This is a video of the AS Ventbunkers youtube channel. Mr. Rudolf Meroni – chairmain of the supervisory board is speaking about business practices.
Abstract of this video:
Dr. Rudolf Meroni, chairman of the supervisory board of AS Ventbunkers
explains how business used to be governed in the past and his
efforts to change this for better. Rudolf Meroni also describes
how management is being performed today in AS Ventbunkers – without
black payments, kickbacks and other illegal schemes.
The full transscript of this video:
Question:
Ventspils business practices:
– what has changed?
– what to expect for the future?
Answer:
The business in practice in Ventspils is a rather
unique one. Whereas normally in interantional business
companies there are managers, top managers who have a
very important saying role in how the business is carried
out. This historically was not the case in the business
companies in Ventspils.
There were always managers of different levels but behind
everything, even behind the supervisory boards of the
companies there was always in the past some hidden
shareholders which did in reality decide even the smallest
things in the companies.
So it was not that the managers were real managers in the
past, but they were more or less puppets who had to do
what the big boys, the big shareholders in the background
told them.
I tried to change this system, I tried to come from a
normal western perspective, to try to appoint highly
qualified managers. We did it in the first step mainly
in the company Ventbunkers. We have appointed a management
which is in my eyes highly qualified professionals who do
a very good job and which have a competence to take certain
decisions within the framework of the internal corporate
governance rules.
I believe that these managers who are well paid, I believe
they have a good salary. They do good bonuses as in every
other company, but they have no black payments. They have
just the normal salaries as is normal.
They do their job for the company and they try to do it in
the best interest of the company. I always told them: I
want that all the business is done perfectly clean, everything
is in the balance sheet of the company, no black businesses,
no hidden kickbacks or other things.
I believe that this was for the first time in the last
2 or 3 three years in the company Ventbunkers that we have
operated on such a basis.
I believe the situation is promissing and I believe that
if this is continued for the future, this will be a real
success.
Obviously it is unique, that through the position I have
been given by the general prosecutors office to control a
number of votes, an important number of votes in these
companies I was in a position to push back the power of
the real shareholders. This obviously not always been
very well received.
You are aware of the difficulties we had with illegal
shareholders meetings, illegal attempts to change the results
of shareholders meetings and obviously this is the
counterpart. The so called hidden shareholders tried to fight back
with this kind of illegal schemes.
For the time being I believe the situation is more or less
under control and I hope for the future that the stability
for the companies will be asured and that we have a good
situation that such are not going to happen anymore.
I can obviously not be 100% sure, but I am optimistic
that for the year 2011 we will not have such illegal attempts
on the current legitimate management of Ventbunkers and other
companies.
Speaker: Dr. Rudolf Meroni for AS Ventbunkers.
Dr. RUdolf Meroni, chairman of the supervisory board of AS Ventbunkers explains how business used to be governed in the past and his efforts to change this for better. Rudolf Meroni also describes how management is being performed today in AS Ventbunkers - without black payments, kickbacks and other illegal schemes.
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