OREANDA-NEWS. Following a proposal by the Government of the Russian Federation, the BSTDB Board of Directors appointed Mr. Igor V. Leshukov as Vice President Banking of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank for a period of four years. Mr. Leshukov took up his duties on November 24, 2014.

Mr. Leshukov started as a diplomat dealing with regional economic cooperation organizations. In 1995, he switched to the banking sector, and for the last 15 years occupied senior managerial positions at Moscow-based commercial banks. He was engaged in lending, trade finance, equity investment, guarantees, factoring operations, and international settlements. From 2009 to his appointment at BSTDB, Mr. Leshukov was Chairman of the Credit Committee and Member of the Supervisory Council at “Tempbank” in Moscow.

Mr. Leshukov graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1990 and received an MBA (Finance) degree from Guildhall University in London.

Mr. Leshukov speaks Russian, English, and Spanish.

He is married and has a son.

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters are in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is EUR 3.45 billion). BSTDB is rated long-term “A-” by Standard and Poor's and “A2” by Moody's.