Tiger Securities was founded by Mr Fox and Pacific Gemini in 1993 in Vladivostok, where it became the leading Western investment house. Throughout the 1990s Tiger was a major player in privatisation of Russian Far East enterprises, representing mostly foreign portfolio investors on the boards of directors of dozens of local companies. During that decade Tiger clients invested tens of millions of dollars into the Russian economy, and recovered more.
After a peak of over seventy staff across the Russian Far East,Belarus and Ukraine, Tiger downsized following the Russian Crisis in 1998 and remains a respected Vladivostok name. Mr Fox serves as Chairman and Mr Starodubtsev as Chief Executive Officer.
SEC-registered Tiger was a pioneer of the development of the modern Russian securities market, nine hours flight from the more obvious attractions of Moscow. It was a founder and financial supporter of the Vladivostok Stock Exchange, briefly the most active in Russia, and it created and managed with its Australian parent Pacific Gemini the first investment fund in the region, First Vladivostok Fund which raised US$12.4m in 1994.
Tiger was professionally supported by Pacific Gemini's Australian founders including Bruce Bell, Bill Burdett, Ross Kennedy, Denis Kiellerup, Allan Nalder, Adrian Palmer, Greg Robinson, Harold Seeley, Chris Teoh and Gerry Van Wyngen. These friends visited Vladivostok often, hosting Russian partners overseas and investing time and capital over many years.
Dynamic young Russians, too many to name, took part in Tiger's early years and then moved on with our best wishes to greater things usually in Moscow and beyond. As did a handful of spirited talented Westerners including Michael Alcorn, Henry Brun, Tracy McInnes, Gary Roseman and Mark Sewell.