On 17 February, Foreign Investors’ Council in Latvia (FICIL) held its Annual General meeting where the new Executive Board was elected. There is one newcomer to the FICIL Board in 2022 – Reinhold Schneider, Chairman of the Board Schwenk Latvija, Zlata Elksniņa-Zaščirinska, Country Managing Partner PwC Latvija, Valts Kārkliņš, Large Business Customer Director at BITE Latvia, and Alvis Ērglis, Director of Sales at Circle K Latvia.
Four Board members will continue their work as part of the FICIL Executive Board – Evija Šturca, Partner at KPMG Latvia, Ints Krasts, Board member at SEB Latvia, Iain Kennedy, CEO of BALTA Insurance Company, and Arnis Sauka, Professor and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Business at SSE Riga.
The FICIL Executive Board is elected for a two-year term and its main responsibility is to develop and strategically guide the work of FICIL. The first Executive Board meeting will be held on 2 March where the Board members will elect the Chairperson and two Vice-Chairpersons and start the preparations for the annual High Council meeting. The 26th FICIL High Council will be held in September.
“We have many challenges ahead in 2022 and onward. The newly elected FICIL Board will hold a brainstorming meeting at the end of March to review and update FICIL strategy, vision and mission. Investors are focused on various questions that need clear answers in the near future – how will the EU Green Deal be implemented in Latvia? How will shadow economy levels be reduced? Who will be responsible for an effective cross-sector cooperation among ministries? This year we will also see the Parliament election take place in October. During Sentiment Index: Election edition research phase, we conducted interviews with more than 50 foreign investors in Latvia to determine what progress has been achieved over the last 4 years and what priorities the next Government should focus on. We have a busy season ahead of us, constructive dialogue with public sector officials and policy makers is vital when it comes to improving the investment climate in Latvia overall.”
– Linda Helmane, FICIL Executive Director
Zlata Elksniņa-Zaščirinska
Zlata has been with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Latvia since 1994, leading a team of 200 professionals in four lines of service: Tax, Legal, Assurance, Consulting and Advisory. As Country Managing Partner, Zlata is responsible for the management of PwC Latvia, focusing on the needs of clients and the business community, following the PwC mission to build trust in society and solve important problems. Zlatas main area of expertise is tax. In addition to Zlatas in-depth knowledge of the local market, Zlata has gained extensive international experience by taking part in various international M&A and transformation projects. Zlata has been actively involved in promoting ESG issues both internally and externally, and taking care of an inclusive work environment as PwC’s diversity and inclusion leader of Latvia. For several years PwC has been a FICIL member. Being in the FICIL board Zlata is planning to actively promote the need for a tax reform, and consequently supporting the green economy transition group as well as the strategic positioning of human capital and mobility questions in Latvia.
Valts Kārkliņš
Valts has served on FICIL board since February 2020. Working in telecommunications industry and navigating through digital clouds for more than 17 years Valts is passionate about technology and seeing it as a key driver for Latvia`s success story. Educated in Business Psychology, currently holding Large Business customer director position at Bite Latvija. Bite Latvija is a part of American investment company Providence Equity Partners who joined FICIL in year 2019. Valts motivation of continuing as a board member goes along with Valts desire to help my country become the number 1. place for business. Valts will share his time and knowledge to add value for FICIL as organization and will contribute to Digitalization working group as Valts sees his duty to support Digitalization working group`s position paper and the main goals – State CIO, Data driven decisions and overall development of IT skills in the society.
Alvis Ērglis
Alvis applied for a board member position to take an active role in Council’s daily work by facilitating discussions and contributing to the topics, and by that helping in driving improvement of business environment in Latvia utilizing Alvis management skills obtained in more than 20 years of intense work in flagship companies in the respective industries – TET and Circle K, where Alvis has held several senior management and executive level positions being responsible for sales, commerce and new product development. Only by ensuring a constructive dialogue between a legislator, public and private sectors we can ensure fact- and data- based decision making, increase predictability of political decisions and by that contribute to a sustainable and considerate development of overall economy of Latvia. As a member of FICIL work groups and as a board member of Fuel trader’s association, Alvis sees a great benefit from participating in the development of sector’s regulatory framework as well as having ongoing discussions with the government. In the coming years, to ensure Latvia’s economic development, it will be especially important to attract private capital investments by ensuring a stable, consistent investment environment and by decreasing uncertainty around legislative and political decisions. FICIL has been playing a significant role in ensuring a better cooperation between investors and policy makers, and I will do my best to ensure the development and our contribution also in the future.
Reinhold Schneider
SCHWENK Latvija is one of the main industrial investors in Latvia, the only cement producer in the country and one of the biggest building materials producers in region. By working in this industry for 28 years in various countries like Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden and Norway, Reinhold has gained expertise in many areas important for business operations and economic development. For almost three years Reinhold has worked in Latvia as CEO for SCHWENK in Northern Europe developing business in Latvia but as well neighbouring Baltic and Nordic countries. Schwenk as a company are active participants of construction industry in Latvia. Schwenk main production site, Broceni cement plant, is one of the main employers in Kurzeme region not only for Schwenk employees but for subcontractors as well. The company also has operations in other parts of Latvia; therefore, Schwenk are closely linked to the issues connected with regional development, workforce migration, demographics, infrastructure etc.In upcoming years one of the biggest challenges is the decarbonization of this industry and the fulfillment of the goals of the green deal in the EU. With support of other businesses and the whole society Schwenk can contribute to this transformation process and create new opportunities for Latvia.