Jan Castro – Managing Director

Prior to establishing Pala Investments AG in July 2006, Jan was Senior Vice President-Investments and Corporate Affairs for Mechel OAO, a major Russian mining and metals company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:  MTL), where his primary responsibilities covered mergers and acquisitions, non-core asset disposals, and investor and public relations.  From November 2002 through January 2005, Jan was General Counsel and Senior Vice President-Corporate Affairs for Mechel, where his primary responsibility was the management of Mechel’s IPO on the NYSE (2004), which included significant corporate and management restructuring.

Prior to joining Mechel, Jan worked for Latham & Watkins LLP, an international law firm, where he advised clients on public and private offerings of equity and debt, including the initial public offerings of Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (2000) and Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC (2002) on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as multiple Eurobond offerings.  In total, Jan led the IPOs of three out of the four IPOs of Russian companies on the NYSE, as well as worked on numerous merger and acquisition, and private equity transactions, including some of the largest M&A deals in Russia and Ukraine.

Prior to working for Latham & Watkins, Jan was at Chadbourne & Parke and White & Case, working primarily on project financings.

Jan received his J.D. and B.A. from Columbia University.

Jan serves on the boards of Anatolia Minerals Development Ltd., Avoca Resources Limited and Norcast Castings Company Limited.