Team | Amber Lion Partners

Svetlana Banerjee

Associate Partner

Svetlana Banerjee is the President and Co-Founder of Galileo IIIC, Managing Director of the Impact Investing School and Board Member of SIIA (Swiss Impact Investing Association). She is an expert in impact investing and is actively raising awareness about this topic in the Swiss financial industry.

Speaker at various conferences, gives Impact investing masterclasses in Zurich for financial institutions, universities and public.

Svetlana has working experience at various banks, with the founders of Amber Lion Partners, such as J. Safra Sarasin, Societe Generale, but also Family Office and Asset Management companies in Zurich. She is also co-founder of Euforia, international, youth-driven social innovation enterprise with in-depth experience as Project Manager, Finance Coach and Facilitator.
Svetlana has a Master’s degree in Banking & Finance from University of Zurich (UZH) and completed the Impact Investing Executive Education at Oxford University.

Dimitria Neuhauser-Toteva

Deputy Head of Compliance

Dimitria serves as Deputy Head of Compliance. Prior to joining Amber Lion Partners, Dimitria worked as a compliance officer at Credit Suisse, where she performed duties such as onboarding, reviewing relationships, investigations (AML, CDB, KYC, CRS, Tax, SAR…). Prior to that, she worked for PwC as Tax Consultant where she performed among other things tax and wealth planning, legal opinions, legal appeals. She started her career as a tax consultant with Treureva and as a legal trainee at Häberli law Zurich.

Dimitria holds a Bachelor and a Master of Law from the University of Zurich, a CAS in Taxation from Kalaidos University of applied science and is a Chartered Tax expert from Expert Suisse.

Luisa Pastore

Impact and Sustainability Advisor

Luisa is an Impact and Sustainability Advisor at Amber Lion Partners. She is an Architectural Engineer specialized in sustainable architecture, bioclimatic design and comfort in buildings. She is the Coordinator of the Academic Committee of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction and Professor at Ecole d’Architecture et d’Architecture d’Intérieur – idées House, Lausanne.

After completing a PhD from the University of Palermo (Italy), she joined the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Performance-Integrated Design (LIPID) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL Lausanne) as post-doctoral researcher and lecturer (2014-2019). Her works have been published in books, conference proceedings and journals. She’s also co-author of two patents.

Luisa is Co-Founder of SBskin (Smart Building Skin), a technological start-up based in Palermo for the development of innovative and energy-efficient building façade components. With her entrepreneurial idea, she was awarded as Innovator Under 35 Italy 2014 by MIT Technology Review Italy.

Bob Foresman

Chairman of the Advisory Board

Bob Foresman served as Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank, based in New York, from 2016 to April 2020. Bob was also Chairman of OOO UBS Bank in Russia as well as UBS Group Country Head for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States region (“CIS”). Prior to joining UBS, he was the Barclays Group country head from 2009 to 2016 for Russia and the wider region, where he represented and coordinated the activities of Barclays Group in the region, including investment banking and wealth management. Prior to his work at Barclays, Bob was deputy chairman of Renaissance Capital from 2006 to 2009; chairman of the management committee for Russia and the CIS at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (from 2001 to 2006); and head of investment banking for Russia and the CIS at ING Barings (from 1997 to 2000). Bob also ran the Ukrainian Privatization Advisory office of the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) from 1993 to 1995 in Kyiv and worked on private equity and project finance transactions as an investment officer at IFC’s head office in Washington, DC, from 1995 to 1997. Bob served as an independent non-executive director of TMK Group, one of the world’s largest producers of steel pipe for the oil & gas industry, from 2012 to 2019. He is currently a shareholder and board member of Miami Steel, a $340m greenfield micro steel mill development in South Florida; and a member of the board of Ascendant Digital Acquisition Corporation, a $414m NYSE-listed Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation. Bob has been a member of the Board of Counselors of the East West Institute since 2012; a member of the advisory board of Harvard University’s David Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies since 2016; and a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 2015. Bob graduated from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences in 1993 and Bucknell University in 1990. He also received a certificate from the Moscow Energy Institute in 1989. Bob and his wife, Luda, have 5 children and reside in Rye, NY.

Itzhak “Tsachi” Hacmon

Technology Advisor

Tsachi is a Technology Advisor with Amber Lion Partners. He is a tech-savvy with in-depth knowledge in the field of technology and cyber security with more than 20 years of experience.

He also holds a position as Head of Security Governance Strategic Platform (Big Data) at Credit Suisse Group. Prior to that, he was Head of Information Security and Cyber Defense at Bank Hapoalim. Tsachi also worked at Bank Leumi, where he was Head of the Technology Architecture.

Tsachi holds an electronic engineering degree from Ort Singalovsky College and a ISC2 CISSP certificate.

Laurence de Gaulle

Member of Advisory Board

Laurence de Gaulle is CEO of DG Consulting and board member of the independent Think Tank Fondation Concorde. She started her career at the Banque Française du Commerce Extérieur, where she was a board member from 1984 to 1992. She then joined AGF group in 1992 as Deputy Director. She continued her career as General Secretary of AGF International, then Head of media and external relations. In 1998, she became Head of Communications and Relations for Investors for the EULER group.

Laurence de Gaulle joined Société Générale in 2001 as Communications Manager within the Corporate and Investment Banking division. In 2003, she was appointed General Secretary of the Group’s financial division, a position she held until 2007, when she became General Secretary of the Group’s Resources Directorate. From 2009 and 2018, she held the position of Head of Public and Institutional Affairs for the group Société Générale until her retirement.

Laurence de Gaulle holds a degree from the MSBA/Edhec Lille Business School in Insurance and Banking Management. She is also Officer of the French Legion of Honour and Officer of the French National Order of Merit.

Jean-Gabriel Arqueros

Member of the Advisory Board

Jean-Gabriel Arqueros is a member of the Board and a shareholder of Norinvest Holding SA. He has been an active player in the Private Banking for Eastern European clients over the last 20 years.

In 2003 he joined Societe Generale Private Banking Switzerland, where he was Global Market Manager for the Russian market from 2006 until 2013, having under his responsibility the CIS desks from Geneva, Zurich, London, Monaco, and Luxemburg. From 1995 to 2003, he was the Senior Officer in charge of the Russian clients at Compagnie Bancaire Genève. Previously, from 1980 to 1995, he held various functions at Banque Cantonale de Genève, Caisse d’Epargne d’Etat de Genève, Banque Internationale Afrique Occidentale and Crédit Chimique in Paris. He started his career at the Secrétariat Générale of the National Defence in Paris. He holds a Master Degree in Law and a Master Degree in Economics, both from the University of Nice.

Thomas Schenker

Thomas serves as Senior Investment Manager with the rank of Executive Director with over 25 years of investment management experience.

Prior to joining Amber Lion, Thomas worked as a Portfolio Manager at Bank Julius Baer, where he was responsible for ESG mandates (environmental, social and corporate governance). Prior to that, he was Senior Portfolio Manager at Bank Vontobel, where he was responsible for institutional clients with assets in excess of CHF1 bn in all asset classes. He managed to build up a very positive, long track record compared to the benchmarks. Before that, he also worked for ING Bank in the private banking division and for UBS in the pension funds department, both as portfolio manager.

Thomas holds a Master of Arts in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Zurich and has been a CFA charterholder since 1996.

Weronika Mirto

Weronika serves as Head of Compliance with the rank of Executive Director. Prior to joining Amber Lion Partners, Weronika worked as a compliance officer at UBS, where she performed compliance duties for both new and established relationships. Prior to that, she worked for Société Générale Private Banking as a client relationship manager for the external asset managers’ desk and various private banking desks in Zurich. Early in her career, she worked at Colliers International and BPH Bank in Poland. Weronika has more than 10 years of experience in the banking industry, with a particular focus on compliance issues.

Weronika holds a MSc. in Management and Marketing from the Poznan University of Economics and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Investments and Derivatives from the University of Zurich. She is also a certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist from ACAMS.

Marina Blinova

Associate Partner

Marina has a solid background in law and finance and extensive experience working with HNW individuals. Prior to joining Amber Lion Partners Marina was a professional advisor to a Family Office in London. She coordinated work of external legal, financial and tax advisors and monitored clients’ mandates and portfolio performance in several jurisdictions. Before that Marina worked as legal and corporate governance advisor to the Vice-Chairman of the Management Board of a large Russian industrial conglomerate. Marina started her legal career at the Moscow office of White&Case LLC, a top-tier international law firm, where she advised on commercial and corporate law matters and successfully represented a major Russian Oil company in a series of international arbitrations. Marina is qualified to practice law in the Russian Federation and holds a Masters in Finance degree from London Business School.

Mark Oigman

Associate Partner

Mark is a veteran Private and Investment Banker, with over 20 years of experience within the financial industry. He worked among other places for Bank Hapoalim as Senior Vice President in Israel and Moscow, and Bank J Safra Sarasin as Managing Director in Geneva, before founding and becoming the CEO of Smartgen Israel Ltd. He is a member of the Investment Committee and Exclusive Advisor to E.D. Rotschild Smartgen Israel Fund. Formerly Vice President of the Russian Jewish Congress. He holds a Msc in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Technion, a M.A. in Economics from Haifa University, and a B.A. in Economics and Management from Open University.

Smartgen Israel Ltd has extensive experience in the fields of financial consulting and investment advisory in Israel. In particular, the company locates, examines, and selects investment opportunities for its partners and clients. During 2018/2019, the company invested in Israel in excess of NIS150m, with a specific focus on Israeli VC, Biotech, and Fintech.

Amber Lion Partners will work with Mark and Smartgen as partners in Israel in those different fields, on behalf of our key clients.

James Jaffa

Associate Partner

James Jaffa founded the multi award winning law firm Jaffa & Co in the heart of London, and is recognized internationally for his knowledge and expertise. He has been shortlisted for the Citywealth Lawyer of the Year Award and is recognized as a leading advisor within the London market for the ultra-high net worth sector. He has also been ranked in Chambers Guide and the Legal 500, both of which recognize the UK’s leading legal advisors.

Jaffa & Co advises sophisticated clientele from all over the globe in the fields of superyachts, private aviation and real estate, including escrow transactions, with a track exceeding several billions EUR.

James is also avid sailor and competes nationally and internationally. He enjoys spending time in the South of France with his family, on board their own boat.

As an Associate Partner of Amber Lion Partners, James is the person of contact for all legal matters related to yachts and private aircraft transactions.

Katerina Eldring

Associate Partner

Katerina is a graduate of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. She relocated to London from Russia in 2006 and began to work as a licensed mortgage advisor at Openwork Group. Her experience in finance and extensive client networks inspired her to found Kalido Private Office, a multifamily private office especially for clients from Russia and the CIS. Katya is an Associate Partner of Amber Lion Partners. As such she will provide our key clients with advisory services on advice on 2nd citizenship solutions, real estate administration in London and Cyprus, as well as education for children.

Olivier Bernard, CFA, FRM

CFO/COO
Investment Manager

Olivier is Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer and is responsible for managing the company’s ﬁnances and the daily operation with over 22 years of experience in the banking and financial industry in Zurich, Geneva, London and Frankfurt am Main.

Prior to his role at Amber Lion Partners, Olivier was team head at Bank Julius Baer in the investment management division. Before that, he held various positions at Société Générale Private Banking such as Client Relationship Manager and Head of Portfolio Management. He was also Head of the investment committee and Board Member of the company’s pension fund. Prior to that he served as a portfolio manager at ING Private Banking and as a liaison officer at Commerzbank in the stock loan department. He started his career at Carson Europe, a stock surveillance and investor relations company.

Olivier has been a CFA Charterholder since 2002 and a FRM Charterholder since 2006. He holds a MSc. in Economics from the University of Lausanne and a DAS in Pension Fund Management from the Lucerne University of applied sciences and arts.

Roman Neuhauser, CIIA, CAIA

Chief Investment Officer

Roman is Chief Investment Officer and is responsible for managing and supervising all discretionary and advisory mandates. He has more than 20 years experience in various investment related roles.

Prior to his role at Amber Lion Partners, Roman was Head Russian and CIS advisory team at Bank J. Safra Sarasin. Before that he was Senior Portfolio Manager at Société Générale Private Banking. Roman served as a Client Portfolio Manager at Credit Suisse First Boston (Credit Suisse Asset Management), with a focus on pension funds. He started his career at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in the corporate and investment division, where he marketed syndicated JPY loans to Swiss institutions.

Roman has been a CIIA charter holder since 2005 and a CAIA charter holder since 2011. He holds a BSc from Hull University.

Ilya Sushkov

Ilya Sushkov is Deputy Chief Executive Officer and is responsible for Client relationships management and business development. He also supports the CEO in the areas of strategy, infrastructure development and day-to-day business. Ilya has over 13 years of experience in financial industry.

Prior to his role at Amber Lion Partners, he was senior banker at Bank J.Safra Sarasin (Zurich). Before that, Ilya held the position of Head of Wealth Management in GHP Group (Moscow), covering the external asset management and multi-family office businesses. Prior to that he served as Vice President at Fleming Family & Partners. Ilya started his career at Troika Dialog (Russia), where he went from Financial Advisor in Rostov-on-Don to Head of Direct Sales dept. in Moscow. Ilya graduated from the Rostov State Economic University with an MSc in Finance & Credit, Diploma with distinction on stock market investments fundraising through mutual investment funds. He also studied business management at Philipps Universitaet Marburg.

François Langlade-Demoyen

Member of the Advisory Board

François Langlade-Demoyen runs a family office in Paris and is the CEO/CIO of Langlade Capital Advisors Ltd that he founded in 2014 and which offers to key clients around the world bespoke portfolios of hedge fund solutions.

He is also the writer of novels Le Manuscrit de Glyndebourne (France-Empire, 2002), Monsieur Étienne (JC Lattès, 2003), La Pertinax (JC Lattès, 2006) and Les vies sauvées d’Alexander Vielski (Robert Laffont, 2010) as well as poetry Veillées d’âmes (Le Luy de France, 2000) and La Beauté du Monde (Galignani, 2019). He is Officer of National order of merit and Knight in the order of Arts and Letters in France.

Previously François was the CIO of Pamplona Capital Management’s Fund of Funds business, having joined in January 2008. François has more than 30 years of experience in research and investment management. Prior to joining Pamplona, between 2004 and 2007 François established and served as Chief Investment Officer of Langlade Capital Management LLP in London managing a European long short equity fund. Between 1999 and 2003 he was Partner and Co-Chief Investment Officer of the Buttonwood Long Short European Equity Fund. From 1994 to 1999 François was in charge of European Equity Strategy and Co-Head of European Equity Research at Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd in London as Managing Director. From 1990 to 1994 he was a Director and Board Member of Credit Suisse First Boston France, based in Paris. Between 1987 to 1990 François served as an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in London responsible for French Equity Strategy. Prior to that he was a Financial Analyst at JP Morgan in Paris and New York

François Langlade-Demoyen is a French national and holds degrees in Philosophy from the Paris Sorbonne University, Finance from the Paris Dauphine University and an ESSEC MBA.

Tatiana Shcherbakova

Associate Partner

Tatiana started her career with international multinational companies, spending seven years at marketing and senior management positions with Nestle and Bacardi- Martini. Recognizing the importance of rapidly growing luxury market, Tatiana, at the age of 25, opened BSG Luxury Group in Moscow – the first company fully specializing in strategic marketing consulting for luxury brands.

In 2015, she opened the Monaco office C.I.G. Monaco, working as a boutique advisory firm mainly focused on investments into European hotels and ultimate residential assets. Being over 20 years in business and having partners in more than 50 countries, apart from commercial and residential real estate, Tatiana is also involved as a consultant into different industrial and logistics projects, new technologies start-ups.

Tatiana graduated from the prestigious IBS Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

Adel Kambar

Associate Partner

Adel Kambar is known to Amber Lion’s partners for more than 13 years as founding CEO of Renaissance Capital Central Asia from 2007 to 2011 and subsequently as Global Head of Special Situations for the Investment Bank, where his responsibilities included proprietary trading, capital markets and brokerage.

Adel is an experienced banker who co-headed the EMEA debt capital markets department at Merrill Lynch London from 2003 to 2007, focusing on special situations, illiquid debt, hybrid bank capital and structured products. From 2000 to 2003 he was Head of Emerging Markets Capital Markets and Derivatives at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. He sat on the Board of Directors of Dresdner Bank Russia. From 1996 to 2000 Adel worked at SBC Warburg within the Emerging Markets Fixed Income and Structured Products Origination Team.

In 2012, he founded Oxgem, an independent advisory firm focusing on capital markets and investment advisory services with a focus on frontier markets.

At Amber Lion, Adel will be responsible for providing corporate finance advice on transactions for key clients.

Peter Kienle

Peter serves as Head of Middle Office as an Executive Director. Prior to his role at Amber Lion Capital, Peter worked at Bank J. Safra Sarasin in the Middle Office of the Russian and CIS desk. Before that, Peter served for 30 years at the Zurich branch of Société Générale Private Banking as Head of Operation and as responsible for Compliance and Risk Management. Peter was also a member of the Due Diligence and Account Opening Committee at SGPB and responsible for CDB and AML relevant training of new employees. Peter has over 35 years of experience in Swiss banking and a broad experience in all administrative and regulatory areas of the Swiss private banking business. Peter started his banking career with an apprenticeship in banking at Credit Suisse in 1976 and continued his professional education in a constant and practice-oriented way.

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Andrew Terry

Member of the Advisory Board

Andrew Terry has practised tax law in City and Central London law firms since 1985. He specialises in international tax planning both for international corporate groups and their beneficial owners and covers a wide range of structuring and wealth management issues.

Since 1995 he has concentrated on the Russia/CIS market and over the last 25 years has become a well known figure in this market. He has worked with clients across the region and was an early practitioner in bringing the trust concept to the Russia/CIS region to use for security purposes and succession planning. He has been involved in a wide range of structuring including pre-IPO structures as well as for debt capital raising, private equity investment and M & A. He has considerable experience in the mining sector as well as in mobile telecom, pharma, food retail and oil and gas.

He started his career at Watson, Farley & Williams where he worked from 1985 to 1990. He was then a partner at Constant & Constant until 2000 when he joined LeBoeuf, LambGreene&MacRae working extensively with their offices in Moscow, Almaty and Bishkek. From 2006 until 2017 he worked at the law firm Withers as a senior equity partner and created the Russia/CIS practice there.

He holds a BA in Ancient History and an MA in Prehistory and Archaeology from the University of Sheffield and law qualifications from the University of the West of England.

Anaida Schneider

Associate Partner

Anaida is a graduate MBA at Montreux University/MSB Montreux School of Business, Switzerland, educated at KV Zürich Business School, Handelsschule, Switzerland, and also received higher education in the humanities in Moscow, Russia.

Her work experience in the private banking sector and finances in Switzerland spans more than 10 years and included HSBC, Valartis and Bank Von Roll. Anaida has climbed the ladder from assistant to executive director of a private bank in Switzerland. Experience working in a leadership position in an asset management company in Switzerland.

In 2018 she founded the art and tech project Tilwiki.

From 2012 till 2018 Anaida was an advisory to the President of the International Chess Federation.
Founder of the Swiss charitable foundation ‘Education for the Future’, the goal of which is to help children from underprivileged families receive additional education, especially in Chess. She authored books for children. A private collector of antiques, as well as modern and classical art.

Avy Burstin,CFA

Chief Executive Officer

Avy benefits from over 22 years of experience in the banking and financial industry, in Zurich, London and Luxembourg. Previously Managing Director and founder of the Russian desk at Bank J. Safra Sarasin (2015/2019), and Société Générale Private Banking (2009/2015), where he built strategic bridges with the Corporate and Investment Banking arm of the Group. He joined UBS Zurich in 2003, in the core affluent department as CRM until 2009, where he was Executive Director and desk head for Key Clients covering Russia and Kazakhstan. Previously, he was team leader in the Institutional Asset Management department of KBC In Luxembourg with over EUR1bn AUMs actively managed. Avy was co-manager of a European IT Small Cap fund. He started his banking career at Republic National Bank of New York in London.

Avy graduated from the Strasbourg Institute of Political Studies in Economics and Finance; the London School of Economics with an Msc in Political Economy of Transition (thesis with distinction on comparative models of privatisation in Eastern Europe); and the Chicago Graduate School of Business, with an MBA specialisation Finance. Avy is CFA charterholder since 2001.

Andrew Robinson

Chairman of Amber Lion Global Solutions AG

Member of the Advisory Board

Andrew established Arc & Co. in 2008 in response to the economic crisis that gripped the world. With a lack of liquidity amongst lenders many individuals were left without routes to finance high value personal assets. Through his understanding of complex financial structures, Andrew was able to secure finance on behalf of his clients where traditional financiers could not. Arc & Co. Group has continually demonstrated growth under his leadership and Andrew has expanded Arc & Co. into marine, aviation and real estate. Andrew has built a team with a passion about finance that is the key to getting our clients the right result.

The Team at Your service

Avy Burstin, CFA

Chief Executive Officer

Ilya Sushkov

Deputy CEO

Roman Neuhauser, CIIA, CAIA

Chief Investment Officer

Olivier Bernard, CFA, FRM

CFO/COO

Investment Manager

Katerina Eldring

Associate Partner

Adel Kambar

Associate Partner

James Jaffa

Associate Partner

Mark Oigman

Associate Partner

Svetlana Banerjee

Associate Partner

Weronika Mirto, CAMS

Head of Compliance

Dimitria Neuhauser-Toteva

Deputy Head of Compliance

Thomas Schenker, CFA

Investment Manager

Luisa Pastore, PhD

Impact and Sustainability Advisor

Itzhak “Tsachi” Hacmon

Technology Advisor

The Advisory Board

Bob Foresman

Chairman of the Advisory Board

Andrew Robinson

Chairman of Amber Lion Global Solutions AG

Member of the Advisory Board

Laurence de Gaulle

Member of the Advisory Board

Andrew Terry

Member of the Advisory Board

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