You're reading: Most Influential Expats: Jorge Zukoski

Jorge Zukoski, 43 #3 Most Influential

Jorge Zukoski is one of Ukraine’s best known expats, often serving as the unofficial face of Western business in the country.

In his 12 years as the president of the 583-member American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, the articulate and amiable American has become a familiar face. He moderates investment conferences.

Yuriy Kryvenko

“Our core philosophy is that rule of law, transparency, predictability and equity in application of legislation and regulations to all investors, no matter their nationality of capital, has been a key driver for the change initiatives that the chamber has undertaken over the years”.

– Jorge Zukoski.

He gives speeches about the concerns of international business. He hobnobs at VIP cocktail parties.

The Florida native arrived in Kyiv in the mid-1990s as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer after working in Mexico City as an investment banker and doing private equity in the Cayman Islands.

He soon took over the helm at the chamber, and seems to have been here as long as the first foreign investment.

When it was created in 1992, the chamber was like a free-market oasis on a post-Soviet desert, providing its members opportunities to meet, hold conferences, exchange ideas and obtain information about business opportunities in Ukraine and about each other.

Now, in a country with a generation of capitalist experience, Zukoski and the organization that he personifies are more like an advocacy group for wide-ranging reforms.

“Our core philosophy is that rule of law, transparency, predictability and equity in application of legislation and regulations to all investors, no matter their nationality of capital, has been a key driver for the change initiatives that the chamber has undertaken over the years. These have led to increased investment, protection of the rights of internationally oriented investors and implementation of more business friendly practices,” Zukoski told the Kyiv Post.