Mr. Barbanel has over 30 years of professional financial experience, 16 of which are in the CIS and Central Europe. From 2001 to mid-2006 Mr. Barbanel was a Senior Managing Director of the Strategic Investment Group (a private equity asset manager and investment banking consultant). From 2002-2005 Mr. Barbanel was Consulting Managing Director at Salford Capital Partners in the Balkans. He co-founded the NIKoil Strategic Investment Group in March 1999 (NIKoil, now UralSib, the 4th largest Russian bank by capital), which was then subsequently bought out by Mr. Barbanel. He was also a financial consultant to Access Industries, a significant shareholder in TNK-BP. He was President of the Sector Capital Fund (one of the first private equity funds in Russia, co-sponsored by the EBRD and IFC), President of EPIC-Russia (a specialized Austrian backed Investment Bank). Mr. Barbanel also was a Managing Director of Rothschild's Emerging Markets Group and Croesus Capital Management. In the early 1990s Mr. Barbanel served as Chief Executive Officer of the East-West Group Inc., and investment banking and management consulting company.

Mr. Barbanel has had extensive experience working in the US. He served as Senior Vice President and Counsel of Gruntal & Co. Inc., an investment bank, Vice President and General Counsel of Commodities Corporation of Princeton, a hedge fund manager (now part of Goldman Sachs Asset Management), as Vice President, Counsel, and Director of Operations of the Futures Division of Smith Barney Solomon (CitiGroup); and as a Trial Attorney with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Division of Enforcement.

Mr. Barbanel received a BA degree in Foreign Affairs and Russian Studies from the University of Maryland, a JD degree from Widener University School of Law, and an LLM in Multinational Corporate Law from the New York University School of Law. He is a member of the Foreign Affairs Council and the Academy of Political Science. He is fluent in Russian and Polish.