Leadership

Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance (BICG) has a two-tier leadership structure consisting of the Board and Management.

The Board is elected by the Institute’s members at the Annual General Meeting (AGM), taking note of the recommendation made in advance by the Nomination Committee.

The Nomination Committee, which is elected by the AGM as well, makes the recommendation based on the requirements set out for the Board composition and rotation in the bylaws and best practice guidelines of BICG.

The Board supervises the performance of the Institute, its management and organization on behalf of the members and participates in determining the organization strategy.

Management, in turn, has responsibility for the Institute’s daily operations. The two bodies are separate, and no person serves as a member of both. The Board meets approximately every 6 weeks.

Nomination Committee

Tiina Sepa

Chair of the Nomination Committee

Tiina Sepa is the Head of Baltic Banking Legal at Swedbank and a Council member at Swedbank subsidiaries in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

She is also a member of the Council at the Estonian Lawyers Union and a member of the Board at the European Company Lawyers Association as well as the Estonian Company Lawyers Association.

Tiina holds an MBA from Tartu University.

She has chaired the BICG Nomination Committee since 2011.

Nijolė Kelpšaitė

Member of the Nomination Committee

Nijolė Kelpšaitė is the Managing Partner at J. Friisberg & Partners Lithuania, an executive search company, and has more than 20 years of experience in providing executive search and selection services for clients in the Lithuanian market. Nijolė has an in-depth knowledge of the job market trends and developments.

Her professional career includes such positions as heading business partner search and recruiting company Vilniaus Konsultacinė Grupė, being a Project Manager at the Open Society Fund-Lithuania and working as an economist at the Lithuanian Ministry of Economy, Department of Foreign Investment.

Since 2016, Nijolė is a Board Member at Renkuosi mokyti, a non-governmental initiative that encourages young people to choose a teaching career.

Nijolė has an International Executive’s MBA from the Kaunas Technology University, programme held together with SDA Bocconi (Italy), and a Diploma of Engineering in Economics from Vilnius University, Faculty of Finance and Cybernetics.

Zane Kotāne

Member of the Nomination Committee

Zane Kotāne is a Member of the Management Board at Latvijas Gāze JSC and Conexus Baltic Grid JSC.

She has as a vast experience in enterprise management. For the last six years, Zane has been working in the energy industry, most recently tackling the unbundling of Latvijas Gāze and the establishment of a new transmission and storage operator Conexus Baltic Grid.

Previously, Zane was a Member of the Management Board and CFO at Latvenergo JSC, a Member of the Supervisory Board at Elektrum Eesti OU and Elektrum Lietuva UAB, as well as the Head of the Business Analysis and Reporting Department of the Commercial Division at the Air Baltic JSC.

Zane holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration.

Board

Daiga Auziņa-Melalksne

Chair of the Board

Daiga Auziņa-Melalksne is the Head of Exchange Services at Nasdaq Baltic. She holds managerial responsibility of Baltic exchanges business unit. That includes running day to day transaction and issuer services business activities, customer relations, sales and government relations. She is also the Chair of the Management Board at Nasdaq Riga and a Management Board member at Nasdaq Tallinn.

Daiga has worked in the company since 1998. She has been a manager in stock exchange and central securities depository area, worked as a specialist in listing and information disclosure unit.

Daiga is a board member of American Chamber of Commerce in Latvia. Since 2010, she has been a Board member of the Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance, including serving as the Chair in 2012-2014 and in 2016-2017.

Daiga holds an Executive MBA from the Riga Business School and Masters in Economics from the University of Latvia.

Guntars Baļčūns

Member of the Board

Guntars Baļčūns (born in 1980) is a Member of the Management Board and Chief Financial Officer at Latvenergo AS. He is also a Member of the Supervisory Board at Elektrum Lietuva UAB and Elektrum Eesti OU.

Guntars has worked at Latvenergo Group for ten years. Previously he was a Member of the Management Board at Energijas publiskais tirgotajs AS and held the positions of Business Planning and Control Director and Corporate Strategy Project Manager at Latvenergo AS.

Guntars studied Economics and Business Administration at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and University of Latvia. He is continuing with his studies in Business Administration at the RTU Riga Business School.

Kārlis Danēvičs

Member of the Board

Kārlis Danēvičs (born 1982) is a Management Board member of SEB in Latvia. He is responsible for Credits and Risks, thus having an overview of local and Baltic economies while making credit decisions and steering the bank’s credit portfolio. Such responsibilities include making a judgement of maturity of borrowers’ governance as well as advising clients to continue improving their corporate governance.

Kārlis has previously been CFO and Head of Client Relationship Management at SEB, etc. He has also worked for SEB in Sweden, covering other geographies besides the Baltics, and also for other financial institutions.

Kārlis serves as the Head of Lending Committee in Commercial Banking Association, is a lecturer at local universities and an active Supervisory Council member for SOS Children Villages Association, cooperating with donors, President’s chancellery and promoting socially responsible business conduct.

Indrek Hääl

Member of the Board

Indrek Hääl has broad knowledge and experience from active real estate investments and asset management over the last 16 years. He is managing real estate activities from the acquisition process, value adding, restructuring and until disposals.

He has been in charge of developing BPT group processes and standards to serve most demanding institutional clients, including region’s largest banks. As a Group CEO at BPT, Indrek is responsible for operations in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia, and thus has a good knowledge in different corporate and legislative practices.

Indrek is a BICG graduate, training in 2012.

Riina Käi

Member of the Board

Riina Käi is Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Management Board of AS Tallinna Vesi since October, 2012.

Previously, she has gained broad experience working as a development manager, financial controller, financial auditor, financial manager and as a chief accountant in different companies, including Konekesko Eesti AS and Deloitte & Touche Audit AS.

Riina is a Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), since 2009.

She holds a Bachelor‘s degree in Financial Accounting and Management as well as a Master’s degree of Economic Sciences from Tallinn University of Technology.

Lina Minderienė

Member of the Board

Lina Minderienė is the CEO of the Lithuanian state-owned company Lietuvos paštas AB, a leading provider of postal services in Lithuania that also offers financial services.

Lina has a broad range of experiences in different service industries both in Lithuania and in other Baltic markets. She held senior management positions in banking and energy sectors as well as consulting roles in audit and tax areas.

Lina started her career in the State Tax Inspectorate under the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance, and later continued into the tax consulting with Kabašinskas & partners and Ernst & Young. For six years, Lina was heading a direct tax unit in the Ministry of Finance. Her career in company finance started in Hansabank in 2003. During 2005-2009, Lina has worked at VST, one of the two major electric energy distribution companies in Lithuania, starting as the Chief Financier and Head of Accounting Department, and later serving as the Head of Financial division and Member of the Board. In 2009, she became the Head of Financial division at Lietuvos paštas AB, and moved on to become the CEO in 2011.

Lina holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Vilnius University. She has also completed Strategic Management Programme at ISM (University of Management and Economics) and BICG program for professional board members.

Irmantas Norkus

Member of the Board

Dr Irmantas Norkus is the Managing Partner of COBALT Lithuania and Chairman of the Pan-Baltic Board of COBALT, one of the leading law firms in the region. Apart from these roles, he is a practicing lawyer advising a wide range of clients, both local and international, on high-profile and complex legal matters and focusing, among other things, on transactional and corporate governance matters.

He has more than 15 years of extensive experience in private and public M&A, competition, banking and finance, and is constantly recognized as a leading lawyer in his practice areas by the most prestigious legal directories.

Irmantas has been a member of the Lithuanian Bar Association since 1999 and a member of the International Bar Association (IBA) since 2004.

He has a Doctor’s degree in Social Sciences (Law) from Vilnius University.

Kaarel Ots

Member of the Board

Kaarel Ots is the CEO of Nasdaq Tallinn stock exchange. He joined Nasdaq from Deloitte, where he served as the Head of Financial Advisory.

Prior to Deloitte, he worked for UniCredit Bank Estonia for 8 years, holding several positions, most recently Acting Branch Manager and Head of Corporate Banking.

Since 2012, Kaarel has served as the Member of the Management Board of FinanceEstonia – a public-private financial sector cluster organisation, promoting the development of financial markets.

Kaarel has a Master’s degree in corporate and investment banking from SDA Bocconi School of Management in Italy.

Kęstutis Šliužas

Member of the Board

Kęstutis Šliužas is the CEO of Telia Lietuva, IT and telecommunications company that holds leading positions in internet, data communication, fixed-line telephony and pay-TV markets.

Prior to joining the telecommunications industry, Kęstutis worked at Tetra Pak, a multinational food packaging and processing company, for nearly 18 years. He held various positions at Tetra Pak Ukraine, Tetra Pak East Europe & Central Asia as well as Tetra Pak in Italy, Russia and Lithuania.

Kęstutis is also a member of the Business Council at the Kaunas Technology University (Lithuania) and member of the Board at the ICT Association INFOBALT (Lithuania).

He holds a Master’s degree from Vilnius University.

Management

Rytis Ambrazevičius

President

Rytis Ambrazevičius has about 20 years of experience in top level positions at various international and local companies, including Omnitel (now Telia Lietuva, part of the Telia group), Mandatum Life Baltics, Sampo Life (Lithuania), Falck Security (now G4S) and SBA Group.

For the last 10 years, he held different positions in the boards of directors at numerous businesses, including Sampo group companies and Klaipėdos nafta. Currently he is an independent board member and chairman at EPSO-G, Lithuanian state owned energy holding company, which is a shareholder of natural gas, electricity transmission operators and other energy sector companies.

Rytis graduated with honours from Kaunas Technology University (Mechanical engineering), from International Business School at Vilnius University (BSc Management and Business Administration and MBA International trade). He also graduated from the BICG in 2012 (professional board member certificate) and in 2013 (chairperson’s certificate).

Andris Grafs

Country Manager Latvia

Andris Grafs is experienced in various corporate governance matters, especially from the shareholder perspective in state owned enterprises (SOEs). He has also acted in several leading positions in public policy institutions and non-profits, thus obtaining practical experience and competences in strategic planning, management, public communication and advocacy at a senior level.

For almost five years, he was a senior project manager at the Latvian Privatisation Agency (LPA), ensuring partnership with companies owned by the LPA, including Citadele Bank and Reverta. Andris has been directly involved in implementing the Citadele Bank sale transaction in 2014 and 2015. He is a co-author of the Latvian Government concept of reforms on governance of SOEs and has also participated in the OECD Working Party on State Ownership and Privatisation Practices in the years from 2011 to 2014.

Andris graduated from Riga Stradiņš University with a Master’s degree in Strategic and PR Management in 2011 and has recently participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program on Transparency and Accountability, organized by the United States Department of State.