Speaking on his ultimate personal leadership experience, Mikhail Fridman said that long term partnership and strategies of acquisition, growth and integration have made the Alfa Group among the most attractive partners for international investment in Russia. “We are interested in investment over which we can exercise control and we believe that well-run, progressive and transparent companies will continue to attract increasingly serious foreign investment. And we always remember that the sustained growth and profitability of our companies is a direct result of management and employees remarkable contributions”, noted Fridman.

The Leaders in Moscow conference brought together over 900 senior business executives from Russian and foreign companies doing business in Russia to meet at one time with management and leadership experts, and to share their thinking with on how to sustain a focus on effective strategy execution and role of leadership in rapidly changing world.

Conference speakers included Lou Gerstner, Ex-Chairman of the Board, IBM, Helmut Kohl, Former German Chancellor, Jack Welch, former Chairman & CEO, General Electric and William J. Clinton, 42nd President of the United States (both live by satellite link).

Mikhail Fridman is Chairman of the Board of Directors and principal founder of the Alfa Group Consortium. He has built the Alfa Group into a market leader in Banking, Energy, Telecommunications and Retail sales. Fridman chairs the Board of Directors of two of the groups leading companies — Alfa-Bank, which is Russia’s largest privately owned bank, and TNK-BP, formed by the historic joint venture between British Petroleum and Tyumen Oil Company, completed in 2003 and at that time, the largest foreign investment deal in Russian history, valued at over US$7 billion.

His achievements have been recognised by prestigious international publications and organisations in the world of finance and business. He was named to the list of “Europe’s Power 25” by FORTUNE in 2004, as well as the Financial Times list of the “2004 Leaders of the New Europe.” In 2003 Mikhail Fridman was honored with the Golden Plate Award of the International Academy of Achievement in Washington, presented personally by former US President Bill Clinton.