Joel Lautier

Born on 12th April 1973 in Scarborough (Canada) of a Japanese mother and a French father. French citizen, married to a Russian wife. Lives and works in Russia from 2006, when he joined Strategy Partners.

At Strategy Partners, Joel is in charge of international operations, and also heads "Russia Goes Global", the M&A advisory department that specializes on cross-border deals between Russia and the rest of the world.

As a prominent professional chess player, he was the youngest World Junior champion in the history of the game (at 15), became France's top Grandmaster at 17, and went on to be one of the top twenty players in the world from 1992 to 2005 (his best ranking was eleventh in the world). The winner of more than fifty national and international tournaments, he is one of the very few players to hold a positive score against the legendary former World Champion Garry Kasparov. His multiple other chess activities have also included being the co-founder and President of the Association of Chess Professionals, the Vice-President of the French Chess Federation and last but not least, the trainer of former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik.