By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 4 -- OAO Yukos Tuesday announced its decision to form a seven-member management board and named Simon Kukes as the new CEO.
"We don't plan any changes in company behavior because the company is developing normally. Everything stays intact, and we have a strong team," Kukes told reporters during a news conference in Moscow.
Former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky resigned Monday and does not intend to take any position in YukosSibneft, a brief company news release said. He was arrested at gunpoint on Oct. 25 (OGJ, Nov. 3, 2002, p. 38).
Yukos expects that the managers group also will be nominated by the principal shareholders of Yukos for the management board of YukosSibneft. This is subject to approval by the new YukosSibneft board, slated to be elected at a Nov. 28 extraordinary general meeting.
Kukes emigrated to the US in 1977 and has 25 years experience in the oil business. The former CEO of Tyumen Oil Co., he was involved in negotiations resulting in the TNK-BP joint venture, marking the biggest foreign investment in Russian history (OGJ Online, Oct. 17, 2003).
On Tuesday, the new Yukos management team declined to discuss a possible merger with Western companies, such as ExxonMobil Corp. (OGJ, Oct. 13, 2003, p. 40).
"I haven't spoken yet to Western oil companies in regard to opportunities in Russia . . . I think the oil companies are watching closely what the development will be and then decide how Russia fits into their portfolio," Chief Operating Officer Stephen Theedes told the news conference. His title on the new management team is the executive director and president of Yukos-Moscow.
The following individuals also were elected to the management board: Yuri Beilin, deputy CEO, president Yukos EP; Mikhail Brudno, president, Yukos RM; Bruce Misamore, chief financial officer; Alexander Temerko, senior vice-president, Yukos-Moscow, and Mikhail Trushin, first vice president, Yukos-Moscow.