Gold Magazine December 2013 - January 2014, Issue 33 | Page 14

interview

five minutes with...

Alexei Ryabov
Partner & Head of Outbound Investments,
EY Russia

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ext year, EY will be
celebrating 25 years in
Russia. Apart from seeing the firm grow from
one employee to 4,500,
what other changes have there been for
the company’s Russian practice?
In my view, it has become more mature
and diversified, which has helped us
sustain quite a high growth rate and become one of the most rapidly- developing
practices among the BRICS countries. As
our practice develops, we open new offices all over the country so as to be closer
to our clients and deliver services in all
regions. There are now 20 offices in the
CIS, including 9 in Russia. Another quite
significant change, which reflects EY’s
global trend, is a new slogan (“Building a
better working world”) and a new brand
(Ernst & Young is now EY), which will
help us further strengthen our position in
the markets and distinguish us from our
competitors.
While EY is a global group, are there
noticeable differences between the
services demanded by and provided
for Russian clients and those in other
countries?
EY is a truly global firm and, as such,
there are very few differences in terms of
the services EY offers its Russian clients
or those that Russian clients may require
from EY. However, Russian clients have
their own specifics and preferences that
must be considered if one is to be successful when working with them. To

properly address such areas, especially
with regard to international projects, I
am leading an Outbound initiative that
has been developed to streamline and further improve the way Russian/CIS clients
are serviced by EY in other countries.
Have Russian investors changed their
view of Cyprus since the Troika decided to use the ‘bail-in’ tool to recapitalize Bank of Cyprus, causing heavy
losses t