Executive Management
Andrea Ferancová - Head of Equities, Partner
Andrea joined WOOD & Co in 1995 and heads the Equities business. Under her guidance, WOOD & Co became the largest independent brokerage house in CEE, raising its market share of the Czech Equity market from 5% to a market-leading 25% . Instrumental in WOOD & Co’s expansion , with membership of 11 regional exchanges currently, Andrea also established the first Direct Market Access system in the region, enabling direct access to exchanges in Prague, Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna, Frankfurt, Bucharest, Istanbul , Dubai etc.
Jan Sýkora - Chairman of the Board, Partner
Jan joined WOOD in 1994, helping Richard Wood to build the company. From 1995, Jan managed the Czech operations and became Chairman of the Board after the Buy-Out by the partners in 2001. Jan has been managing senior relationships across all three operational divisions of WOOD & Co. In addition to his work at WOOD & Co, Jan serves on the boards of a range of public and private companies and organisations, including the Prague Stock Exchange, Amrest and the Young Presidents’ Organisation.
Vladimir Jaroš - Investment Banking, Partner
Vladimir has been with WOOD & Co since 1994 and, in 1997, took responsibility for the firm's corporate finance business. He has directly managed numerous landmark transactions in the region including the largest privatisations in the telecommunication, utilities, banking and engineering sectors in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. He has in-depth knowledge of the region's capital markets and has been directly responsible for managing capital markets transactions for Zentiva, NWR and many others. Vladimir was also responsible for the development and coordination of WOOD’s regional research activities in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine. Before WOOD & Co., Vladimir was with Živnostenská banka as a corporate finance analyst.
Lubomir Šoltýs - Head of Bratislava office, Partner
Lubo joined WOOD & Company in 1996 as a Research Analyst covering primary utility companies in CEE. Today his primary responsibility lies in the firm's Slovak operations, but he also provides necessary support to other members of the corporate finance team. Lubo is also responsible for WOOD's Merchant Banking and Private Equity activities. Lubo has also built WOOD's Slovak office into a recognized high quality provider of other financial advisory services related to complex financial products like PPP.
Alan Apter - Board Member, Partner
Mr Apter joined WOOD & Co. in 2010 and is responsible for driving the growth and strategy of the firm. Mr Apter has been in investment banking since 1986. From 2000-2007 he headed the CEE Investment Banking group of Morgan Stanley in London and prior to this he was head of Investment Banking for Troika Dialog in Moscow and a partner of Renaissance Capital in Moscow. He has also been a member of Merril Lynch’s Investment Banking division in the US.
Fritz Schweiger - Board Member, Partner
Fritz has more than 15 years’ experience in building and running CEE capital market operations. Prior to joining WOOD & Co’s board as a non executive he was the London-based CEO of CAIB and Global Head of EMEA Equities for Unicredit Group, since 1998. Fritz brings both exceptional managerial experience and unequalled access to clients
Senior Management
Equities Division
Mark Robinson - Head of Research
A combination of relevant buy-side (Asia 4 years/Emerging Europe 6 years, mostly at JP Morgan A.M.) and sell-side experience means Mark is well-placed to oversee both the expansion of our Research team and our new EME Equity Strategy offering. He was Head of Equity Research at UniCredit and its precursor CA-IB for 5 years, as well as the architect and marketeer of a highly-ranked Strategy product.
Rupert Wood – Head of Sales
Bringing 15 years of experience to the table, Rupert’s Sales teams at his previous employer ING were consistently ranked in the top 3 for the region in investor surveys. He joins WOOD & Co to roll out our pan-regional sales franchise. Prior to being Head of EMEA Sales at ING, he was part of the EMEA Sales teams at CA-IB and NatWest Markets.
Peter Kaineder - Deputy Head of Equities
Combining his consultancy and Sales experience, Peter’s business coordination role is crucial to our business rollout. He joined from UniCredit CAIB where he was Deputy Head of Equity Sales in London, servicing Scandinavian and UK clients. Previously he was Senior Consultant at Roland Berger, advising large European financial institutions.
Sebastian Siejko - Head of Equities, Poland
At the spearhead of our expansion in Warsaw, Sebastian is well-placed to build on our existing and his previous franchise. He joined from UniCredit CAIB Poland where he was Head of Sales of the most active placement team in the Polish market. He and his team service the large domestic client base as well as international clients.
Jan Pavlík - Head of Trading
Jan has been a member of the WOOD team for more than 10 years and is responsible for trading. Over the years he has built up an efficient trading team providing high quality service to our clients on all covered markets. In addition, Jan also cooperates on launching in new markets and the electronisation of the trading desk.
Václav Karpíšek - Head of Electronic & Direct Market Access
Vaclav is responsible for the company's electronic products including Direct Market Access, Smart Routing and automated algorithmic execution strategies. With his team, he provides electronic services to international as well as domestic and internal clients. Vaclav joined WOOD in 2004 and has pioneered DMA and other electronic products in the region.
Investment Banking Division
Michał Staron - Deputy Head of Investment Banking, Slovakia
Michal has over 10 years’ experience in investment banking in Slovakia with number of transactions executed in across CEE. A seasoned WOOD & Co professional has been engaged in landmark transactions on his home market working frequently for the Government as well as for buy-side blue chip investors Western Europe, Australia and Canada. Most recently his involvement focused on leading several merchant banking/private equity initiatives and co-heading investment banking at WOOD & Co in Bratislava.
Jarosław Deryło – Head of Investment Banking, Poland
Jarek has over 15 years’ experience in investment banking in Poland and EMEA. A veteran of UniCredit CA IB, its precursors and ING, he has been engaged in well over 50 deals in ECM, M&A, and DCM, many of which were landmark transactions involving CEE bluechips and quality high-growth midcaps. His more recent previous assignments included co-heading investment banking at UniCredit in Poland and establishing and managing its CEE-oriented office in Israel.
Robert Kołeczek, Head of ECM & Syndication, London
Robert has more than 12 years’ experience in Equity Capital Markets transactions in Emerging Europe. In the past he worked for UniCredit CAIB in their London and Warsaw offices, and prior to that for Paribas Warsaw and BNP Paribas London. Robert has led, co-led or was a core team member in more than 30 ECM transactions in Emerging European spaces, with listings on all key regional and Western European exchanges.
David Tajzich - Director, Investment Banking, Prague
David acquired professional experience during more than 10-year engagement with WOOD & Co by origination and execution of primarily Capital Markets and M&A investment banking projects in the region. M&A projects were mainly focused on sell mandates and strategic acquisitions of foreign investors, their settlement, follow-up optimisation of shareholders’ structure and majority shareholders’ duties maintenance (organisation of mandatory take-over bids, delistings, squeeze-outs, sell-outs). Significant part of professional experience with WOOD & Co dedicated to Equity Capital Market transactions including primary (IPO) as well as secondary (SPO) offerings, listings, share buy-backs and take-over bids realised on Prague, London, Warsaw, Budapest and Vienna stock exchanges.
Martin Kristofczak – Director Investment Banking, Slovakia
Martin built his 10 year investment banking career with WOOD&Co in origination and execution of numerous cross-border M&A and capital markets deals in CEE, managing execution teams for a wide range of international and local clients, including financial and strategic players and governments. Martin's core industrial focus is on the telecoms, energy, infrastructure, ICT and healthcare sectors. During his career Martin has played an important role in introduction of 3rd party structured finance products on local markets including mezzanine on local markets. Developing his multilateral capabilities, Martin participated in the execution of special projects for equities desk clients. Before WOOD Martin worked as Director of non-life insurance in Ceska Pojistovna - Slovensko and as a Senior Manager at Marsh & McLennan.
Asset Management Division
Jaroslav Krabec - Chief Investment Officer
Jaroslav joined WOOD & Co in 2008 with extensive previous experience in portfolio management. His asset management team is responsible for managing client portfolios, including the CEE long/short equity mutual fund and the discretionary mandates of both institutional clients and high net worth individuals.
