The new Council of the BA School of Business and Finance has been fully established – on February 15th, the Cabinet of the Republic of Latvia has approved Ansis Grasmanis and Rasmuss Pētersons as members of the Council of the BA School of Business and Finance according to the proposal of the Ministry of Education and Science. According to the Law on Institutions of Higher Education, the BASBF is an Institution of applied sciences, the Council of which is composed of five members, two representatives of the society are selected by the Ministry, two are selected by the institution of higher education itself and one by the President of Latvia.
The President of Latvia has selected Mārtiņš Bičevskis to work on the Council of the BASBF. Meanwhile the Senate of BASBF has nominated experienced colleagues – Andris Nātriņš and Jānis Strautmanis – to serve on the new Council. The management team at the university has drafted a Statute for the commencement of the new Council and has been approved by the Senate so that the Council can start its work successfully in the near future.
Members of the new Council of the BA School of Business and Finance:
Mārtiņš Bičevskis
Professional Council Member, mentor, investor. M. Bičevskis has a significant career in public administration, as well as a lot of experience representing private business interests. He is also an enthusiast of the Startup ecosystem and a supporter of Latvian sports.
M. Bičevskis has worked as a Secretary of State for 7 years in the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Justice, represented the interests of a shareholder or company for more than 20 years in both large and medium-sized state capital companies in the financial (Latvijas hipotēku un zemes banka, Latvijas LOTO) energy (Latvenergo), real estate (VNĪ, TNĪ) and transport (LatRailNet) sectors, served as President of the Association of Commercial Banks and President of the Handball Federation.
M. Bičevskis is currently a Council member of AS DelfinGroup, Vice-President of the Council of VAS “LatRailNet”, Chairman of the Council of “MB Family Trust”, as well as a Member of the Executive Committee of the Latvian Olympic Committee and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Latvijas Riska kapitāla asociācija.
Ansis Grasmanis
Ansis Grasmanis has more than 20 years of experience in banking sector. He has worked for Swedbank, SEB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Lately, A. Grasmanis has specialised in corporate governance and he is an independent Member of the Council of two credit institutions outside of Latvia – Ukraine and Kosovo.
A. Grasmanis has a Master’s degree in mathematics (the University of Latvia), as well as a British Certified Accountant (ACCA) and a member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
Rasmuss Pētersons
Rasmuss Pētersons has long held senior positions in the financial sector – Nordea and Luminor banks. The positions were related to risk management, restructuring, asset management. Since 2019 he has been a Member of the Board and the Director of Finance in one of the Latvia’s largest catering companies AS Lido. He was also a Member of the Board of the AS Kredītinformācijas birojs.
Rasmuss Pētersons has a Masters degree (Riga Business school) and a Bachelors degree (BA School of Business and Finance).
Members selected by the Senate of the BA School of Business and Finance for the work in the new Council are Andris Nātriņš un Dr. Jānis Strautmanis.
Andris Nātriņš
Until the creation of this Council, Andris Nātriņš has been the Vice-Rector of the BA School of Business and Finance for research, infrastructure and business development, A. Nātriņš started work at the BA School of Business and Finance in 2013 leading the research field. Since 2017 – a Vice-Rector for research and development. At the same time, since 2016, he also manages the Financial intermediation and compliance competence laboratory.
In the past, he has worked in both the financial sector and science sector – at the Institute of Philosophy and Law.
Jānis Strautmanis
Jānis Strautmanis has been the Chairman of the Constitutional Assembly of BA School of Business and Finance, Head of the Department of Management studies and Associate Professor. He has a Doctorate of Management (University of Latvia). J. Strautmanis has worked at BA School of Business and Finance since 1993 as a lecturer, Assistant Professor, and the Head of the Department of Courses and Advertising (2001-2005).
J. Strautmanis has been the Principal of Siguldas Secondary school Nr.2 (1991-1994), the Vice-Chairman of Sigulda City Council (1994-2001) and has been elected as a memeber of the parlament of the Local Government until 2021.