One team - two worlds: law and finance.

A hands-on partner and co-founder of LigLex who turns managerial chaos into profit-generating systems. Over 20 years, he has led dozens of transformations: from loss-making production sites to industry leaders; from “black-box” finance to transparent management reporting and deal readiness. He operates where money, law, and the operational reality of business intersect. He specializes in asset structuring, management accounting, corporate finance, M&A, and end-to-end business model optimization. He helps owners and shareholders reduce financial and operational risks, build resilient ownership structures, and increase business value.

Professional Focus

Sergey specializes in complex engagements where financial precision, legal robustness, and operational efficiency must be delivered simultaneously:

• Corporate finance and management accounting: designing P&L, Cash Flow, budgeting, and owner-oriented KPI architecture
• M&A and deal structuring: preparing companies for sale or capital raising; conducting sell-side due diligence
• Operational transformation: внедрение Lean methodologies, supply chain optimization, reducing losses to best-in-industry levels
• Market expansion: export strategy, foreign trade operations, adapting products and processes to international market requirements
• Crisis management: protecting profitability and developing the business through turbulence (2008, COVID-19, the 2022 war)

Key Results

Throughout his career, Sergey has delivered measurable outcomes:

• Increased EBITDA margin from 4% to 21% by optimizing the operating model
• Reduced tax burden from 35% to 17% through lawful structuring
• Tripled production capacity productivity on the same footprint
• Increased business market value 10x+ over five years (from < $100K to > $2.5M)
• Reduced production losses 2.5x to 3.75% — best result in the industry
• Took a local manufacturing company to export in 17+ countries (EU, Middle East)

Industry Expertise

Sergey has led transformation projects across multiple sectors:

• Food manufacturing and agri-processing
• Healthcare and medical services
• Industrial and civil construction
• Energy (wind power)
• Logistics and trade
• IT

He manages project budgets exceeding $10M per month. He has worked on initiatives across the US, the EU, Ukraine, and Asian countries, providing a cross-border approach and ensuring regulatory compliance across jurisdictions.

Practical Experience

Sergey delivers full-cycle transformation projects—from diagnostics to implementation and handover to the client’s team:

• Financial modeling, tax planning, management reporting systems
• Business process audit and reengineering
• Deal structuring, valuation, and M&A preparation (buy-side/sell-side/capital raising)
• Implementation of management accounting IT systems (1C, SAP, and specialized solutions)
• Building and training internal teams to sustain change
• Managing large-scale infrastructure construction projects, including wind power, plants, and factories
• Implementing Lean manufacturing and reducing losses to best-in-industry levels

He has delivered 50+ consulting projects for companies including 3M, Volga-Dnepr Airlines, HILTI, Klen Market, BioPharma, and others.

Publications and Expert Activity

Sergey shares his practical experience through publications and speaking:

• Author of articles on management accounting, financial transformation, and operational efficiency
• Speaker at industry conferences
• Advisor to owners and top management on corporate structure and financial resilience

His key interests include studying and applying approaches not only at the intersection of finance and law, but also at the frontier of disciplines such as behavioral finance, game theory, behavioral economics, risk management, decision-making under uncertainty, information theory and economics, sociology, neuroeconomics, and systems analysis.

Education and Qualifications

Sergey combines an academic foundation with international professional certifications.

Education:

• MA in Change Management, School of Public Policy
• Master’s in Management, RANEPA (IBDA)
• Computer Systems and Networks (Engineering Specialist), Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University
• Junior Specialist in Applied Mathematics, Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University

Professional Certifications:

• PMP® (Project Management Professional), PMI
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Lean Institute Ukraine
• CIMA (Management Accounting & Decision Making), PwC

Additional Training:

• Harvard Negotiation Program
• Crisis management
• Digital marketing and SEO academy
• Google Ads (Search, Measurement)

Working Approach

Sergey follows a pragmatic, analytical consulting philosophy: “A solution must be timely, feasible, measurable, legally robust, and economically justified.”

He works directly with owners and shareholders. He builds transparent financial models, reduces regulatory and tax risks, and creates controllable structures that ensure long-term growth and asset protection.

He doesn’t just advise—he implements and drives execution to measurable results.

Founder and Partner of LigLex, lawyer in Ukrainian and international law, strategic partner of investors.

Profile and role

Ivan is the founder and partner of LigLex, a lawyer with over 20 years of practice in Ukrainian and international law. He specializes in supporting large business groups, holding companies, ports, industrial enterprises and infrastructure projects, as well as complex investment transactions around the world.

At LigLex, he combines the role of chief legal advisor, architect of legal solutions and strategic partner of investors. He shapes the company’s approach to supporting transactions, sets standards for legal practice and ensures that each decision is both legally sound and business-appropriate.

He works with clients in 12+ countries around the world, primarily in Ukraine and the EU, providing continuous support in cross-border structures and protecting clients’ interests. His practice shapes LigLex’s internal methodology and sets the bar for the entire team.

Professional Expertise

Ivan combines deep expertise in Ukrainian law with a practical understanding of international business and investment standards. His key practices include:

Investment and Corporate Law
Structuring investment and corporate agreements, supporting holding structures, corporate agreements, protecting the interests of business owners, M&A, regulating partner participation.

Real Estate and Development
Legal support for construction and development projects, asset analysis, contract agreements, risk management, supporting infrastructure and industrial facilities.

Cross-border agreements and international structures
Creating companies in the EU, cross-border agreements, supporting foreign investors, building sustainable legal structures for ownership and protection of capital.

Commercial agreements and infrastructure projects
Preparing complex agreements for logistics operators, ports and industrial enterprises; structuring of guarantees, liability and long-term commitments.

Support for investors and developers
Comprehensive legal advice – from checking assets to exiting the project and ensuring the fulfillment of obligations by counterparties.

Experience and areas of responsibility

During his career, Ivan has supported:

large industrial and infrastructure projects (factories, ports, logistics hubs);
investment transactions with real estate and business in Ukraine and the EU;
activities of holdings and groups of companies with a complex ownership structure;
business relocation, transfer of operations and corporate centers to other jurisdictions;
transactions involving international banks, developers, funds and private investors.

His work covers the full cycle of legal support: from the initial diagnosis of risks and building the structure of the transaction – to the final signing of documents and monitoring the fulfillment of obligations.

Ivan works at the level of business owners, investment funds, top management and developers, providing solutions where legal accuracy, economic feasibility and reputational consequences are interconnected.

Education and professional development

Ivan received his law degree from one of the leading Ukrainian universities (Odesa) and has been building his competence through practice for over two decades. His development is based on:

participation in legal meetings, conferences and communities;
international webinars and trainings on investment, corporate and migration law;
work with complex cases and individual legal tasks;
interaction with foreign consultants and advisors.
His expertise is based on real practice in a multi-jurisdictional environment, rather than on formal certificates.

Work style

Ivan combines strategic vision and legal pragmatism. He forms structures and solutions that work in the long term, ensuring predictability and protection of clients’ rights even in complex configurations.

In his work, he emphasizes legal accuracy, realistic constructions and simple but effective legal instruments. In negotiations, he combines a rigid fixation of the client’s interests with a diplomatic approach, excluding room for manipulation.

In crisis situations, he acts as an anti-crisis lawyer – quickly assesses risks and offers practical scenarios. As a public expert, he constantly updates his knowledge and shares practical conclusions from the field of legal and partly investment practice.