BORIS FYODOROV & CHARLIE RYAN Chairman & CEO, United Financial Group Three years ago they were working in a rundown apartment with orange crates for desks. Today, their United Financial Group boasts a sparkling Moscow headquarters. Boris Fyodorov, 39, UFG's chairman, and Charlie Ryan, 30, its American chief executive officer, head of one of Russia's top investment banks. Blending their disparate skills, they have helped transform the Russian market by finding new ways to tap equity and lure investors. ''They effectively work in Russia with the same mentality you find in New York,'' says Daniel Connor, manager of Geneva-based Eastern Capital Fund, which UFG advises. UFG has stayed in front by spotting opportunities that others missed. It was the first to reap big profits by steering investors toward Russia's newly established oil holding companies. It also pioneered investment vehicles that provided foreign investors with easy access to Russian stocks. UFG is the brainchild of Fyodorov, an economist twice fired as finance minister after pushing radical economic reforms. But Fyodorov says Ryan, an energetic Harvard-educated banker, is ''definitely the driving force.'' With the days of orange crates behind it, UFG aims to become a full-service investment bank as the market matures. By Patricia Kranz in Moscow Return to main story

Updated Oct. 16, 1997 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1997, Bloomberg L.P.
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