Testimonial

“Ivan Gara played a pioneer role in the establishment of the modern banking system in Hungary. Since inception, i.e. mid eighties he was the No. 2 in Unicbank, later became Raiffeisen. Dr. Gara’s professionalism contributed to Raiffeisen Bank turning into one of the most successful financial institutions of this country.”

“Ivan Gara was one of the “founding members” in 1986 when Raiffeisen started business in Hungary. Over the years, he held a number of managerial positions including Sales and Marketing for the Regions as well as Head of Corporate Banking. Thereby he took an active role to excel business and develop Raiffeisen towards a strong and successful brand in the country. We got to know him as customer- focused, strategic and targeted personality with excellent leadership skills. He really knows the business and was able to see great opportunities for our bank.”

“During the almost 20 years Dr. Gara worked for Raiffeisen Bank Hungary, he successfully managed the Corporate business of the bank with the strong ability to manage and motivate people and to ensure that the product development of the bank created tailor-made solutions for our Corporate customers to support them in their growth and development of the business. Dr. Gara’s broad overall knowledge about the banking business made him a highly valued member of the Management team not only in Hungary. His opinion and advice were also looked after by colleagues from other Raiffeisen banks in other countries. Dr. Gara always understood well to balance the interests of our customers with the needs of our bank to a mutual benefit.”

“Ivan Gara originated a proprietary investment opportunity for our firm; clearly our firm would not have had access to the opportunity without him acting as a key catalyst for the deal. Mr. Gara continues to add value via his ongoing role as an engaged non-executive board member for this Arx Equity Partners Portfolio company. Mr. Gara is actively assisting the company with strategic advice and introductions to valuable business partners.”

“The Masterplast Group deals in trading and manufacturing of construction materials, having subsidiaries in 17 European countries and a joint venture in China. Dr. Ivan Gara has been supporting the Group for three years, first, in the capacity as a consultant, then more recently as a Board member. Dr. Gara has been assisting the Masterplast Group’s development specifically in preparations of IPO eligibility. By following his advice and proposals we have managed to avoid a couple of pitfalls relating to the organizational growth, pay special attention to centralized treasury and MIS systems, and prepare the launch of the Group’s internal audit function. Most importantly, we have benefited greatly from his management counseling, which reflects his high ethical standard, personal integrity and wisdom.”

“I have known Ivan Gara for more than a decade. I respect him not only as a prudent, correct businessman, but as an innovative thinker too, who scrutinizes and mulls over the latest development of the industry. Strangely, he embodies an ambitious manager (who decides fast, looks for the optimal solutions) and a broody analyst (who chews upon issues and takes into consideration all aspects). Most probably he is able to pull this off, because he secretly remains a quasi-scholar of liberal arts of the Parliament Library (Budapest), where he learnt for life the admiration for quality.”

“This is a challenging time for businesses in the financial services field. As a financial investor in these businesses, 3TS Capital Partners makes it a practice to make sure that our companies have access to and guidance from the best possible executive and board level management talent. Mr. Gara not only introduced us to Axon Leasing but continues to add value as Chairman of the Board. Building value in a company is a multi-year task and RidgeRoad is set up to foster successful long term partnerships.”