New Management of the Association of European Businesses Elected

On July 6, 2004, following the ninth AnnualGeneral Meeting (AGM), the Executive Board (EB) of the Associationof European Businesses (AEB) in Russia, formerly known as EuropeanBusiness Club (EBC), held its first meeting and elected as itsChairman Michel Perhirin, Chairman of the Managing Board,Raiffeisenbank Austria, ZAO.

Two EB Deputy Chairmen were elected: ReinerHartmann, Chief Representative, Ruhrgas, Germany; Jeroen Ketting,Director, Lighthouse, Holland.

The newly elected Council of NationalRepresentatives (CNR) of the AEB has been set up to direct theoverall strategy of the AEB and consists of representatives fromeach member state of the European Union and of the European FreeTrade Association as well as a non-voting representative of theEuropean Commission. On July 7, 2004, Geoffrey Cox OBE, Director,Astera, Great Britain, was elected as CNR Chairman. The followingwere elected as CNR Deputy Chairpersons: Aage Nielsen, ManagingDirector, A.V. Consulting, Denmark; Dr. Anna Darvasi, MarketingDirector, Gedeon-Richter, Hungary.

At the AGM, AEB members approved their new ChiefExecutive Officer (CEO): Andreas Romanos, a Greek Nationalcurrently employed as Business Unit Manager at Henkel. Mr. Romanoswill take over his new position at the EBC on August 31,2004.

At the Extraordinary General Meeting on April27, 2004, members of the AEB voted for a new charter, whichincluded a name change, an updated strategy, and a new structure.The strategy states the five areas of activity necessary for theAEB to successfully represent and promote European business inRussia: lobbying, providing information flows to and betweenmembers, networking, contributing to EU-Russia integration, andraising the visibility of the AEB.

The Association of European Businesses (AEB)will officially launch its new name and corporate identity packagein September upon official registration oftheСharter changes.