Президентом Onexim Sports and Entertainment стала Ирина Павлова

13 мая 2010 16:19

Версия для печатиКомментировать (Всего 0)  .Президентом компании Onexim Sports and Entertainment назначена Ирина Павлова, говорится в пресс-релизе группы ОНЭКСИМ. Новый руководитель стент «станет важным связующим звеном между проектами Михаила Прохорова» в России и США, отмечается в сообщении.

Павловой предстоит заняться созданием американского офиса Onexim Sports and Entertainment. Кроме того, она будет «вплотную работать с менеджментом структуры Nets (клуб НБА «Нью-Джерси Нетс», 80% акций которого приобрела компания) над созданием всех необходимых условий для успешного развития команды».

«В сферу ее ответственности будет также входить координация взаимодействия со структурами Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) в рамках реализации проекта строительства  стадиона BarclaysCenter и проекта Atlantic Yards», — сообщает департамент группы по связям с общественностью.

Павлова закончила Московский лингвистический университет, получила степень MBA в Стэнфордском университете, а профессиональную карьеру начала в инвестиционной компании Prudential Investment Corporation. Позднее она «стала первым сотрудником Google в России и участвовала в становлении бизнеса компании в стране».

«Я рада возможности принять участие в реализации этого уникального проекта и намерена сделать все возможное для того, чтобы создать успешную команду с достойной домашней ареной», — прокомментировала назначение сама президент Onexim Sports and Entertainment.

Ранее компания  объявила о завершении сделки с FCRC и Nets Sports and Entertainment (NSE) о приобретении 80% акций «Нетс» и 45% в проекте строительства Barclays Center.

Компания Прохорова инвестирует $200 млн в обмен на доли в строительстве стадиона и капитале баскетбольного клуба, а также опцион на приобретение до 20% в компании Atlantic Yards Development Company, управляющей возведением жилой и коммерческой недвижимости в рамках проекта.

Team Prokhorov
by Net Income on Feb 22, 2010 9:51 AM EST in NetsDaily

Mikhail Prokhorov will be principal owner of the Nets once the NBA approves the transfer of ownership, but his interest in the Nets and Barclays Center will be held by Onexim Sports and Entertainment Holdings, a subsidiary of Onexim, his $25 billion investment vehicle.

According to various reports, Onexim Sports and Entertainment is more than just Prokhorov. Other executives close to him play a role and have "very small" pieces of the company, according to Nets insiders. The executives have not been publicly identified although one insider said there are four investors in addition to Prokhorov.  One insider described their shares as a "management incentive" package.

Two of the key players are the Onexim executives closest to Prokhorov.  Dmitry Razumov and Christophe Charlier, both in their 30's, are the billionaire's two top business aides. Razumov is Russian, while Charlier is described as having both French and American nationality. They're the ones who watched the Nets in a preseason game and toured the Prudential Center back in October--along with lawyer Todd D. Schafer. They're the ones who met with Rod Thorn and Brett Yormark in Dallas at the All-Star Break, signing off on the Newark deal. And they're the ones who flew Thorn to Vancouver on a private jet to meet with Prokhorov. They are described as enthusiastic about the Nets.

Another who may be part of the mix is Sergey Kushchenko, Prokhorov's top sports executive.  He was director general (aka general manager) of CSKA Moscow for six years.  In each of those six years, CSKA made it to the Final Four.  It was Kushchenko who built CSKA using Prokhorov's money.  His protege, Andrei Vatutin, is the man Prokhorov described as "a young, talented Russian manager with a successful background in European basketball" who he reportedly wants integrated into team management. He too is likely to be part of the investment group.  Finally, there's Irina Pavlova, whose background is more of a mystery, yet she may run the business side of the Nets.

Here are short bio's of them and others identified as players in the Nets' acquisition and operation of the franchise, people in their 30's and 40's who have "all the money in the world", as one inside put it.

Sergey Kushchenko, Russian, Executive Director, Russian Biathlon Union

Kushchenko is Prokhorov's most trusted sports executive.  From 2002 to 2008, he ran CSKA Moscow, building the basketball team while pioneering the business of basketball in Russia. A former deejay, he started in the industrial city of Perm, where he built a team from scratch to winning back-to-back Russian league championships. Alexander Gomelskiy, CSKA's Hall of Fame president, brought him to Moscow to run CSKA.  In a 2008 profile, Ian Thomsen of Sports Illustrated called Kuschenko "open and sincere...in every way the opposite of the stern, cold authoritarian whom one would expect to be presiding over the Red Army club". Independently wealthy, he also cashed in on the privatization boom of the 1990s, becoming a manufacturer of electronic cables.

Kushchenko tried to put together a deal with the NBA in 2006 which for still unexplained reasons fell apart at the last minute.  As Thomsen described it in a profile of Kushchenko: "CSKA would put up close to $10 million to serve as host of NBA events in Moscow, including the charitable youth event Basketball Without Borders and preseason exhibitions involving NBA teams. NBA and CSKA officials would work side by side in Moscow, enabling the Americans to grow their league in Russia while providing CSKA with expertise in transforming basketball into a market-based business. CSKA games would be broadcast in the U.S. on NBA TV."  In many ways, Prokhorov's purchase of the Nets is the final culmination of that aborted deal.

When Prokhorov sold off his interest in Norilsk Nickel, his control of CSKA passed to RusAl, the aluminum giant.  As a result, Kushchenko left CSKA in 2009 and became executive director of the Russian Biathlon Union, which Prokhorov heads.  He also works with Prokhorov on various other matters, like the Association of Student Basketball, the Russian version of the NCAA, and the Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation.  He's 48.

Andrei Vatutin, President, CSKA Moscow

If you're looking for the guy who'll be Prokhorov's inside man on the Nets, you've found him.  Vatutin is 36 years old and has been highly successful in European basketball.  Trained as a journalist, he worked under Kushchenko in Perm, a small Russian city 720 miles east of Moscow.  Vatutin came with Kushchenko to Moscow, first as his deputy, then vice-president, CEO and finally last year, president and CEO.  Along the way, he served as assistant general manager on the Russian national team, giving him a taste of international basketball. In their seven seasons working for CSKA, Kushchenko and Vatutin led the club to seven straight Russian League titles and eight straight Euroleague Final Fours. CSKA lifted the Euroleague trophy in 2006 and 2008 and reached the final in 2007 under Prokhorov.

The duo broke up in 2009.  When  Prokhorov was forced to give up his interest in CSKA,  Kushchenko left the team to go work with the Russian billionaire and Vatutin succeeded his old boss in the big job.  With the new owners cutting expenditures by 30 per cent, it looked like CSKA would fall on hard times.  The team lost two of its best players and more importantly its coach, Ettore Messina, to the Spanish league.  But instead of collapsing, CSKA continued its dominance of the Euroleague, making the Final Four this year again.  Now, it appears he's headed to the NBA as assistant general manager, working as Rod Thorn's apprentice.  Vatutin is known as a tough-minded executive, someone who the players respect.

Dmitry Razumov, Russian, CEO of Onexim.

Before shifting his focus to financial ventures, early into his career, Dmitry Razumov practiced business and corporate law at Clifford Chance, a London law firm. He gained investment banking experience with Renaissance Capital, then the leading Russian investment bank. In 1998, he left Renaissance Capital to co-found the LV Finance, an independent venture capital firm that still stands behind the success of MegaFon, the third largest mobile phone operator in Russia. He sold his interest in 2003. Razumov is 35 years old.

Starting in 2001, Razumov served as Deputy CEO for Strategy and M&A of Prokhorov's Norilsk Nickel, Russia's largest mining company, leading its transformation into a world class company through groundbreaking deals with international mining concerns, like Stillwater Mining Company, Gold Fields and Polyus Gold, and by pioneering corporate governance standards for  Russian blue-chip companies.

After Onexim's acquisition of a 14 percent stake in UC RUSAL, the world's largest aluminum company, Razumov joined the UC RUSAL Board of Directors. Since December 2008, he has been a Board member of the OPIN Investment and Development Group, a Moscow real estate company with ties to Prokhorov. In June, Razumov joined the board of the Russian nickel giant Norilsk Nickel. He was also elected a Board member of MMC Intergeo and Chairman of the Board of MFK Bank -- Prohkorov attempts to consolidate his mining and banking operations.  Razumov also helped engineer Prokhorov's acquisition of a 50% stake in his old company, Renaissance Capital.

He graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (International Law Faculty), a favored talent pool for Prokhorov.

Christophe Charlier, French, Deputy CEO of Onexim and Chairman of the Board, Nets Basketball

Christophe Charlier joined Onexim Group as Deputy CEO in September 2008. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Renaissance Capital, Rusal Global Management, and TGC-4, involved in finance, mining and consumer energy production and owned in large measure by Prokhorov. He's also Chairman of the Board of Nets Basketball as well as Optogan, which manufactures high brightness LED displays. All are financed by investments from Onexim.

Prior to joining Onexim, Charlier was Director of Strategic Development and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&M) at Norilsk Nickel from 2002 to 2004. From 1998 to 2002, Charlier was Vice President of LV Finance, a corporate finance and venture capital boutique in Moscow. Prior to that, Christophe worked in the Investment Banking Group of Renaissance Capital in Moscow and in the M&A Group of JP Morgan in New York.

Charlier graduated cum laude with a BSE with a concentration in Finance from the Wharton School and a BA in International Relations from the College of Arts & Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania. He is 38.

Irina Pavlova, President, Onexim Sports and Entertainment USA

Pavlova will direct the Nets' business affairs.  She will not control basketball operations.  Pavlova, who has lived in the US for more than a decade, toured the Nets' offices in East Rutherford April 13, meeting with groups and individuals.  Pavlova has attended Nets games for the past two months.

She is the daughter of a Soviet diplomat who grew up in Moscow and Washington.  She holds an MBA from Stanford and was Google's first Russian employee, becoming the company's director of strategic partnerships in Russia.  Prior to Google, she worked for Prudential Investments.  She is fluent in Russian, English and Spanish.  "She will work closely with the management structure of the Nets to create all conditions necessary for successful development of the team," Prokhorov said in a press release.  She is Prokhorov's first management appointment. Among her responsibilities will be to coordinate operations with Forest City Ratner in the construction of Barclays Center. Unknown at the this time is her relationship with Yormark, whose title is CEO of the Nets. Several of Onexim's top officers are women, including its chief financial officer.

Todd D. Schafer, American, Partner, Hogan & Hartson.

Schafer’s practice at Hogan & Hartson focuses on public and private cross-border mergers and acquisitions (negotiated and hostile); multinational business operations; public and private financings; complex bank and corporate restructurings; and the negotiation and implementation of joint ventures. In short, he is Prokhorov's US counsel.

Over the last 15 years, Schafer has served as lead counsel on many of the largest and most important transactions handled by Hogan & Hartson’s international practice, including a significant number of deals in London which relate to Russia. According to one website that tracks international lawyers, Schafer is known for his "smooth handling of deals and excellent working relationships".

Before shepherding the Nets deal, Schafer previously advised Prokhorov on his decision to sell Onexim's minority stake in Norilsk Nickel for $4.5 billion in April 2008--a deal that turned out to be a windfall for Prokhorov when the economy collapsed and Norilsk lost value.

He also advised Prokhorov on his moves during the heat of the economic collapse last September to buy the 50% stake in the Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital.

Immediately prior to joining Hogan & Hartson, Schafer practiced with Covington & Burling. Before that, he clerked at the U.S. Department of Justice, worked as a legislative assistant on international trade issues in the U.S. Senate and served on the presidential campaign of a U.S. Senator. Schafer has lectured at leading universities, such as Oxford, and sat on several boards, including Stillwater Mining (June 2003 - January 2009), in which Prokhorov owned a stake.

Schafer, 48, received a J.D. from Harvard University Law School in 1989, a M. Phil from Oxford University in 1986 and a B.A. in 1984 from Vassar College.

Woj: Vatutin To Arrive In June
by Net Income on May 21, 2010

.
After giving Irina Pavlova the reins on the business side of the franchise, Mikhail Prokhorov is bringing another 30-something Russian to New Jersey as an assistant general manager.  Andrei Vatutin, instrumental in the success of CSKA Moscow, will join the Nets after the Russian Super League championships in early June.

Vatutin's appointment was first reported in early April by the Russian press.  Adrian Wojnarowski adds Friday that "European and NBA sources" tell him Vatutin is nearing an agreement "to take a senior-level, front-office job" with the Nets. Vatutin had no comment.

Although Vatutin has no NBA experience, he's arguably the best basketball executive in Europe.  As GM and CEO, Vatutin developed a winning culture at CSKA.

The "Red Army" has won seven straight Russian championships and has been to the Euroleague Final Four eight straight times, including four visits to the Finals and two championships. The Nets will retain Bobby Marks, Thorn's longtime #2 and someone recognized as a potential NBA general manager himself.  Vatutin would become the NBA's second European assistant GM after the Raptors' Maurizio Gherardini.