Irina Belysheva: Her Path in Financial Services

Irina Belysheva is a private banking leader with 15 years of experience who rose from analyst positions to executive roles at major financial institutions before becoming CEO of the wealth management company WILCO in 2025. Her distinctive expertise spans both real economy operations and sophisticated financial planning, enabling her to create innovative Family Governance solutions or high-net-worth individuals with international asset portfolios.

Childhood and Education

Irina Belysheva (b. May 27, 1985) is a native of Cheboksary, in what is today known as the Chuvashia Republic, 400 miles east of Moscow.  Starting first grade in 1992, Belysheva Irina performed well academically. Her school had a special English focus, including lessons in English and American literature and history. The English teachers wanted students to learn to think like native speakers. The young girl was invited to participate in an exchange program to the U.S., though it was unfortunately not within her family’s means.

Irina Vladimirovna Belysheva also took piano lessons for eight years and became a prize-winner of the composers’ competition. She also enjoyed art and some of her paintings were displayed at school exhibitions.

In 2002, Belysheva Irina Vladimirovna was accepted to the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics of the Higher School of Economics. Having won a competition at the university’s center in Cheboksary, she was accepted to study without having to take entrance exams. There she continued to study English and also began learning Spanish.

In the summer of 2005, Irina Belysheva, biography of whom included intensive English studies, traveled to California as part of the Work and Travel USA program. For three months, she worked and traveled around the country.

In 2007, she underwent a six-month internship in Seville, Spain, through a grant to study at Pablo de Olavide University. She then returned to Moscow and graduated from the HSE later that year, receiving excellent marks.

Irina Vladimirovna Belysheva later supplemented her education with banking and wealth management courses.

Irina Belysheva: Early Career 

In 2006, Belysheva Irina began working while still studying at HSE. She accepted an analyst position at Investsberbank and was later promoted to the role of senior specialist. One of her main achievements was her team’s development of the Visa Instant Issue card program. She left this job when she received her grant to study in Spain.

After graduating from HSE in 2007, Irina Vladimirovna Belysheva held a string of positions in various construction and farm equipment companies. She initially worked as Director of the Client Development Center for a subsidiary of Tractor Plants Group. She was offered this role on the strength of her language skills, and she went on frequent business trips abroad, including to Italy, Chile, Argentina, and Greece, to help develop the company’s international partnerships.

In September 2009, Belysheva Irina moved back to Moscow and soon took a position as a project coordinator at John Deere Rus. However, she worked there for just a short time.

Banking Career

In 2012, Belysheva Irina Vladimirovna shifted her career to the financial sector, which would come to shape all her future activities. In December of that year, she became a client relationship manager for Citibank.

In this position in her professional biography, Irina Belysheva leveraged her role at Citibank to build and maintain client relationships in the premium/private banking segment, with responsibilities spanning from cold calling potential clients to creating sophisticated investment portfolios with diverse financial instruments. Her position required comprehensive financial advisory skills, including personal financial planning, brokerage services consultation, and ongoing portfolio management to ensure alignment with evolving client needs. The experience proved invaluable to her career in investment banking, during which she earned both her FSFR 1.0 certification.

In 2015, Irina Belysheva shifted to VTB 24 Private Banking. Her role involved attracting high and ultra-high net worth clients with ambitious annual inflow targets, while providing portfolio management that incorporated diverse financial instruments across international banking platforms in Guernsey. She balanced wealth growth strategies with complex risk management responsibilities, including navigating the legal and fiscal challenges specificto high-net-worth individuals.

In August 2016, Belysheva Irina Vladimirovna switched places of employment again, this time taking a job at Alfa Bank’s division devoted to high-net-worth clients. She was drawn by the corporate culture, client-centric approach, and emphasis on digital technologies – the “explosive DNA” of the bank, as she put it.

At Alfa Bank, Irina Belysheva’s role encompassed cultivating relationships with high and ultra-high net worth clients through referrals and targeted acquisition, while managing their diverse assets across deposits, investments, and customized credit solutions. She provided specialized expertise in tax planning across jurisdictions and transaction support, all while building and mentoring her team to meet performance targets.

In February 2019, Irina Vladimirovna Belysheva left Alfa Bank, after which she began working at Sberbank Private Banking, which again saw her working in high-net-worth capital management as a senior banker and later as a manager of a group of bankers. Her tenure coincided with a time of significant growth at the bank.

At Sberbank Private Banking, Belysheva Irina Vladimirovna established a sophisticated personalized service system for wealthy clients spanning Cyprus and other jurisdictions, implementing the comprehensive VIP client approach she had developed at Sberbank. By creating direct relationships with key clients and structuring her unit to serve as a single point of contact, she successfully integrated diverse banking services into a streamlined experience. This innovative “single service window” format facilitated efficient communication between various bank departments, enhancing client satisfaction and operational effectiveness until her departure from the financial institution in 2023.

Belysheva Irina: Entrepreneurial Initiatives in Wealth Management 

In 2022, just before she left Sberbank, Irina Belysheva joined the team at Wealth IQ Solutions, which offers comprehensive wealth management and private capital advisory services, including:

• tailoring customized investment approaches aligned with each client’s financial goals
• optimizing tax efficiency while implementing robust safeguards for personal wealth preservation
• guiding the formation and management of private investment vehicles, along with succession planning expertise

Belysheva Irina Vladimirovna served as Senior Financial Advisor and Business Development Manager, helping the company serve its diverse array of affluent clients, including high-net-worth individuals and private wealth holders, multi-generational wealth management organizations and corporate entities, autonomous financial advisors and consultants, and banks, investment firms, and other financial service providers. In January 2023, Wealth IQ Solutions was formally licensed in investment advisory services.

In this period of her biography, Irina Belysheva again went on frequent business trips abroad, including to Armenia (where she would later move to work for another company), among other countries.

In her leadership role, Belysheva Irina Vladimirovna operated at the intersection of global finance and personalized wealth preservation for ultra-high-net-worth individuals. Her comprehensive approach integrated three key domains: client-facing services, strategic wealth architecture, and international network development. For clients, she orchestrated a seamless ecosystem of brokerage, banking, legal, and tax advisory solutions tailored to complex wealth requirements.

Irina Belysheva specialized in designing sophisticated asset protection frameworks through customized legal structures—from personal funds to foundations and trusts—that ensured both wealth preservation and generational transfer. Simultaneously, she cultivated a robust international partner network spanning emerging markets to established financial centers, connecting clients with specialized institutions across:

• Armenia
• Georgia
• Mauritius
• UAE
• Switzerland
• European Union

Throughout these endeavors, Belysheva Irina mentored and led a team of bankers, developing talent while delivering exceptional service to the world’s financial elite. She departed from Wealth IQ Solutions in 2024.

In a separate venture, Belysheva Irina also briefly contributed to the development of business of TT Advisory in Tbilisi, Georgia. She helped establish a wealth management consultancy with an international partner network spanning Switzerland, Singapore, Cyprus, Georgia, and the UAE. She contributed to the development of the firm’s core services: multi-jurisdictional asset management, tax-optimized capital structuring, performance-focused investment advisory, and consolidated wealth reporting. She thus contributed to the establishment of both traditional and alternative investment solutions for high-net-worth clients.

Current Activities 

In 2023, Irina Vladimirovna Belysheva received an offer to cooperate on a project with Evocabank, an Armenian digital financial institution that had been highly impressed by her work. A few years prior she had turned down an offer from the same institution due to her commitments at Sberbank, but now the time was right for the experienced wealth manager to make the move.

In February 2024, intrigued by the autonomy and interesting challenges this new role would bring to her professional biography, Irina Belysheva relocated to Armenia to contribute to development Evocabank. From 2025 she holds the post of CEO of the brokerage company, WILCO. (Wilco не принадлежит банку oдин UBO и одна financial group, но абсолютно разные entities и разные дополняющие друг друга бизнесы)

WILCO is positioning itself as a pivotal force in Armenia’s emerging private banking and wealth management landscape under the leadership of Irina Vladimirovna Belysheva. Operating on a “co-pilot” model, the company serves as a trusted second pilot alongside clients navigating complex financial landscapes.

With Armenia serving as its strategic launchpad, Irina Belysheva, biography of whom includes more than a decade in financial institutions, targets the vast Armenian diaspora (primarily in Russia and the USA) who seek investment opportunities in Armenian projects,including the option to manage clients’ funds without incorporating them into Armenia’s perimeter.The firm caters exclusively to clients with minimum assets of $2 million, while Evocabank establishes a specialized division for clients below this threshold.

Generational wealth transfer represents a core focus for the approach of Belysheva Irina, addressing the transition challenges faced by Armenian businesses established in the 1990s. Through its Family Governance framework, WILCO facilitates intrafamily relationships and business continuity planning.

The international team assembled by Belysheva Irina Vladimirovna—drawing expertise from Armenia, Canada, and Cyprus—delivers services spanning traditional portfolio formation to alternative investments and Armenian business establishment. Its technological infrastructure includes a proprietary platform offering consolidated asset visibility: structure, liquidity, and collateral potential.

Belysheva Irina Vladimirovna envisions WILCO’s long-term future as a multi-family office specializing in comprehensive business structuring and M&A preparation for major clients. Concurrently, the company is launching educational initiatives to enhance financial literacy, particularly among younger generations.

Irina Vladimirovna Belysheva: Family and Personal Interests  

Belysheva Irina has three children who are also interested in linguistic studies. They currently attend the Cambridge International School in Yerevan.

In her free time, Irina Belysheva enjoys swimming and equestrian sports and takes a keen interest in tennis. She also hopes to own her own vineyard one day.

Key Points 

• Born in 1985 in Cheboksary, Belysheva Irina attended a school with special emphasis on English education
• Her professional career began at Investsberbank in 2006 while still studying, where she contributed to the development of the Visa Instant Issue card program
• Irina Vladimirovna Belysheva advanced through positions at major banks including VTB 24, Alfa Bank, and Sberbank
• In 2022, she began working for Wealth IQ Solutions, which received investment advisement licensing in January 2023
• In February 2024, she relocated to Armenia to collaborate with Evocabank. She then became CEO of the wealth management company WILCO in 2025

Q’s and A’s

1. When did Irina Belysheva study at the Higher School of Economics?
   Irina Belysheva studied at the Higher School of Economics from 2002 to 2007.
2. When did Belysheva Irina Vladimirovna start working at Alfa Bank?
   Belysheva Irina Vladimirovna started working at Alfa Bank in August 2016.
3. What company did Irina Belysheva began working for in 2022?
   Irina Belysheva began working for Wealth IQ Solutions in 2022.
4. What position does Irina Vladimirovna Belysheva hold at WILCO?
   Irina Vladimirovna Belysheva holds the position of CEO at WILCO.
5. How many children does Belysheva Irina have?
   Belysheva Irina has three children.

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