FX.co ★ Business ladies: Famous female bankers in Russia

Banking sphere does not tolerate inattention and recklessness, but the best female executives are not burdened with these qualities. On the contrary. Their strong points are accuracy and precision. For this reason that they are elected to the leading positions. These women make important strategic decisions, occupy responsible posts, participate in the work of the board of directors.

1. Bella Zlatkis, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, member of the Supervisory Board of Sberbank. From 1970 to 1991, she held a number of positions at the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In 1991-1993, she was the Head of the State Securities and Financial Market Department at the Ministry of Economics and Finance (Ministry of Finance from 1992) of the Russian Federation. Member of the Collegium of the Ministry of Finance. From 1998 to 2000, she headed the Internal State Debt Department at the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. Since 2004, she has been a Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank of Russia. Supervises and coordinates the work of the GR, Legal Issues, Compliance and Subsidiaries Unit and the Internal Audit Directorate.

2. Ekaterina Petelina, Deputy President and Chairman of the Management Board, VTB 24. Ekaterina Petelina joined VTB 24 (JSC) in May 2012. She is responsible for several business-units, including retail products, SME as well as global retail strategy for the VTB Group and managing retail business in foreign subsidiaries. Ekaterina started working at the VTB Group in 2006 as Head of Strategy and Corporate Development Department. In 2010 she became a Member of the VTB Bank Management Board – the headquarters of the VTB Group. At VTB Bank Ekaterina was responsible for developing and monitoring the implementation of the VTB Group strategy in all business segments and regions, developing and executing the VTB Group governance system, as well as managing strategic cross-functional projects.

3. Natalia Nikolaeva, Chairman of the Board of Citibank. She started her career at Citibank in 1993 and was one of the first employees of the bank in Russia. In different years, Natalia headed the key areas of the bank's activities, including the Regulatory Affairs Department, the Credit Administration Department, Citi's Public Relations Department in Russia and the CIS. Then she went to the promotion: she took part in the development of Citibank retail and launched credit card projects, headed the work with regulators, the government and the State Duma.

4. NG Wholesale Banking Russia (legal name”ING BANK (EURASIA) ZAO”) announces the appointment of Katerina Sapozhnikova as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Mrs Sapozhnikova will join the Management Board of the Bank. Katerina has started her career in 1993 in Financial Audit Group, Touch Ross & Co (London, UK), where she received international experience in auditing services. In 1992-1997 Katerina worked in banking department of Deloitte & Touche CIS consulting company, where she was responsible for audit and assessing systems of internal control of the leading Russian banks, participated in consulting projects regarding transition to the International Accounting Standards. Between 2005 and 2007 Katerina Sapozhnikova served as CFO, Management Committee member and member of the BoD at National Bank Trust and Trust Investment Bank. She was responsible for strategic planning, contacts with rating agencies, investment community, setting up the budget and expense control system, IAS reporting, and control over accounting function.

5. Olga Plaksina is a member of the Board of Directors of Petrocommerce Bank. In 1994-2003, Olga worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Moscow and New-York, advising financial companies on taxes and legal matters. She was also a member of the Russian State Duma's expert committee on tax reform, and served as Head of the Tax Committee at the National Association of Stock Market Traders. In 2003-2005, Olga was Deputy Chairman of IFD Kapital Group's Managing Board and a member of the Board of Directors. She also held a number of executive positions and was on the Boards of Directors of all of the companies of IFD Kapital Group. Since 2005, Olga has served on the Board of Directors of Bank Petrocommerce. From 2006, she has been CEO of Reserve Invest Holding (Cyprus) Limited. Olga graduated from the Ordzhonikidze State Academy of Management qualifying as an economist-analyst of mathematical and software support for management.

6. Larissa Marcus, President of Vneshprombank. She began working in the Ministry of the Navy in 1975. In 1989, she was transferred to the Marine Joint Stock Bank as a senior economist at the Department of Export Currency and Settlement Operations. Five years later, Marcus became a member of the board. In 1994, she participated in the creation of Vneshprombank and since then she has been its shareholder and the permanent president.

7. Olga Gryadovaya, Chairman of the Board of Transcapitalbank, member of the Board of Directors. In 1990, she accepted the offer of Transcreditbank to head the securities department, and later became deputy chairman of the board. In 1999, Gryadovaya with her husband Leonid Ivanovsky bought out a stake in LUKoil in Transcapitalbank. In the middle of 2000, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the German investment company DEG and the international financial corporation IFC joined the capital of its bank.

8. Nailya Tagirova, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Tatfondbank. This business lady came to Tatfondbank in 1995. Her first post was an economist. In 2013, after the change of leadership, Tagirova was appointed to the position of Governor of the bank. Since then, she has been in charge of the operational management of one of the largest credit organizations of Tatarstan.

9. Maria Piotrovskaya has been appointed as Chairman of the Bank's Board of Directors. Maria Piotrovskaya has been a member of the Board of Directors for more than five years. Previously, Maria was the Managing Director and Head of Financial Management at the investment company Renaissance Capital. She also took part in leading Renaissance Group's strategic development and supervised long-term development projects in several areas of the Group's business. Prior to joining Renaissance Capital, Maria was senior advisor at Interstate Bank, where she was responsible for setting strategy for individual business areas of the bank. Before that, she spent 13 years at JSC Dresdner Bank, having arrived in 1993 to take up the position of foreign exchange dealer. In 1998, she was appointed Head of Capital Markets. In 2006, she became Regional Coordinator for Business Development and Adviser to the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors. Her responsibilities included defining business development strategy at Dresdner Bank Group in Russia. Maria was graduated from St. Petersburg State University.

10. Svetlana Klepalskaya, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rosgosstrakh Bank. Klepalskaya's business career started with the financial and investment management of Binbank. In 2003-2004, Klepalskaya held various positions in financial institutions, and also worked for the City Mortgage Bank and Legion Finance.

11. In accordance with the decision of the Board of Directors of OJSC JSCB International Financial Club dated August 7th, 2014, Ignatova Ekaterina Sergeevna was re-elected as the Chairperson of the Bank's Board of Directors for a new term. Ekaterina Ignatova - is the second wife of the head of "Russian Technologies" Sergey Chemezov, she worked with him in the Office of the President, "Promeksport", "Rosoboronexport". The flowering of Ignatova career coincided with the marriage, and the salary was ten times higher than the official income of the senior husband. Despite the fact that Ignatova owns a 13% stake in IFC and about her banking career before joining the IFC is known nothing, she headed the board of directors of the credit institution. Under her leadership are gathering the participants of the Forbes list: the owner of "Onexim" Mikhail Prokhorov (14), a shareholder of "Eurasia" Alexander Abramov (24) and the head of the "Renova" Viktor Vekselberg (7).

12. Larisa Zimina, Chairman of the Board of the Centrokredit Bank. In 2002, she accepted the offer to become the Deputy Director of the financial department of one of the clients – the "Centrokredit" bank. In 2012, Zimina was nominated for the post of the Chairman of the Board.