When Gagik Zakaryan, the Russian entrepreneur, met Lord Lamont of Lerwick at a party in Cliveden last year, the two hit it off immediately. Mr Zakaryan was looking to steer his bank, Unistream, to a London listing, and wanted to hire a non-executive director who would give his young firm the necessary international legitimacy. Sources at the bank say: “Lord Lamont is obviously a very respected figure in the City . . . and he’s a lord, which helps, too.”
Unistream is one of a growing number of companies from the former Soviet Union who are hiring lords as non-executive directors to improve their corporate governance credentials prior to London listings.
Some lords have their hands full. Lord Daresbury, a former jockey and chairman of Aintree Racecourse, became chairman of the board of Highland Gold, a Russia-focused mining company, and steered it to an AIM listing in 2003.
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