Stuart Lawson is currently Executive Director and Senior Adviser for Ernst & Young responsible for developing the firm's market and client presence and for coordinating with government initiatives. For the past two years he has been a visiting lecturer at the Skolkovo School of Management, Moscow where he wrote and then taught the risks module for the MBA program.

2008-2010, Mr Lawson was CEO HSBC Russia. He has been closely involved in the evolution of Russian banking, beginning in 1995 when he joined Citibank Russia as the bank's President. In 2000 he became the First Senior Advisor and subsequently Chairman of DeltaBank (later bought by GE Money). After working briefly as a Director of Trust Bank in 2003, Mr. Lawson became the first foreigner to be executive chairman of a Russian owned bank, Bank Soyuz, in 2004.

In his banking career, Mr. Lawson spent 25 years with Citibank, serving in 11 countries in a series of management positions including head of corporate banking in Kenya, Egypt, Norway, Italy and country head roles in Russia and Puerto Rico. Mr. Lawson additionally was a senior credit officer for 11 years and a director of structured finance in Citibank London for five years in the late 1980s, during which time he participated in underwriting and restructuring debt for acquisitions totaling $11 billion. From 2000-2004 Mr Lawson acted as senior advisor for the Actis private equity fund advising on bank acquisitions and management in Uganda, Nigeria, India, Mexico and Cuba. In 2010 he acted as consultant for the Kuwait royal family's bank, Burgan Bank.

2006-2009, Mr. Lawson was named as 'Russia's Best Banker', an annual award recognizing outstanding contributions to the Russian banking sector, awarded by a committee composed of representatives from the Central Bank, the Russian Ministry of Finance and of the Russian Banks Associations.