Stuart Lawson has served as the CEO of HSBC Russia since March 2008. Simultaneous with Mr. Lawson's appointment, HSBC increased its equity in its Russian operations by $200 million to support HSBC growth and presence across all of its business sectors.
Mr. Lawson has been closely involved in the evolution of Russian banking, beginning in1995 when he joined Citibank Russia as the bank's President. In 2000 he became the First Senior Advisor and subsequently Chairman of DeltaBank (later bought by GE Money). After working briefly as the Director for External Relations for Trust Bank in 2003, Mr. Lawson became the first foreigner to be executive chairman of a Russian owned bank, Bank Soyuz - part of Oleg Deripaska's Basic Element group - in 2004. In the three-and-a-half years Mr. Lawson served as chairman, Bank Soyuz moved from S and P rated CCC to B positive, quadrupled its net worth, increased assets by $2 billion, and expanded its operations from 5 regions and 30 offices to 27 regions 67 offices along with an increase in headcount from 700 to 2,700.
In his banking career, Mr. Lawson spent twenty-five years total with Citibank, serving in 11 countries in a series of management positions including head of corporate banking in Kenya, Egypt, Norway, Italy and country head roles in Russia and Puerto Rico. Mr. Lawson additionally was a senior credit officer for eleven years and a director of structured finance in Citibank London for five years in the late 1980s during which he participated in underwriting and restructuring debt for acquisitions totaling $11 billion. From 2000-2004, Mr. Lawson also acted as senior advisor for Actis Plc on businesses in Mexico, India, Uganda, Nigeria, and Cuba.
In 2006 and 2007 Mr. Lawson was nominated as one of the "Russian Bankers of the Year," an annual award recognizing outstanding contributions to the Russian banking sector and awarded by a committee comprised of the Central Bank, the Russian Ministry of Finance and the Association of the Russian Regional Banks. Mr. Lawson is an occasional lecturer for the Emory business school in Atlanta. He was born in London in1954 and has a son, Alexander.
You can watch video interviews with Stuart Lawson here.
Prepared by Katia Barzova, Good2Work Intern, on November 24, 2008
