2015. Bondar searched for candidates for the posts of directors of various state-owned companies and members of the supervisory board of Naftogaz. Horizon Capital actively supported and financed the process.

"The idea of creating the academy appeared when we faced a problem of search for members of supervisory board who could transform large state-run enterprises. We believe that good corporate governance starts at the top. Today there is a real need in strengthening top managers of companies with practical corporate governance knowledge," Malige told Interfax-Ukraine.

Abromavicius said that the academy will start operating from hosting a specialized conference preliminarily scheduled for June 2017.

Boitsun said that along with the educational goal the academy sets goals to develop networking and policy in corporate governance in Ukraine.

"The latter concerns private and state-owned enterprises," he said.

Abromavicius said that the academy plans to participate in drawing up legislative documents in this area.

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