Riccardo Puliti is the Business Group Director in charge of the energy and natural resources sectors at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Riccardo joined the EBRD in 1996 in the Power and Energy utilities department and moved to Natural Resources in 1998.  In 2000, he was appointed Deputy Director of Municipal and Environmental Infrastructures and in 2002 Director of Transport Infrastructures.

Riccardo has extensive experience in emerging market economies, working with both the private and public sectors.  He started his career at Istituto Mobiliare Italiano (IMI) Group in 1987, he then moved to Banque Indosuez in Paris where he worked in M&A and equity capital markets.  He then joined NM Rothschild and Sons in London where he held several positions in M&A and equity capital markets.

Riccardo holds various Supervisory Board and Board of Directors memberships in investee companies.

He is an MBA alumnus of Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa (IESE) and a postgraduate alumnus of the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard University) and Imperial College.

Riccardo is fluent in six European languages.

EBRD

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was established in 1991 when communism was crumbling in central and eastern Europe and ex-soviet countries needed support to nurture a new private sector in a democratic environment. Today the EBRD uses the tools of investment to help build market economies and democracies in countries from central Europe to central Asia.

The EBRD is the largest single investor in the region and mobilises significant foreign direct investment beyond its own financing. It is owned by 61 countries and two intergovernmental institutions. But despite its public sector shareholders, it invests mainly in private enterprises, usually together with commercial partners.

It provides project financing for banks, industries and businesses, both new ventures and investments in existing companies. It also works with publicly owned companies, to support privatisation, restructuring state-owned firms and improvement of municipal services. The Bank uses its close relationship with governments in the region to promote policies that will bolster the business environment.

The mandate of the EBRD stipulates that it must only work in countries that are committed to democratic principles. Respect for the environment is part of the strong corporate governance attached to all EBRD investments.