Steven Wayne has had an unusual and successful career in investment banking. Two years into his first post he decided to leave London for the chaotic life of early 1990s Moscow. As he tells the Leader, he’s never had a reason to look back.
At 25, a wide-eyed young man full of ambitions decided to leave his comfy job with Morgan Stanley in London and come to Russia to start an investment bank. That was in 1991. Back then, Steven Wayne had been in investment banking for two years, didn’t speak Russian and didn’t know a soul here.
While his investment bank idea didn’t quite pan out as planned, he has since managed to build several successful businesses based in St. Petersburg, which service foreign clients. They include: Jensen Group, a real-estate company; Jensen Technologies, software outsourcing; and more recently, Jencam, a small biotech company which is doing pharmaceutical research. Wayne talked to the Leader about his career and future plans in Russia.

Can you describe your career history?

I’ve worked in two places before started my own business: Morgan Stanley and Jensen Group. At Morgan Stanley, I did investment banking because I thought it would be a good place to see tons of different industries and different deals. And I was right on that. But I always had this dream of having my own company. I thought it would be a big challenge and fun to branch out on my own. I probably should have been more scared than I was.

Why did you pick Russia?

I was taking a look at what was going on in the world in 1991, and I thought the most interesting place was Eastern Europe, so I started doing research and finally realized that if I was going to do this, I may as well take the biggest risk with the biggest potential upside and come to Russia. I thought: "Russia’s opening up, there’s tons of opportunities, there’s going to be tons of development, and I’ll find something when I get there."

You started off in Moscow in investment banking. How did you get to be in St. Petersburg, working in real estate, software and biotech?

The first [investment] deals had some problems. I did three deals. Three! And I wasn't paid for them. I kind of thought to myself that it is not the best business model; there’s a fundamental floor in this business plan. So then I did property. In property, there’s a better chance of getting paid. I started in Moscow. At the beginning, I came up here [St. Petersburg] to purchase some property for a client as a side thing. I got interested and set up an office here. That was in ‘94-95. This office just kept growing, and I got sick of travelling back and forth. It was a lifestyle choice too. I prefer living here.

Do you think you made the right choice picking St. Petersburg?

For the last five years, Moscow has been doing better than St. Pete, but I’m a Petersburg optimist. Maybe the next five years will be better for us. But there are advantages [for the software business and biotech businesses]; there are a lot of universities here, and it’s definitely cheaper than Moscow.

You’ve been in Russia for 11 years. How do you rate the progress of your companies, and do you have any new business plans?

The real estate business is up and running. I’d like it to be bigger, but I’m actually pretty pleased with the way it functions. The tec company is different: I’m not perfectly pleased with how it’s running, but it’s getting close. And the biotech company was just started. I’ve a couple more ideas right now which are also Russia-based — those I will probably do in a couple of years. I like starting businesses. When you first start a company, personalities are incredibly important because it takes someone to come in and throw their energy behind something to get the ball rolling. I think that’s a special skill, maybe that’s my best skill. But eventually, if you want to have a great company, it should be able to run on philosophies, systems and business plans, rather than personalities. Ideally, I’d like my companies to be able to run without me. I don’t think I’m going to leave here in the next three or four years. But do I think I’ll die here? I don’t know.

You studied at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and then at Harvard. What was the most useful thing you took from your education?

At Harvard I studied political philosophy. I buy into that whole liberal arts thing, where it doesn’t really matter what you study, the learning is more important than the material. The most useful thing I learnt? I’d say it was to row, and I’m actually serious. When I was in high school, I studied incredibly hard, and basically made academics the focus of what I did. When I got to Harvard, I wasn’t as much into the classes, so I did rowing. I mean it sounds like a kind of rockhead thing to do, but it’s all about working as a team and discipline. When I started, I wasn’t a rower, and there was a bunch of people who had rowed before and were in an international team. I thought every practice I can come and be better for four years, then at the end, I’ll be one of the best guys for sure. It’s a little bit easier in rowing than in business. The progress line is much easier to track, but in business you see yourself going a certain direction and it’s easier to be wrong, harder to control.

What advice would you offer people thinking of starting their own business?

I’d say go for it if you have ideas, you’ve done some research and believe in the concept.
There are so many people with great ideas who are capable, who don’t start out because they don’t think they have the experience, or the money or whatever. People can talk themselves out of it. Maybe I do the opposite too much. I just think I can do it. Also, when I started out I was on my own way too long. I was making all the decisions, and a lot of times, I was so caught up in the weeds that I needed to take a step back. I think the concept of a board of advisors is the key.

What skills do you look for in potential employees?

In general, I still believe that if you find some energetic, bright, excited person, then that’s more important than someone who’s been in the industry for 20 or 30 years. It’s great to have experience, but it’s also great to have enthusiasm and bright capabilities. It was the same with me. I didn’t know anything about investment banking. Nothing. But I was excited about it, so I did all right. There have been occasions recently, when there’s the perfect person for a position I wanted — the perfect resume — but then they just weren't excited about it. It’s important especially in Russia because here things are constantly pounding you; there are a lot of setbacks, and you need a person who’s going to keep bouncing back. At the end of the day, you're good at what you’re excited about.