Board of Directors
The Board of Directors at Sodrugestvo is comprised of seven Directors: three independent ones and four Board members who participate in planning and development of business strategies, but who do not engage in the day-to-day management of the organization.
This is a group of real professionals, who have skill sets in various areas and are internationally recognized specialists in such areas as trade or banking. They have all been invited to the Company based on their impeccable reputation, integrity and experience. The independent Directors are also members of the Audit Commission and are heads of the Risk Committee.
Independent Directors of the Board
Members of the Board of Directors:
Alexander V. Lutsenko, Chairman of the Board
Nataliya I. Lutsenko, Deputy Chairman of the Board
Stéphane Frappat, Chief Executive Officer
Stéphane (b.1967), a French national, has worked in Russia since 1990, when he set up an office for Avomark, a French consulting company. Although trained as a civil servant at Science-Po in Bordeaux (88), Stephane has spent most of his carreer in the corporate sector as CFO for Burlington Holdings (a leading real-estate service provider in Moscow), General Director of Aventis Animal Nutrition for the CIS, and eventually founder and managing partner of Camden Partners, a corporate financial consultancy. Stéphane also held various positions in the Rhone-Poulenc and Aventis French offices,as well as the position of COO of Sodrugestvo in 2001-2002, and later served as Board member of the Company. He speaks fluent French, English and Russian.
Yury N. Khitrov
Mr. Khitrov (b. 1969 in Moscow) a Russian national, graduated from the Faculty of the International Economic Relations of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in 1992 and completed his PhD in Economics at the Moscow State University of Economic, Statistics and Informatics (MESI) in 2000. He received his Executive MBA degree from IMD Lausanne in 2003.
Yury began his career with McKinsey in 1991 as a business analyst in London. He then joined Pepsi World Trade as Business Development Manager from 1992 until 1995. From 1995 until 1997 he was Chief of the Representative Office of Tradigrain in Moscow. In 1997, he joined Alfa-Bank as Deputy Chief of the Credit Directorate, and was named Chief of the Debt Program Directorate in 1999. Yury joined Credit Suisse First Boston (later Credit Suisse) in 2004, as Director of the Structured Finance Department and Member of the Executive Board of Credit Suisse Moscow. At Credit Suisse, Mr. Khitrov has been in charge of organizing, structuring and syndicating financing for the bank clients, as well as of structuring financial derivatives.
Yury has left Credit Suisse in December 2008. He speaks fluent Russian and English, as well as French and Spanish.
Philippe de Lapérouse
Philippe de Lapérouse (b. 1953 in Paris, France), a dual citizen of France and the U.S.A., received his BA degree from Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut) in 1975 and his MBA degree from Darden School of Business/The University of Virginia in 1979. After working in the financial services industry, first as a Summer Associate at Salomon Brothers (1978), then as an Associate at Warburg Paribas Becker, Inc.(1979-82) in New York City and Newbury, Rosen & Company(1982-83) in Boston, Massachusetts, Philippe began his 25-year career in international agribusiness with Ralston Purina in its global livestock/poultry feed and pet food business where he held different positions such as Plant Manager in Barcelona, Spain, Director of Pet Food Marketing, Director of Health Products Division and Director of the New Business Division in Paris France, and eventually Managing Director at the company’s headquarters in St Louis, Missouri. In 1994, Philippe was named Vice-President of the Fund for Large Enterprises (FLER) in Russia, a direct equity investment fund chartered and financed by USAID and OPIC to finance private ventures in Russia. He 1996, he joined Bunge North America, first in international marketing and then as a Director of Business Development, reporting to the President and CEO. Philippe left Bunge in 2003 to establish Vanikoro Advisory LLC, a consultancy advising companies on global expansion strategies. Since 2006, he has been Managing Director of the Global Food, Agribusiness and Biofuels practice at HighQuest Partners, a strategic advisory and management consulting firm serving Fortune 500, Global 1000 and emerging technology companies, investors and organizations in the food, agribusiness, biofuels (ethanol, biodiesel and biomass) and clean technology sectors.
He speaks fluent English, French and Spanish, as well as some Russian.
Jean-Paul Pinard
Jean-Paul Pinard, (b. 1950), French national, recently retired from the World Bank Group (WBG) where he held several management positions for a number of years. He was from 2001 to 2007 Director of the Agribusiness Department of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector arm of the WBG, where he was responsible for managing IFC’s global investment portfolio in agriculture, agribusiness and food production. Since leaving the WBG, Jean-Paul has continued to act as a representative of IFC in several entities while also pursuing other personal interests. Jean-Paul is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique (Paris, France) and holds a Doctorate in Economics from the University of California (San Diego, USA).
Mr. Pinard speaks fluent French and English.
Poul Schroeder, Chairman of the Risk Committee (Independent)
Poul Schroeder (b. 1944 in Aarhus, Denmark), a Danish national, has been working in the international agribusiness since 1966.Poul completed his basic commercial education in Denmark and joined Continental Grain Company as a trainee in France in 1966. After four years in European grain trading he was transferred to Germany as Trading Manager for Continental Grain’s commodity business in Northern Europe. In 1976 he became General Manager.
During 1979 Poul participated in the Senior Management Program at Columbia University in New York.
He moved to Continental Grain’s headquarters in New York as Vice President Worldwide Protein and Derivative Trade in 1981. Following two years in New York, his next assignment with Continental Grain was as Trading Manager Europe, in Geneva.
Poul became General Manager Europe and Chairman of Finagrain (Continental Grain-Geneva) in 1990 and in 1992 his responsibilities were expanded to include Africa and the Far East.
After Continental Grain’s commodity business was sold to Cargill in 1999, Poul left Continental Grain Group and was hired by Bunge to help build its international commodity business. He worked as Director of European Agribusiness and Chairman of Bunge S.A. Geneva until his retirement at the end of 2006.
Although Poul is pleased to have retired from day to day business, he continues to enjoy working part time as an Independent Consultant.