Maksym Blank, a former director of the investment company Astrum Investments, has been appointed as the first deputy head of the State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia). Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Ostap Semerak announced this to reporters in Kiev on Wednesday, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.
The decision on his appointment was made at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.
In addition, Semerak said that Vitalii Zhurakivskyi, who previously held the post of first deputy head of Ukrzaliznytsia, was appointed as the deputy head of the administration.
Blank graduated from the Kiev University of Trade and Economics and obtained an MBA degree from the United States. He was the head of the Ministry of Finance's department of debt policy from 1996 to 2001, restructuring Ukraine’s external debt. He was head of the department of financial engineering at TAS-Investbank from 2001 to 2003 and a managing partner at the ARTA financial group from 2003 to 2008. In addition, Blank was the general director of the Forum asset management company, which is linked with businessman Leonid Yurushev, who has assets in the railcar manufacturing industry.
Zhurakivskyi was the first deputy head of the Southwestern Railway until his appointment as the first deputy head of Ukrzaliznytsia in March 2013. He graduated from the Kirov Kharkov Institute of Railway Engineers in 1979.
