Ukrainian-American Bleyzer inspired by Marshall plan

By Steve Gelsi
CBS.MarketWatch.com
New York, New York
January 27, 2003

He spent 15 years in management positions at ExxonMobil and Ernst & Young before launching the SigmaBleyzer Ukrainian Growth Fund in 1996.

Based in Houston, SigmaBleyzer manages about $100 million in investments in Ukraine for clients such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and others overseas in Brazil and elsewhere.

While some would consider focusing on their company and building their business, Bleyzer, 51, said his efforts are just starting to ramp up.

Recognizing that his return on overseas investment would be boosted by a more favorable geopolitical environment, he's founded the Bleyzer Foundation with inspiration from the U.S.'s Marshall Plan that helped rebuild Europe after World War II.

Bleyzer has studied other investment vehicles around the world including The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Rather than a government-based solution, however, he's meeting with officials in Washington and Europe to promote more private equity investment in developing countries.

President Bush's move to create a Millennium Challenge Account of up to $5 billion per year by 2006 with private investment is a "step in the right direction," but Bleyzer is advocating a slightly different approach.

He proposes setting up a competition for countries to win aid rather than a selection process based on lengthy criteria.

Financial assistance must be structured as "quasi-private equity funds managed by money managers from the private sector whenever possible," he said.

His focus remains on Ukraine and other countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union. Bleyzer said it's vital for economies to be lifted in part to discourage terrorism.

The Ukraine, for example, housed the Soviet Union's principal facility for nuclear weapon research.

A healthier economy there and elsewhere would protect against terrorism and reduce any likelihood that nuclear materials would fall into the wrong hands, he said.