Leadership

Aiga Ārste-Avotiņa has been working in the executive search business since 1996, when she joined Amrop International in Latvia as their first local representative. She developed the company into the biggest player in the market for senior level recruitment in the Baltics. As of 2018, Aiga is the Managing Partner of Amrop Latvia as well as a Partner in Amrop Ukrainian and Estonian operations.

Since 1999, when she was first appointed as a Partner, she has been leading executive search assignments in the Baltics and Ukraine, in a range of sectors, including Infrastructure, Manufacturing, Retail, IT & Telecommunications and other industries, completing over 500 executive search projects for the leading international, state-owned and local companies. She has also been leading management assessment assignments in the Baltics and Nordics.

Aiga graduated from the University of Latvia with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and has an MBA from the Riga Business School. She has also studied Executive Development Business Programs at the International Institute of Management Development in Switzerland and the Baltic Institute of Corporate Governance.

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.

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 from 2011 to 2018.

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 2016-2018.

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

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 (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.

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.

Priit Lepasepp is the General Counsel of Nelja Energia AS since November 2011, and a Member of the Management Board of Tuleva Co-operative since April 2016.

As General Counsel of Nelja Energia AS, Priit is responsible for all internal and external legal and regulatory issues in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In Tuleva, Priit was responsible for receiving the necessary permits to establish a second pillar pension fund manager in Estonia.

Priit has obtained a BA in Law from University of Tartu and a MA in Law from Tallinn University of Technology.

Lina Minderienė is the Managing Director of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, and has a broad range of experiences in different service industries both in Lithuania and in other Baltic markets. Lina previously held senior management positions in postal services, 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 the hold the role of CEO between 2011 and 2017.

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.

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 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 is the former 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.

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 13 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 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. He has also participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program on Transparency and Accountability, organized by the United States Department of State.