Renaissance CEO To Deliver Roundtable Lecture

Renaissance Group Ceo Stephen Jennings To Deliver Business Roundtable Lecture

Opportunities of a Lifetime: Lessons for New Zealand from New, High-Growth Economies

The 14th annual New Zealand Business Roundtable Sir Ronald Trotter lecture will be delivered in Wellington at a dinner at Te Papa on 7 October 2007 by businessman Stephen Jennings, chief executive of Moscow-based global investment business Renaissance Group (see below).

The Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture series was inaugurated by the New Zealand Business Roundtable in 1995 to honour its founding chairman’s many contributions to business and public affairs.

Mr Jennings, a Business Roundtable member, will draw on his experience in the rapidly growing states of Russia and sub-Saharan Africa and explore lessons New Zealand can take from the ‘wide awake’ non-ideological nature of these economies and the relevance of sound institutions to their success.

Stephen Jennings is a New Zealand success story: born and schooled in Taranaki, he studied business and economics at Massey and Auckland before entering the Treasury. He later worked at Credit Suisse First Boston in both New Zealand and London before, at 32, being made joint head of the new Moscow office. Today he is ranked by London’s Financial News as among the top 100 most influential people in European capital markets and has been described by a fellow banker as the only foreign oligarch in Russia.

Mr Jennings founded Renaissance Capital in 1995, and was actively involved in building the firm’s investment banking and securities sales and trading businesses. The Renaissance Group’s rapid expansion has seen it become the preeminent specialist in emerging markets with significant presence in Africa, Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine as well as in the world’s major financial centres. The Group has proven highly resilient, riding out the 1998 economic collapse in Russia where the government devalued the currency and defaulted on $40 billion of debt.

Mr Jennings is enthusiastic about the business and economic opportunities in the world’s new, high-growth nations. Most recently he has been involved in the enormous renaissance of sub-Saharan Africa where he has already invested over half a billion dollars and now spends much of his time.

Note: Renaissance Group comprises Renaissance Capital, the leading investment bank in Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and sub-Saharan Africa; Renaissance Investment Management, the largest asset management business in Russia and the CIS and one of the pioneers in African asset management; Renaissance Credit the fastest growing and one of the two largest consumer finance businesses in Russia and Ukraine (12,000 employees) and Renaissance Partners, the Group’s principal investment business (investments include the largest land holding in Ukraine, largest forest estate in Russia and 25% shareholding in ETI, the only pan sub-Saharan African bank, operating in 22 countries).

ENDS

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