The appointment, in which Khanjenkova will report to the Bank’s First Vice President, Varel Freeman, became effective on 1 May 2010, making Khanjenkova the first Russian national to head the Bank’s operations in Russia. It will also be the first time in Bank’s history that Russia is the sole area of responsibility of one of the members of the EBRD’s senior management.
Khanjenkova joined the EBRD in 1993 and moved to Moscow in 2007 where she worked as Director in charge of the Bank’s Infrastructure and Energy business in Russia. She will continue to be based in Moscow in her new position.
In 2009, the EBRD signed 56 projects in Russia worth Euro 2.4B and accounting for 30% of the Bank’s total business volume last year.
The appointment will bring to eight the number of EBRD Managing Directors, a new title created earlier this year to replace the Bank’s former senior management structure under which the heads of its main operational divisions had previously been known as Business Group Directors.
The previous Business Group Director for Russia, Alain Pilloux, was also in charge of the Bank’s Agribusiness, Property and Tourism sectors. Mr. Pilloux was last January named Managing Director of the EBRD’s newly-created Industry, Commerce and Agribusiness Group.
In addition to its main office in Moscow, the EBRD runs a network of six regional offices stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. These are located in Ekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Rostov-on-the-Don, St. Petersburg, Samara and Vladivostok. The EBRD employs around 130 staff in its Russian offices.
Born in 1961, Kanjenkova is an economics graduate from the prestigious Moscow State Institute for International Relations (MGIMO).
