Our clients are mainly Russian companies with a Dutch entity in their structure. Obviously they need a director who can coordinate all the necessary activities to keep the Dutch entity in good standing and at the same time understands the reality of doing business in Russia.
In Russia, C-Corp was founded in 2005 to serve foreign companies which set up a Russian entity. The function of director must be fulfilled by a trusted person: after all a director can manage bank accounts and enter into legally binding obligations. Foreign companies which are new in Russia usually do not have a suitable Russian candidate, simply because they have not been working together with a Russian team. Since Russia has started to require that a foreign director have a work permit and such a work permit can be obtained only after the Russian entity has been incorporated, this “Catch 22 situation” has formed a business case for a company which can fill that gap: happy to be hired and fired as well and fully accountable and liable in both Russia and the Netherlands.
The formal need for a resident director does not mean that we stop there: we feel at home (corporately) in both Russia and the Netherlands and we want our clients to feel comfortable with the idea of managing a company as well.