Dmitri Vasiliev spent most of the 1990s creating Russia’s financial markets as founding chairman of the country’s Federal Securities Commission. Now he’ll try to make money from them, on behalf of JPMorgan Chase. Last month the investment bank hired Vasiliev, 44, as a managing director, responsible for Russian capital markets, M&A and risk advisory activities.
The former regulator does not have investment banking experience. But he brings to JPMorgan something even rarer in Russia: a reputation for honesty that survived his years in government. “The guy’s Rolodex should be pretty full,” notes James Fenkner, a partner at Moscow’s Red Star Asset Management, which oversees $100 million in assets. “He knows all the players in Moscow without being tainted by knowing all the players.”
Vasiliev quit the commission in 1999 after failing to stop a massive share dilution by oil company Yukos. From 2001 to 2006 he was deputy general director at Moscow-based energy utility Mosenergo, overseeing its breakup into 14 entities.
Over the next two years, national power monopoly Unified Energy System of Russia is planning to split into smaller companies and organize some 20 public offerings for divested regional generators. Vasiliev ought to know whom to call about underwriting mandates.
