Boris Zhilin

Mr. Zhilin was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. In 1991, upon completion of his secondary education, he was extended a full-tuition scholarship and an invitation to attend Syracuse University. In 1995, Mr. Zhilin graduated summa cum laude from Syracuse University's School of Management with a BS in Finance, Economics and Managerial Statistics. During his college tenure, Mr. Zhilin was the only undergraduate student to have been employed by the School of Management as a research and teaching assistant in the Finance and Quantitative Methods departments, respectively. In addition, while at Syracuse University, Mr. Zhilin worked as a summer intern at Ballentine Capital Management, an Avon, Connecticut market neutral hedge fund with approximately $600 million in assets, and Morgan Stanley's International Prime Brokerage group in London, England.

In 1995, Mr. Zhilin joined Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. as a financial analyst in the Investment Banking department's General Industry group. While in the General Industry group, he was involved in a variety of financing, merger and acquisition, leveraged buyout and valuation assignments for companies such as American Home Products, Rhône-Poulenc, ITT, Volvo, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Centeon, Human Genome Sciences, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Aviron and Klearfold. In addition, Mr. Zhilin participated in the development and marketing of Step-Down Preferred Stock, a proprietary tax-advantaged financing structure that was utilized by various blue chip companies, including Time Warner, PepsiCo, Walt Disney, AlliedSignal and Union Carbide.

In 1997, Mr. Zhilin joined the Bear Stearns Merchant Banking group, an effort mandated to invest Bear Stearns' own capital in private equity transactions. As a member of the Merchant Banking group he participated in the screening, execution and monitoring of various private equity investments, which included performing due diligence, financial modeling, negotiations with sellers, co-investors and lenders, as well as drafting of relevant documentation. In 1998, as an exception to Bear Stearns' general policy, Mr. Zhilin was promoted to Associate.

In 1998, together with Mr. Dov Plitman, Mr. Zhilin co-founded the Fund. In 1999, following his departure from Bear Stearns, Mr. Zhilin joined the Fund full-time.

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