This Powerhouse Member Is A Russian Business Specialist

There are many diverse, talented and dedicated people in our chapter, and this issue we feature Catherine V. Mannick.

Don’t let her humble demeanor, and ever-ready, friendly smile fool you. This attorney is a powerhouse of education, experience and achievement. A fluent speaker of Russian, Ms. Mannick earned her B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University, her M.A. in History from Harvard University, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was on the editorial board of the Harvard International Law Journal. She also spent the year after graduating from law school studying Soviet foreign trade law on the law faculty of Moscow State University.

Ms. Mannick has been a member of the American Corporate Counsel Association since 2000 and is currently a member of the Northeast Chapter’s board of directors. She is also a member of the Massachusetts and U.S. Federal bar associations. She is vice president and a board member of the U.S.-Russia Chamber of Commerce of New England.

Ms. Mannick is currently executive vice president and general counsel of Cole Management, Inc., a privately held, Boston-based company that makes direct investments in the Russian technology sector. It is planning to launch a private equity fund, the “Russia Now Fund”, which will make further investments in this and other promising Russian business sectors.

Prior to joining Cole Management, Ms. Mannick served as vice president and assistant general counsel of The Pioneer Group, Inc., and after Pioneer’s sale to UniCredito Italiano, as senior vice president and general counsel of Pioneer’s spin-off company, Harbor Global Company Ltd. At Pioneer and Harbor Global she was responsible for legal oversight of those companies’ Russian operations.

Before joining Pioneer in 1996, she was of counsel at Hale and Dorr, and co-chair of the firm’s Russian Practice Group. Previously, she served as counsel in the international legal department of The First National Bank of Boston.

During the 10 years she has been doing business in Russia, she has worked on a wide variety of projects — such as a timber harvesting and export project on the Pacific Coast of Russia, a Moscow-based asset management business, and a specialty metals venture in St. Petersburg. Her travels have taken her to logging camps in the Russian Far East, aviation plants along the Volga River, and mining operations on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Through perseverance and fortitude, Ms. Mannick has been able to combine law and a love of “all things Russian” — kindled she says when she first read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in high school — into an exciting and impressive career. It goes without saying that Ms. Mannick is a “clear and present asset” to our organization.