ROBERT E. BAINES, BA, JD, is Executive Director. Mr. Baines has had over 25 years of international legal, commercial and investment experience. His experience includes capital markets, international commercial and corporate law, enterprise structuring and restructuring, legal due diligence, and financing. He has led Admiralty’s investment activities in Armenia, Argentina, Mexico and the US. Prior to that he focused on Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union; especially on capital markets and privatization. He was resident in Armenia for three years and was instrumental in establishing Admiralty’s Great Armenia Voucher Investment Fund and in winning the tender to sell 10 of Armenia’s largest companies (in partnership with Wasserstein Perella and Merrill Lynch International). He led Admiralty’s successful sale of five companies to strategic investors. In addition, he spearheaded our successful sale of two of the largest hotels in Armenia to foreign investors. He was in charge of Admiralty’s Eastern European investments and recently obtained annual returns in excess of 57% for Admiralty and its investors. For the previous seven years, he specialized in corporate barter (the marketing and utilization of companies’ surplus inventories and assets to finance other corporate needs). In that capacity he set up and ran the London office for Active International, the world’s largest international media based barter company. He has participated in international projects in Albania, Armenia, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Czech Republic, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Moldova, Myanmar, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Spain, Taiwan and Vietnam. Dr Baines has attended outstanding universities including Harvard Law School, University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, the Sorbonne, and George Washington University. He holds a BA (with Special Honors) from George Washington University in International Relations (Sino-Soviet Studies) and a Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona. He has been published in several periodicals including the Harvard International Law Journal.