Luzhkov could chair UPC's board of directors
MOSCOW. May 23. (Interfax) - Ex-mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov could join the board of directors of the joint venture between Bashneft and Yakov Goldovsky's Petrochemical Holding GmbH - OJSC United Petrochemical Company - as well as become its chairman, several market sources told Interfax.
According to one of the sources, the former mayor has already been spotted at UPC's office, which is located on Kosygin Street in Moscow.
UPC's shareholders have already put together the team for the new company.
Iosif Khaytsin, who previously headed Goldovsky's Korund plant, has been appointed first vice president of the joint venture. Goldovsky's long-time colleague Andrei Yurkevich, who worked at Petrochemical Holding, will be responsible for UPC's strategy.
UPC's vice president for technical support and project implementation will be Vladimir Rakitsky, who was previously the executive director of Lukoil Neftokhim Bourgas. He also used to head the main oil refining and petrochemicals division at Lukoil .
Former leader of the petrochemicals and gas chemicals division at the Russian Energy Ministry, Farit Nabiullin, has also joined UPC and will be in charge of technical management and R&D. Former chief of the Russian subdivision of Solvay, Benjamin Alpern, has joined the joint venture as an advisor on strategy and development.
The main owner of AFK Sistema (Bashneft is a subsidiary), Vladimir Evtushenkov, said in April of last year that Luzhkov, a chemist by education, had been offered a job at Sistema's petrochemicals subdivision. In March of this year, Evtushenkov again said that the possibility of Luzhkov's employment is under discussion. Luzhkov said that he is prepared to consider a job offer.
Sistema and Bashneft representatives currently occupy the lion's share of the seven director seats at UPC. From Sistema, the board includes President Mikhail Shamolin, Senior Vice President Alexei Buryanov and Vice President Felix Evtushenkov. From Bashneft, directors include Vice Presidents Kirill Andreychenko and Ali Uzdenov. Former head of the Department for Scientific and Industrial Policy of Moscow Yevgeny Panteleev also occupies a seat on the board, as does Vladimir Mekler, director of the law firm Mekler and Partners. At the beginning of the 2000s, Mekler headed the group of lawyers defending Goldovsky during legal proceedings with Gazprom .
Bashneft owns 74.99% of the UPC joint venture, and Petrochemical Holding GmbH owns a little over 25%.