Foreign board members in Russia’s largest corporations: A special emphasis on the country’s 10 biggest firms investing abroad

Abstract

A foreigner born outside the former USSR occupies every fifth board seat in Russia's 50 largest corporations. Unsurprisingly, Russia's private firms more frequently have foreigners on their boards, than the state-owned enterprises do. Less than 10 % of the board seats of Russia's largest state-owned enterprises have been given to foreigners, while the respective share in privately-owned firms is nearly 30 %. The share of foreigners on the boards of Russia's biggest firms investing abroad is clearly larger than in the country's 50 largest corporations, in general, indicating a correlation between an intensive foreign direct investment expansion and a higher proportion of foreigners on the boards of directors. The British, the Americans and the Germans hold more than half of the board seats given to foreigners, in Russia's 50 largest corporations. Only two Chinese citizens could be detected among the nearly 100 foreign board directors. It remains to be seen what the impact of Western sanctions on the future board composition of Russia's largest corporations will be. Therefore, it is worth following how the number of Chinese board members, in Russia's most significant firms, will develop in the coming years, since the growing number of board seats usually reflects increased FDI flows. So far, Russian statistics show that Chinese investments in Russia are non-existent, and the same applies to Russian investments in China, as well.