Who we are

We are a multidisciplinary research consultancy that has completed hundreds of projects in the FSU, Europe, North America and elsewhere

Adding value

We provide services in three key areas: strategic research, due diligence and corporate communication. Clients include leading multilateral institutions, financial organisations, law firms, listed and private companies, investors and advisers in the UK, continental Europe, North America and the FSU.

 

By developing bespoke solutions, we keep our service personal, prices competitive and quality high. Clients state that they return to us for trusted results.

Management team

Edward Baumgartner
Founder and managing director
Austin Peat
Founder and managing director
Chris Clough
Research director

Edward Baumgartner

Edward’s career spans due diligence, market analysis, corporate communication and journalism.

 

Before co-founding Edward Austin, Edward was an independent consultant specialising in the FSU, focusing particularly on research and business intelligence. Prior to that, he was a partner and head of the FSU business at Shared Value, a London-based investor and public relations consultancy. His previous experience includes positions at Global Insight, ABC and Fox, among others.

 

Edward has an MA in Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies from Harvard University (US) and a BA in History from Vassar College (US).

Austin Peat

Austin’s professional experience spans due diligence, corporate communication, investment banking, research and media.

 

Austin has around 20 years’ experience of living and working in the FSU, mainly Moscow. For almost six of those, he worked at leading Russian investment bank Troika Dialog (now Sberbank CIB), spending two years on the trading floor in institutional equity sales and client relationship management, and almost four years in research. Before that, he was an editor and a writer at The Moscow Times.

 

Austin holds a Global MBA with distinction from Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester (UK) and a first-class Joint Honours degree in French and Russian from the University of Leeds (UK).

Chris Clough

Chris’ background includes due diligence, corporate communication, investment banking, research, linguistics and the military.

 

Chris has more than a decade of international experience, including ten years in Russia and three years in Dubai. In Moscow, he worked his way up to the position of editor in chief in the research department of Troika Dialog (now Sberbank CIB), a leading Russian investment bank. In Dubai, he held a similar role in the Middle East office of LUKOIL Overseas, the international arm of Russia’s largest private oil company. His career began in the US army, where he was a specialist working with the Russian, Serbian and Croatian languages.

 

Chris graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Humanities (Russian, History and English) and Business from Washington State University (US). He is also a graduate of the Russian, Serbian and Croatian language programmes at the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey in California (US).