Russian investment expertise

Aurora Russia Limited is managed by Aurora Investment Advisors Limited which was set up by James Cook and John McRoberts. They have 26 years combined investment and operational experience working with over 120 growth and mid-sized companies operating in Russia. The management team brings value to investee companies through its operational expertise and a proven track record for selling Russian companies to strategic buyers and bringing them to public markets.

James Cook - Non-Executive Director

James is a Director and joint founder of Aurora Russia Limited. He is also a Partner and owner of Aurora Investment Advisors which manages Aurora Russia Limited. In addition, James has non-executive directorships at ZAO Forus Bank and ICICI Bank in Russia. He has over 14 years experience in advising, founding and managing companies in Russia’s consumer finance, residential mortgage lending and leasing sectors. James was one of Russia's pioneers in consumer finance in Russia and is credited with being the Father of Mortgage Lending in Russia. Prior to setting up Aurora Russia, James served as Chairman and CEO of GE Money Bank in Russia. Before moving to GE, James was Executive Vice President of Delta Capital where he worked from 1996 to 2004. Whilst at Delta Capital, James served as Chairman of the Delta Financial Services Group. He was the founder, Chairman and CEO of ZAO DeltaCredit, Russia’s first mortgage bank and was co-founder and Chairman of ZAO DeltaLeasing (now known as Europlan), a major provider of equipment and automobile fleet leasing in Russia. In addition, he served as Chairman and CEO of ZAO DeltaBank which he built into a major provider of VISA credit cards in Russia and which was later sold to GE and renamed GE Money Bank. James was a Merit Scholar at Hampden-Sydney College and holds a B.S. in Finance from Virginia Tech. James speaks Russian.

John McRoberts - Non-Executive Director

John McRoberts is one of the founders of Aurora Russia Limited. John is a Director of Aurora Russia Limited and a partner and owner of Aurora Investment Advisors Limited which manages Aurora Russia Limited. John has been working in Russia for over 14 years. Prior to setting up Aurora Russia, he worked as a corporate financier completing numerous transactions including the sale of Darial TV to Modern Times Group, the first acquisition of a Russian TV channel by a foreign strategic buyer, the sale of an outdoor advertising company to News Corporation and the sale of two property companies to Raven Russia, the AIM listed property company focusing on Russian commercial real estate. John first began working in Russia in 1996 with a petrochemical and petroleum product trading company advising on upstream acquisitions to secure the source of supply of their traded products. In 1998, John set up Altium Capital’s corporate finance business (formerly Apax Partners & Co. Corporate Finance) in Russia and ran the business until 2003. In December 2003, John accepted the position to set up and lead the Corporate Finance Advisory business of Deloitte & Touche in Moscow. John left Deloitte to set up Aurora Russia. John holds an MBA in Finance from the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona and a BSC in Finance from Arizona State University.

Michael Hough - Non-Executive Director

As well as being a Director of Aurora Investment Advisors Limited, Michael is a Partner of Iceni Capital, a UK private equity investment firm. He was previously Managing Director of Altium Capital Limited (formerly Apax Partners & Co Capital Limited) which he helped establish in 1990. Prior to this he worked for Goldman Sachs in New York and London. He holds an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School.

The Directors of Aurora Investment Advisors are supported by:

Andrey Gurin - Investment Officer

Andrey Gurin began his career at MicroAge Computer Center as Sales Consultant for their Xerox dealership. He then got his MBA at IESE, University of Navarra in Spain where he majored in finance. Post MBA, he joined GE Medical Systems and quickly progressed through a number of finance roles in their Eastern Europe operations to become a Manager of Finance for Eastern Europe based in Budapest. In 2001 he was promoted to a Manager of Finance role for GE Medical Systems Middle East & Africa, based out of Paris. In 2003 he moved to GE Oil & Gas Global Headquarters in Italy as a Manager of Finance for their services operations. Andrey relocated to Russia in 2004 and worked for GE Consumer Finance Russia as Financial Controller and Treasurer for DeltaBank after it was acquired by GE. He is also a graduate of GE Experienced Financial Leadership Program (EFLP). Andrey got his undergraduate degree in computer design from Moscow Institute for Radio, Electronics & Automation.

Mikhail Shorokhov - Investment Officer
(current assignment – Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Flexinvest Bank)

Mikhail Shorokhov began his career in 1993 as a specialist in finance at Bank Delovaya Rossia. He progressed to become a financial controller at DeltaBank and Renaissance Capital Consumer Finance. He then joined the consumer finance business of Citigroup, Citifinancial Russia, where he was a Chief Financial and Operational officer until 2007. Mikhail became involved with Aurora Russia Limited through his capacity as CFO of Kreditmart, one of Aurora Russia’s portfolio companies. He then took charge of Flexinvest Bank’s financial matters following Aurora Russia’s acquisition of the bank and is currently Deputy Chairman of the Management Board. Mikhail holds a diploma of Finance Academy under the authority of Russian Government.

Nelly Khaneeva - Office Manager (Moscow)

Nelly was formally Office and HR Manager for North Star Corporate Finance, and primarily for Altium Capital Limited in Russia. Her responsibilities included handling all issues related to accounting and payroll and office supervision. As an HR specialist, Nelly was responsible for the preparation of labour contracts and handling general HR paperwork in accordance with Russian Legislation. Prior to Altium Nelly was a General Support Manager at ABN AMRO Bank. Nelly graduated from Moscow Energy Institute and Moscow Linguistic University.

Anna Shavmarova - Personal Assistant (Moscow)

Prior to joining Aurora Russia Limited, Anna worked for Kreditmart, one of Aurora Russia’s investee companies. Anna is an assistant to the Head of the representative office and Investment officer in Moscow. She is responsible for the preparation of analytical materials, background information for meetings, conferences and board meetings. In addition, she is responsible for the Russian content of Aurora's website. At present Anna is a second year graduate student of history at Moscow State University.

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