James Cook '86, Chairman of Delta Financial Group, a Moscow-based company that develops start-up and emerging growth companies in Russia, has helped change all that. In 1994, just as many of Russia's most enterprising talents were flocking West in frustration, Cook left his stable job in Richmond for the gray streets of Moscow. Since then he has initiated a flourishing mortgage market and launched the country's first real credit card. Russia's accelerated growth and improved standard of living are testaments to his success.

Cook is one of a growing number of alumni who has forgone comfortable domestic careers to wield his sharp investment tools for the benefit of developing countries. The results of their efforts, while seemingly relegated to the world of business and economics, are played out in nearly every facet of the societies in which they operate.

For the many alumni who are vanguards of international business, the fact that the success of their transnational ventures and the social welfare of their host country are inexorably linked means that things are not business as usual. Suddenly, global technocrats and international free-marketeers are not responsible only for ensuring their corporate interests. Collectively, they are charged with making sure the force of globalization is a benevolent one. And armed with an education 2003 based on responsible citizenship and breadth of knowledge, Hampden-Sydney men are doing just that.

COOK WAS WORKING in mortgages in Richmond when he was offered a position at The Urban Institute, an economics think tank in Moscow. He admits his early days there were tough, but in retrospect it was his favorite time. "All of us would carry a plastic bag with us wherever we went in case we ever saw something we could buy for dinner," he says, explaining that it was hard to find places selling even the most basic goods. But Cook also says he was immediately intrigued by how Russia's gloomy streets and dark history belied the rich colors of its culture and people. "The things that really stood out for me were the vast potential of this country and the determined spirit of its people."

At the time, most analysts worldwide thought that a mortgage lending system in Russia was impossible. Despite that, Cook was recruited in 1996 by The US Russia Investment Fund ("The Fund"), a private equity firm sponsored by public money from the US Congress, to draft a proposal for the country's first mortgage bank. He started a leasing company, and almost immediately a flourishing industry formed. Three years ago, he acquired a second bank, which recently introduced Russians to their first credit card. In 1999 Delta Financial Group (DFG) took over management of The Fund, and the privatization of their operations allowed them to supplement government capital with private-source funding. As chairman of DFG, Cook is also the founder and chairman of the four financial institutions that now make up the company: DeltaBank (consumer finance and credit cards), DeltaCredit (mortgage lending), DeltaLeasing (equipment leasing, real estate leasing, auto fleet leasing), and DeltaLease Far East (like DeltaLeasing but based in Vladivostok).

JAMES B. COOK '86 Credit Banker - Moscow, Russia

For Cook, one of the most exciting aspects of working in Russia is the opportunity to introduce simple ideas to a raw market of 146 million people. The quick takeoff of his credit card products underscores the fact that Russia offers the rare chance for finance professionals to see the results of their work in a relative instant.

The lack of preconceived notions about banking systems has also afforded Cook a valuable creative license. In contrast to Russia's typically gloomy banks, customers in Cook's banks are greeted with bright colors, upbeat music (they generally play MTV), and fresh young graduates working as tellers. To the shock of many older Russians and to the delight of the local media, Cook had one of their new branches painted orange and has introduced theme ideas like "bring your dog to the bank day." Cook adopted their bank's slogan, "Dare to be Different," from a Bill Gates quote because "it framed what the emerging middle class was experiencing."

"When I first came over here many business people would watch to see how I would act in order to copy it later," says Cook, who was sure to take To Manner Born, To Manners Bred with him to Moscow. As with the financial market, he has seen business conduct change dramatically in the last seven years. (A voracious round of vodka toasts at 10 a.m., for example, is no longer standard procedure for sealing business deals.)

Cook also brought with him from college some less tangible tools. "Probably the best thing that Hampden-Sydney taught me was responsibility and the importance of honor," he says. "It also taught me the value of writing, which to this day is probably one of the most useful aspects of getting ahead in business."