Personnel changes at Naftogaz. The government appointed a new Management Board

Author

Olga Krotovska

The National Joint Stock Company Naftogaz of Ukraine got a new Management Board today, on September 27. It was appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers, RBC-Ukraine reports.

Prior to that, the government assumed the powers of the Supervisory Board of Naftogaz. According to the outlet, it succeeded after the Cabinet of Ministers had dismissed three Management Board members from the state. The next step was the termination of the powers of two more members—Sergiy Pereloma and Yaroslav Telyuk.

The new Board of Naftogaz includes:

Mavriky Kalugin (Advisor to the Chairperson of the Management Board on Gas Production);
Vladyslav Volovyk (Advisor to the Chairperson of the Management Board);
Olena Boichenko (Chief Human Resources and Social Policy Officer of the Naftogaz Group);
Roman Chumak (Head of treasury operations of Naftogaz Group).

Yuliya Kovaliv, one of the Supervisory Board members from the state, confirmed the fact of her dismissal on her Facebook page.

Context. Earlier this month, the Cabinet of Ministers announced a competition for the vacated positions of four independent members of Naftogaz's Supervisory Board, citing the need to "neutralize threats in the energy sector." As a result, three independent members of the company's Supervisory Board announced their dismissal: Clare Spottiswoode, Bruno Lescoeur, and Ludo Van der Heyden.

Recall: On April 28, 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to dismiss Andriy Kobolev, who had been managing Naftogaz since 2015. After that, the company was headed by Acting Minister of Energy Yuriy Vitrenko.

Kobolev stated that he had found out about his dismissal from the media, and repeatedly hinted at the illegality of the Cabinet’s actions. Naftogaz itself called the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers a "legal manipulation": in order to fire Kobolev, the Cabinet of Ministers dismissed the Supervisory Board of Naftogaz for two days. The US and the G7 sharply criticized Kobolev's dismissal and hinted at political interference in the work of Naftogaz.

On June 15, NACP stated that Vitrenko had been illegally appointed to the post of Head of Naftogaz. The national agency sent a demand to the Supervisory Board of Naftogaz to dismiss Vitrenko, and the very next day, Clare Spottiswoode, the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board, initiated his resignation. However, later the Supervisory Board for some reason changed its mind about dismissing him and postponed the decision.