Otkritie, a Russian brokerage which has doubled in size in the last year, has appointed two Russia and CIS market figures to its executive team.
Former Troika Dialog UK chief executive Howard Snell (pictured) has joined Otkritie as a London-based director. He will assume responsibility for the firm’s UK business strategy, and will also have corporate and investor relations responsibilities.
Additionally, Nicholas Richmond has joined Otkritie as director and head of equity trading, based in Moscow.
Snell was responsible for launching Troika’s UK and European business in 2003. At Troika, he headed the UK subsidiary which conducted European equity and fixed income brokerage, private banking, asset management and corporate finance businesses. During this time, he was also responsible for obtaining the firm’s FSA authorisation, and regulation and membership of the London Stock Exchange. Prior to joining Troika, Howard worked at UBS where he was responsible for debt capital market origination for Russia and CIS countries, and subsequently worked on a number of Russian bilateral and debt restructuring transactions.
Richmond has been working in equity markets for 20 years, of which the most recent eight have been in senior roles focusing primarily on Russian trading. He was previously vice president at JP Morgan and head of Russian trading, where he ran the flow book and Russian proprietary trading book as well as pricing and hedging risk. Prior to this, he was a director at Deutsche UFG and head of Russian ADR trading
Otkritie Securities chief executive Roman Lokhov says: “We are delighted to have hired two of the Russian investment industry’s most respected and experienced practitioners. Their appointments are further evidence of the aggressive growth plans we have as a business.
“Otkritie has flourished in one of the most turbulent markets in many years. We have reached significant client and trade volume milestones and recruited many of the most talented analysts in Russia. Building on the success of our Direct Market Access product, Howard and Nicholas will help propel us to the next level by further growing our market share and firmly establishing Otkritie at the forefront of Russian brokerage market.”
This year Otkritie has added 100 new Russian and international institutional clients and has recruited 12 analysts from brokerages across Russia to join its research team. Its trading volumes doubled month on month for the first six months of 2009, with its total exchange traded volume reaching USD6.5bn.
