Deposits at Bank of Cyprus were seized last year as part of a €10 billion ($12.4 billion) international rescue after Germany balked at bailing out rich Russians with money in Cypriot banks. Shareholders are scheduled to meet Nov. 20 in Nicosia, Europe’s last divided capital, to approve the appointment.

Backing him are Viktor Vekselberg, the second-richest man in Russia, and Wilbur Ross, the U.S. billionaire who made money investing in Bank of Ireland Plc and sees opportunity in the stricken Cypriot lender. Almost half of the bank’s loans are souring, and capital controls, the only such restrictions in the euro area, are still in place. Ackermann, Ross says, is key.

“We made up a very small list of names, and the most prominent on the list was Josef Ackermann,” Ross, head of a group that invested €360 million in the country’s largest bank, said in an interview from New York.

“He has a huge Rolodex. You can imagine he knows practically everybody in Europe, everybody in Eastern Europe and huge numbers of people in the U.S. and elsewhere.”

Source: Bloomberg