Pericles is proud to announce our Student of the Month for April, 2010: Alexey Smirnov. Congratulations are definitely in order after his impressive scores of 730 on GMAT and 110 on TOEFL!
Alexey is a 2003 graduate of the Higher School of Economics (State University), where he specialized in credit and finance. Since that time, he has worked in the areas of investment banking, private equity, and project finance with a number of high-profile companies. Beginning as an analyst at Société Générale, Alexey soon advanced to the position of project manager at Reforma Investment Company. There he was in charge of a number of tasks, including preparing due diligence reports for chemical plants, liaising with capital market players, and obtaining financing in banks. He also was in charge of tabulating the valuations of various investment opportunities in the chemical, construction, and oil and gas industries. In 2006, Alexey shifted his focus to larger deals and moved into a position at Gazprombank. In his four short years there, he has compiled an impressive amount of experience in project finance, namely in the areas of real estate and chemical equipment manufacturing. More specifically, Alexey coordinates the work of different departments of the bank during the course of projects, aids legal advisors in cross-border transactions, and follows through with the execution of major deals. In addition to this, during the course of his career, he has served as a board member for several project companies, with a cumulative project budget of over $80 million. All along the way, though, Alexey is keen to point out that he is a perpetual student who has used his past work experience to prepare him for the challenges of the future; he has evidenced this outlook by completing training courses in debt management, enterprise valuation, negotiations, and the stock market.
In his free time, Alexey is quite an avid diver, and he challenges himself in this sphere just as he does at work. Having amassed several diving certifications so far, he is currently training to be a recognized rescue diver as well.
Alexey would like to thank everyone at Pericles for this honor, and we in turn are proud that he chose to study for the GMAT and TOEFL tests with us. We are confident that he will succeed in business school just as he has succeeded in achieving so much else.
Congratulations, Alexey!