About Us

Capital Conservator is not a "virtual" company. We are real people in real offices. If you call during working hours you will reach someone ready to assist you in English, Spanish, German and Portuguese; and by appointment only in Russian or Serbian .

People

Philip W. Smith
Chairman & Managing Director

Philip W. Smith has developed strong leadership, management and teaching capabilities during many years of experience in financial management, accounting, taxation, business planning, operational strategy, and risk-based lending. He is skilled in economic and operational evaluations and assessments of banking sectors in several countries. He is an expert in all facets of International Financial Reporting Standards (formerly International Accounting Standards) and financial statement analysis. He is also accomplished in all aspects of financial institution management (central and commercial banks) with an emphasis on accounting and lending.

Mr. Smith is Chairman and Managing Director of Capital Conservator Group. He is also CEO of The Offices of Philip W. Smith, which is a key component of the Capital Conservator Group. He and David Finzer have joined forces to provide the most innovative and the highest quality financial service products.

Smith heads the Eastern European Office of the Group in Moscow. Through Financial Services Group, a company he founded, Smith lectured on IFRS and hosts other management seminars to accounting specialists at licensed commercial banks in Russia and Serbia. The training was presented to more than 200 commercial banks and involved trainers who operated in Moscow and in all regions within Russia.

The Offices of Philip W. Smith have been providing expert consulting at the highest levels of governmental banking institutions for many years. Since 1997 various major international organizations such as FINCA, DFID, KPMG, USAID, and the World Bank have contracted The Offices of Philip W. Smith. On behalf of those organizations he assisted in the reorganization of the accounting and banking practices and lending procedures of many central banks and finance ministries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

Antecedent to 1997, Smith was a successful financial planner and also spent many years working in the commercial lending sector serving as a Senior VP at Long Beach Bank, Chief Lending Officer at Universal Savings Bank in California, and at several other banking institutions.

His other experience includes many years working at accounting firms doing audits for banks and savings institutions in California and the Washington D.C. area.

Phil speaks fluent English and conversational Russian.

David Finzer
President & Trust Manager

R David Finzer is an acknowledged expert in international business organizations, wealth preservation and tax efficiency. He also has extensive international organization and governmental experience at the top executive level. He is a published author and has served as a consultant to the FBI on matters of international fraud and other non-tax related crimes.

Mr. Finzer is the President and Trust Manager of Capital Conservator Group. He is also CEO of Capital Conservator Treasury Services and Wealth-Shield International, both of which are key components of the Group. The Capital Conservator Group was formed to bring together the years of experience possessed by the Group’s principals in order to provide dynamic and innovative solutions for the international financial services. Key Group elements have had a continuous corporate existence since 1996. Capital Conservator Group includes Capital Conservator Savings & Loan, Capital Conservator Treasury Services, SwiftTrust Treuhand, Wealth-Shield International, and ancillary companies.

Finzer has expanded his area of authorship with extensive writings and a book about Living in Uruguay. He is also the primary editor and publisher of a series of websites promoting investment and residency in Uruguay, the two most important of which are www.UruguayDailyNews.com and www.UruguayLiving.com.

From 2001 to 2003 Finzer was the Deputy Chairman of Trinity International Bank in Podgorica, Montenegro, while serving simultaneously as the Managing Director of the LIFE Offshore Group of Companies (1996-2003).

For more than 20 years Finzer has been involved in the international financial services industry having worked in Nevis, Grenada, Yugoslavia and Costa Rica.

From 1983 to 1987 Finzer served as Chairman of the Conservative Action Foundation (CAF), a Washington, D.C. based pro-freedom activist group. He was also a member of the White House Anti-Terrorism Working Group under President Ronald Reagan. From 1985 to 1990 Finzer served concurrently as an Executive Member of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). Finzer also had a private consulting practice which provided services to officials in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, South Africa, South Korea and elsewhere. He simultaneously served, for a shorter time, on the UN International Youth Year Commission.

Prior to coming to Washington, Finzer was a successful entrepreneur, as well as the host of a local TV talk show and the author of a syndicated newspaper column on world affairs.

Christopher T. Kohl

Executive Vice President & Treasurer

Mr. Kohl is the Corporate Treasurer, Director and Accounts Manager of Capital Conservator. He is also the Corporate Officer responsible for Governmental Affairs in Uruguay. Using the experience he has acquired over the years he has worked closely with Smith and Finzer to establish a well-run and profitable institution. He also devotes time to developing new products, organizing new global accounts and managing other programs.

Prior to organizing the new administrative office in Montevideo, Uruguay, Kohl spent a substantial amount of time in Central America, organizing and managing an office there.

In 2001, Kohl was in Eastern Europe to establish new offices as deputy Chief of Staff for Trinity International bank. While there he acquired experience in international banking, account management and inter-bank negotiations. His international experience and understanding of poli-economics was a key element in the operations there.

In 2000, Kohl participated in the development of advanced offshore legislation and traveled throughout the Caribbean on behalf of the company.

An avid traveler he has lived and worked in North America, Europe, Central America and South America. Kohl speaks fluent English, conversational Spanish some Portuguese and some Serbo-Croatian. In his relatively small amount of spare time he also manages a publishing company and is the president of an international society in Uruguay. He is based at the administratives offices in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Goran Popović
Webmaster

Goran has more than 5 years of experience as a webmaster and also has experience in banking, finance and accounting. Goran speaks fluent Serbian/Croatian and conversational English. He is based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Belgrade, Serbia.

In addition to our main executive officers, the professional staff of CC includes:

	Santiago Galli Director of Administration	Richard Coburn Senior Account Executive
	Andreas Redes Assistant Treasurer	Borko Marković Security Coordinator Serbo-Croatian Specialist
	Hernán Barreiro Marketing Executive	Mikhail Largin Account Executive Russian Specialist
	Agustin Mancilla Account Executive	Kelvin Loyola Account Executive
	Rodrigo Suarez Staff Assistant	Miguel Luzardo Documents Manager

Oscar Giudice
IT Manager

Gaston Dirodio

Account Excecutive

Our Public Affairs Team

Andres Garin

Andres Garin

Public Affairs

Debbie Scott

Public Affairs