Board of Directors

Dmitry Kostygin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, is a private investor. Dmitry has worked in a variety of top management positions and holds investments in the financial/banking, food processing sectors and in other industries. From 2003-2005 he was the CEO of the Yaroslavl Tire Plant and a member of the Board of Directors. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of several companies, including previously at Lenta Ltd. from 2002-2004. Dmitry is from St. Petersburg and is a 1992 graduate of the city’s Military Medical Academy where he studied to become a Doctor.

August Meyer is a private investor. He served on the Board of Directors of Lenta Ltd. between 2003-2006 and was re-elected to the Board in 2008. August worked as a prosecutor for the District Attorney’s office in San Diego, California. He invested in Lenta in 2002. Born in the US, August holds a JD Degree from UCLA and a Bachelor’s Degree from Northwestern University.

Sergei Yuschenko is a shareholder and is serving his third term on our Board of Directors since 2005, and was the Chief Financial Officer before being appointed our Chief Executive Officer in January 2007. From 2008-2009 Sergei was the CEO of the largest Russian retail chain by number of outlets - mobile telecommunications retailer Euroset. He began his career in the auditing department of Price Waterhouse. Sergei graduated from St. Petersburg University of Economy and Finance in 1995 with a degree in marketing.

Steve Johnson has over 17 years experience in retailing, in both private equity backed and public companies.  From 2002 to 2007 he was the CEO of Focus, a leading national DIY chain with over 300 stores in the UK.  At Focus Mr. Johnson integrated a number of acquisitions and implemented a growth strategy for the business, delivering market share growth and doubling EBITDA.  He also led the business through two successful refinancings and a subsequent sale. In 2008 he joined Woolworths Plc (a ?3.5 Bn turnover high street retailer ) as CEO, tasked with maximizing returns to all stakeholders.  Mr. Johnson began his career in retailing as part of the turnaround team recruited into Asda Plc in 1993.  He held a number of senior executive roles in trading, corporate finance and marketing and was responsible for developing, amongst other things, Asda’s entry into chilled prepared food and the long-running “Rollback” marketing campaign.  Following his time at Asda, he joined GUS Plc, setting up a third party outsourcing business for direct to consumer retailers.  His early career from 1987 to 1992 was spent with Bain & Co and The Kalchas Group, both strategy consultancies in London.  He is currently a retail consultant to the management of Lenta Ltd, one of the largest hypermarket retailers in Russia and is also an NED of the Unipart Group, a leading supplier into the automotive sector in the UK and overseas.  Mr. Johnson holds a Masters Degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Cambridge University.

Lindsay Forbes is currently Director, Corporate Equity, at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) where he has worked since 1994. He serves on a number of Boards including CAEPCO in Kazakhstan and Dalkia Polska in Poland. Formerly he has served on the Boards and Audit Committees of International Moscow Bank, now Unicredit, and Orgresbank in Russia. Previously, he held positions on the Supervisory Board and/or the Investment Committee of equity funds in Romania, Russia and Poland, as well as Pliva dd., a Croatian Pharmaceutical company listed on the LSE. Before joining the EBRD, Lindsay spent 13 years with British Linen Bank, the investment Bank subsidiary of Bank of Scotland, specializing in commercial lending and private equity. A British national, he qualified as a Solicitor with Norton Rose in 1978. He has a law degree from Oxford University (1975) and an MBA from INSEAD (1981).

Two representatives from TPG

Tim Demchenko, Head of private equity and special situations at VTB

Katherine Lean, Secretary to the Board of Directors, is from the USA and is a public relations and communications executive who has advised international and Russian companies doing business in Russia for over eighteen years. She has consulted and held top management positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Arthur Andersen, Deloitte, Bank Menatep St. Petersburg, and the international legal firm of Chadbourne & Parke in London, before working for Lenta. From 2006-2008 she served as the Secretary to the Board of Directors of Lenta Ltd., and was the Investor Relations and Public Relations Director of LLC Lenta. Katherine is a 1991 Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations.