New appointments in the Baltics

Olli Heinonen is heading Hansabank's IT department beginning Jan. 15. Heinonen graduated from Helsinki Technical University and has most recently been Hewlett Packard's sales director in Estonia. One of his aims is to apply the success of Estonian on-line banking in Latvia and Lithuania in order to improve Hansabank's international rating.

Torbjorn Bodin, 49, has been appointed general manager of the new Radisson SAS hotel in Tallinn's 40-million euro property last summer. Bodin has been in the hotel industry for 20 years and has served as general manager for 12 years..

Tony Bohman, 38, has been named the first executive chef of the Radisson SAS hotel. Bohman opened the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg after its reconstruction in 1991 and worked there as executive chef until 1995, when he left for Moscow where he worked for the Le Meridien chain's Hotel National.

Lithuania

Pope John Paul II appointed Archbishop of Vilnius Audrys Juozas Backis a cardinal on Jan. 21. Backis, 63, is Lithuania's third cardinal. Vincentas Sladkevicius was named a cardinal in 1988 and Cardinal Jurgis Radvila held the honor in the 16th century. Once formally appointed in February, Backis will be able to take part in the conclave of cardinals until he turns 80. He will be among those who will elect the next Pope. Backis is the son of a Lithuanian diplomat and teacher. In 1938 his family moved to Paris. Backis was the Vatican's diplomat in the embassies of the Holy See in the Philipines, Costa Rica, Turkey and Nigeria. Backis was appointed archbishop of Vilnius on Dec. 24, 1991.

Dangiras Mikalajunas took over as acting managing director of the state majority-owned power utility Lietuvos Energija on Jan. 23. A permanent managing director will be appointed by a new board later.

Mikalajunas, currently director of Lietuvos Energija's commercial department, was appointed acting managing director after the company's board dismissed Arunas Keserauskas, who had headed the company since February 2000.

"We appointed Mikalajunas only because the government had recommended to do this. I see neither economic motives nor those related to his job for this replacement. Most probably, it was a political decision," said Jurgis Vilemas, chairman of Lietuvos Energija's board.

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus received the credentials of the new Italian ambassador, Bernardo Uguccioni, on Jan. 22. Uguccioni, 61, graduated from the University of Florence with a degree in political science. He served in Italy's embassies in Canada, Great Britain and the European Union. In 1991 Uguccioni was named as Italy's ambassador to Hungary.

Michael F. Carter has become the World Bank's new country director for Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The office of country director will remain in Warsaw. Carter, who holds a degree in engineering and economics from Cambridge University and an MA in economics from Manchester University, joined the World Bank in 1972. He has worked as an economist in Turkey, Syria, Malta and Morocco. In 1976 he was nominated a resident representative of the bank in Mali, after which he took up a position as chief of country programs for North Africa in 1980.

Between 1984 and 1987 Carter was deputy director of the World Bank's European office in Paris. In 1987 he became the chief of the international economics division and in 1990 the chief of country operations for East Africa.

In August 1995 he was named director of the World Bank's Moscow office and in 1997 the World Bank's country director for Russia.

Carter is married and has three sons.