Every large, successful, and sustainable company is based on a certain philosophy — a set of business and ideological principles that underlie its long-term goals. One of the oldest private investment groups in Russia, TRINFICO, is no exception. Its CEO, Oleg Belay, places a high value on professionalism, responsibility, and well-coordinated team efforts. For more than thirty years, TRINFICO has been working to increase the wealth of its clients by providing quality asset management services. Being true to the main principles, the asset management company was able to build a good brand reputation.
When building the business strategy, the CEO of the group also pays great attention to more holistic concerns. The businessman is an advocate of the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) concept. This concept brings to the fore the idea of responsible business practices that prioritize the environment, planet, society, and future generations.
When the investor puts his work aside, he devotes part of his personal time to charity projects. His biggest concern is the poverty issue, which he approaches from a strategic angle. His goal is not just to help people on a single occasion, but to open up professional opportunities for entire groups of the population. As a result, someone who relied only on benefits just yesterday can become an economically active and successful member of society today.
But what helped the top manager himself become who he is today? Did the entrepreneur encounter any challenges while building his business? What are his personal and professional values? Let’s try to find answers to these questions in Oleg Belay’s biography.
Brief Overview
• Belay Oleg Viktorovich is a co-founder of TRINFICO and its CEO since 2013.
• Date of birth: June 5, 1972.
• Family. His parents were electronic engineers with degrees from MIET — Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology. Oleg has two younger brothers. He is married and has two children and two grandchildren.
• Education. First, he attended School No. 853 and then School No. 897 in Zelenograd. After that, Belay studied microelectronics and semiconductor devices at MIET and received a degree in engineering physics.
• His roles at TRINFICO included the following positions: CFO (from 1993 to 2008), Corporate Finance Director (from 2008 to 2013), CEO (from 2013 to the present day).
• His hobbies are stamp collecting, motorcycling, traveling, and fishing.
• Philanthropy. Oleg is the founder and a trustee of the Vmeste Smozhem (Together We Can) foundation.
Times of Change: Challenges and Chances
They say that wishing that someone would live in interesting times is one of the worst oriental curses. Times of change are painful because they tend to turn people’s lives upside down. The brave and ambitious, however, manage to find many exciting opportunities amid such times. The demise of old, outdated, and obsolete realities brings about new prospects. It was with these beliefs that a 17-year-old student and young entrepreneur Oleg Belay entered adulthood.
The young man grew up in a typical Soviet family. After graduating from school, he went to a technical university. In the same year, the USSR began to introduce major changes into its economy by allowing the citizens to establish cooperatives and conduct commercial activities. After two more years, the Soviet Union sank into oblivion, and the market economy of capitalist Russia began to rise from its ruins.
Oleg was looking at the emerging opportunities with great interest. He managed to make his first money when he was only 17. By the age of twenty, he was a fairly skilled businessman with experience in several fields. In 1992, together with his friends, he started trading vouchers, which was a fundamentally new business for the country. Thus, the future financier became one of the pioneers of the Russian stock market.
Success in trading encouraged Oleg and his friends to move forward. The young men decided that it was time to start their own company! In 1993, when Belay turned twenty-one, he co-founded a brokerage firm called TRINFICO and took on the role of chief financial officer. Later on, it became clear that he had made the right decision and used the opportunity that was given to him by the era of change to the fullest.
Major Milestones and Success Factors
Belay describes the journey of one of the oldest investment groups in Russia as “moving in the flow.” He says that the company has been evolving gradually and had several distinct stages of growth.
1993–1995. The company took its first steps in voucher trading. Then it transitioned to working stocks and other financial instruments, including derivatives.
1995. At this point, the brokerage firm took a big step forward by transforming into an AMC. TRINFICO began to provide asset management services. During these years, Russians who had managed to accumulate considerable wealth were faced with a serious problem — they needed to find a way to protect their finances against the high inflation of the early 90s. Most citizens did not have a clear idea of what to do with their assets or how to grow them since the investment market was still in its formative stage. The TRINFICO team managed to identify this market need and started to provide professional asset management services meting the expectations of its clients. The client base began to expand.
1996-1997. By working with public debt, TRINFICO was able to significantly grow the wealth of its clients. The CEO says that even in its early years, the main driver of the company’s success was the focus on the most profitable financial trends. Market trends and waves changed many times over the years. But, just like surfers, the company’s experts managed to catch these waves on the rise and ride them to the very top.
1998. This was one of the most difficult years for Russia; the government, unable to fulfill its obligations, defaulted on its debt. However, effective risk control measures and competent management decisions made it possible for TRINFICO to keep the business going. Liquidity risk management became one of the pillars of the company’s business approach, ensuring its survival in other crisis periods as well. The AMC maintains a robust liquidity risk management framework to this day, which was noted by the National Rating Agency when it assigned an A+ rating of reliability and quality of services to the company.
2000s. After the default, the Russian economy began to recover at a quick rate, which had a positive effect on the stock market. TRINFICO continued to accumulate its reputation capital and attract new clients. In 2002, it signed its first agreement with a pension fund; this was a big achievement since organizations of this type are known to set a high bar for their AMCs. Today, the investment group is among the top 10 companies in terms of pension assets under its management.
2008-2013. After successfully overcoming the challenges of the global financial crisis, the asset management team outlined new goals in its business growth strategy. Oleg Belay moved on from the position of CFO to the role of Corporate Finance Director. In this role, he developed new services, such as private equity and investment banking solutions. The company also introduced its high-return mutual funds to the market. These have repeatedly been included in the top 3 most profitable mutual funds in Russia.
Since 2013, the founder of TRINFICO Oleg Belay has been the CEO of the company. One of his main strategic achievements at this stage was to incorporate ESG principles into the company’s business processes. Another important decision was to list the brand’s financial instruments on the Finuslugi platform, which made the mutual funds of the AMC accessible to a wide audience of private investors.
Values behind the Success Story
If we analyze the history of the investment group and the biography of its CEO, we can identify several particular values that paved the company’s path to success. These principles and business philosophy underpinned the continuous growth of both the company and Belay’s personal competencies:
● Interest in new areas of business and willingness to “step beyond the horizon.” Even at an older age, the entrepreneur managed to preserve these personality traits, which are usually associated with young people. In his youth, he became a pioneer of the investment business in the country. Then he took on the task of developing innovative services in his company. By the way, the group’s ESG integration was also a trend-setting moment for Russia. TRINFICO was the first AMC in the country to engage in “green investing,” which was confirmed by the National Rating Agency.
● Self-education skills, the desire for knowledge, and willingness to explore opportunities despite a lack of information. When starting his business, Belay had to rely only on bits and pieces of information about the stock market. Books on business topics were scarce in the early 90s; Russian publishers were just beginning to translate foreign authors. Belay had to improvise, experiment, and study financial markets through practical experience.
Later, when the opportunity to get a high-quality economic education presented itself, the top manager took the time to study theory and received a professional certificate in investment, mutual, and non-governmental pension fund operations. Moreover, Oleg is now well versed in legal studies — in particular, in tax law.
The businessman emphasizes that continuous learning and skill development are some of his main business and personal values.
● Passion, interest, and love for the business. Belay tried his hand at several businesses as a young man and eventually discovered his passion for financial markets. “It felt like we were on the threshold of an amazing story, and I wanted to be part of this story,” the entrepreneur says. “I wanted to observe the evolution of the Russian stock market from the inside.” Nowadays, the businessman enjoys solving complex tasks related to structuring institutional-level assets.
● Ambition, determination, and enthusiasm. The desire to achieve goals and set new ones is very important in business. The top manager emphasizes that all your achievements and conquered peaks must always be followed by new ones; only this will keep your life meaningful and your progress continuous.
● Ethical principles that hold Oleg Belay’s business together and run like a guiding thread through his life. These include responsibility to clients, respect for the team, commitment to ESG principles, and philanthropy. When asked about his main secret to success, the businessman simply replies, “Always stay human.”
