Ilya Smirnov Is Partner and General Counsel for Golden Reach. His first project is building a first of a kind waste to energy plant for international markets based on Russian technology which incinerates unsorted municipal waste at ultra high temperatures on a layer of molten slag.
Prior to joining Golden Reach Ilya was Deputy CEO, General Counsel of Akkuyu Nuclear, JSC (a Turkish project company set up by Rosatom group of companies pursuant to the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between Russia and Turkey dated May 12, 2010) and was responsible for the legal support including corporate governance of the construction and operation of a 4 x 1200 MW nuclear power plant (NPP) of the Russian design in Turkey. It is the first “build-own-operate” NPP project in the world. Akkuyu received a construction license to build Unit 1 in April 2018 and the construction is under way. In 2011-2015 Ilya handled Akkuyu’s equity capital contributions totaling USD 3.2 billion. Ilya interacted with INIR mission (Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review) of the International Atomic Energy Agency to evaluate nuclear infrastructure of Turkey as host country to the NPP.
Prior to joining Rosatom in 2011, Ilya has worked for the U.S. listed fixed-line and mobile telecommunications companies including Golden Telecom, Inc. (Nasdaq: GLDN) and VimpelCom (NYSE: VIP) since 1997 focusing on mergers and acquisitions of the telecommunications operators in Russia and the CIS and post-merger integration issues. Ilya holds a PhD in international law from Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He is a member of the International Nuclear law Association (INLA).