Programme

Denis Viktorov was born in 1968. In 1990 he graduated from faculty of scientific and technical information of the Moscow State Historical and Archival Institute, and in 1993 completed his postgraduate study in the Russian State Humanitarian University in the field of automated information technologies and systems. Between 1990 and 1994 he was engaged in teaching and research activities. In 1994 he joined Computerra Publishing House to pursue career in journalism and mass media. Since then he held various positions within the organization. From 1997 to 2003 he performed as the editor-in-chief of The Infobusiness Magazine. In 2003 he became the head of editorial office of The Business Journal, Russia’s leading entrepreneurial monthly.Later on, in 2011, his professional interest shifted into Web as he was appointed the head of the company’s newly-launched online project — National Business Network – aimed to become the first Russian social media for businessmen and top managers. He has published hundreds of articles on entrepreneurship, marketing, management, information technologies, innovations, and venture investment. His work in mass media area was appreciated with a number of awards from the International computer club, the All-Russia Exhibition Centre, the Russian Venture Company, and other.

Born March 21, 1957 in Leningrad. 1979 – graduated from Leningrad State University (Department of Mathematics and Mechanics) specializing in Applied Mathematics. 1979–1988 – Research Assistant, Junior Scientific Researcher, Scientific Researcher of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 1986 – successfully defended his Candidate of Sciences thesis in Physics and Mathematics, USSR Academy of Sciences. 1984–1995 – Lecturer, Associate Professor of the Department of Computational Mathematics at Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, Faculty of Physics and Mechanics. 1988–1992 – Senior Scientist of the Leningrad Institute for Informatics and Automation of the USSR Academy of Sciences. 1991–1995 – Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer of AstroSoft Company, St. Petersburg. 1995–1996 – Consultant of Microsoft Consulting Services, Microsoft Middle East (Dubai). 1996–1997 – Senior Consultant / Head of Practice, Microsoft Consulting Services, Microsoft Eastern Europe. 1997–1999 – Head of Accounts Department, Microsoft Representative Office in Russia, Microsoft Eastern Europe. 1999–2003 – University Relations Manager, Microsoft Research Lab (UK). 2003–2005 – Head of Government Relations, Microsoft Representative Office in Russia, Microsoft Central and Eastern Europe. 2005–2007 – Chief Strategy Officer, Cabinet of the Chairman of Microsoft in Russia and CIS Countries, Microsoft Central and Eastern Europe. 2007–2009 – General Director of Software Development Centre of EMC Corporation in St. Petersburg. Since April 2009, he has held the position of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board of RVC OJSC.

Born in 1969 in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. In 1986, Sergey entered Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Faculty of General and Applied Physics. While doing his graduate studies, Sergey joined ABBYY (formerly BIT Software) as Commercial Director, in 1991. ABBYY’s CEO since 1999, he is focusing on the company’s strategy and tactics and supervising all aspects of production, sales and marketing including research and development, project integration, management, promotion, and finance. In 2007 Sergey initiated founding a new department in MIPT, devoted to teaching computer science and artificial intelligence technologies. During his years with ABBYY, Sergey has created a vast distribution and partner network worldwide. Under his leadership ABBYY has become one of the leading IT companies in Russia and opened offices in Germany , the United States, Ukraine, the UK, Cyprus, Japan and Taiwan. Sergey Andreyev is repeatedly named among the top 100 most influential IT entrepreneurs in Russia. In 2003, he was awarded the Government Prize for Achievements in Science and Technology.

Igor Ashmanov has worked in information technologies since 1983. He led the development of the ORFO spell-check programme at Informatic, was the co-owner and general director of MediaLingua, which published the MultiLex dictionary, and executive director of the Rambler Internet Holding. Over this time he has produced dozens of projects, including: the ORFO linguistic module (spell-checker and style, thesaurus, hyphenation module) in the Russian version of Microsoft Office, which is used by millions of people across Russia; Multilex electronic dictionaries, which remain the best tool for professional translators in Russian; the version of the Rambler search engine released in 2001, and most of the sites and services of the Rambler portal prior to their update in 2012. The Spamtest spam filter that protects tens of millions of users (now sold under the brand name Kaspersky Anti-Spam). The Novoteka news search engine, which combines and clusters news from hundreds of sources. Flexum – a service to create thematic search engines. At present, he is the CEO of Ashmanov and Partners and the chairman of the board of directors at Nanosemantika.

Arkady Volozh is the principal founder of Yandex and has been Chief Executive Officer and a director since 2000. A serial entrepreneur with a background in computer science, Mr. Volozh co-founded several successful IT enterprises, including InfiNet Wireless, a Russian provider of wireless networking technology, and CompTek International, one of the largest distributors of network and telecom equipment in Russia. In 2000, Arkady left his position as CEO at CompTek International to become the CEO of Yandex. Mr. Volozh started working on search in 1989, which led to him establishing Arkadia Company in 1990, a company developing search software. His early achievements include the development of electronic search for use in patents, Russian classical literature and the Bible. Mr. Volozh holds a degree in applied mathematics from the Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas.

<p> Born in Moscow, Russia on 27 August 1979.Graduated from the State University “Higher School of Economics”, Diploma in Economy and Business Administration.Since 1995 in Healthcare and Pharmaceutics.R-Pharm Founder. President of All-Russia Business Association “Delovaya Rossiya” (“Business Russia”), actively participating in the improvement of investment climate in the Russian Federation and the establishment of the regional investment standard.Member of the Economic Council under the President of the Russian Federation.Member of the Presidential Council for Priority National Projects and Demographic Policy.Member of the Expert Council under the Government of the Russian Federation. Member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, Head of Commission on Investment Climate.Representative (public ombudsman) of the Commissioner of the Presidential Council on the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs on issues related to the protection of the rights of foreign investors.Board-member and Co-chairman of Committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on pharmaceutical and medical industry.Co-Chairman of the National Rating CommitteeMember of the Public Council under the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation (pharmaceutical, medical equipment and technologies).Member of the Supervisory Board of the Autonomous Nonprofit Organization "Agency for Strategic Initiatives". </p>

Born in 1978, Dmitry Grishin is considered as one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in Russia. After graduating with distinction from the Faculty of Robotics and Complex Automation at Moscow State Technical University and working as a software engineer on several projects, Dmitry joined Mail.Ru in 2001. He became CEO of Mail.Ru in April 2003. In 2005, he co-founded the Mail.Ru Group. He then assumed the CEO role of Mail.Ru Group in 2010. In that same year, he helped transition the company as it went public on the London Stock Exchange. Dmitry became elected Chairman of the Mail.Ru Group Board in 2012. Currently, Dmitry also serves as the head of the department of Information Technologies and Programming at St. Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics. His passion for innovation led him to found the Russian Code Cup – the largest competition for programmers in Eastern Europe. Through the Code Cup and other projects, he continues to foster growth in the technology sector worldwide. In 2012 Dmitry has founded Grishin Robotics, a global investment company that is dedicated to supporting personal robotics around the world.

Haas alumna, Managing Director of DFJ VTB Capital Aurora, a venture group specializing in investments in the developing world. Alexandra invests in a broad range of companies targeting enterprise, material science, alternative energy, and industry innovation and has grown a variety of product and services start-ups and emerging technology companies in the U.S, Russia and the CIS. Alexandra was named among Top 20 most influential men and women in Bay Area finance in 2015 (Worth). Alexandra is a President of the Global Technology Symposium, a premier investor conference on global emerging markets held annually in Silicon Valley since 2003, and was a private sector Co-Chair of the U.S. – Russia Innovation Working Group. She has spent her career connecting Bay Area investors with companies in emerging markets, supporting international cooperation and global talent. She is a board member of several tech companies, including Grid Dynamics, VisionLabs, and Rolith. Previously Alexandra was a founder and managing director of Landbridge Capital LLC, an investment firm targeting U.S.-based companies commercializing Russian technology. Prior to forming Landbridge Capital, Ms. Johnson was CEO of Libritas, Inc., a venture backed provider of Information Technology (IT) products and managed telecom services for small, medium and Fortune 500 Corporations. Libritas was acquired in 2001. Alexandra received an M.A. with honors from the Far Eastern State University, Vladivostok and a Ph.D. from University of St. Petersburg. She also has an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mr. Dobkin is the cofounder, CEO and President of EPAM Systems. Under his direction EPAM Systems has grown to become one of the world’s leading software development outsourcing services companies. After earning an MS in Electrical Engineering from the Byelorussian National Technical University, Mr. Dobkin began his career in Minsk, Belarus. After immigrating to the United States, he held thought and technical leadership positions in Colgate-Palmolive and SAP Labs. A recipient of numerous awards, in June 2008 Ernst & Young named Mr. Dobkin winner of The Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2008 award in New Jersey, IT Consulting category. In 2006, Consulting Magazine named him to “Top 25 Most Influential Consultants”. In February 2012 Mr.Dobkin rang the NYSE Opening Bell to celebrate the company’s successful completion of its initial public offering. He continues to actively promote the former Soviet Union region and Central and Eastern Europe across the US and Western Europe by presenting at noted international industry and technology events, such as Gartner Outsourcing Summits, Forrester's GigaWorld IT Forum Europe.

Alexander Egorov co-founded one of the TOP 5 software outsourcing companies in Russia, Reksoft (http://www.reksoft.com), in 1991 and has served as CEO from its inception. Along with his duties at Reksoft Mr.Egorov co-founded and served as a member of the board in a number of successful IT ventures such as Ozon.ru (1998, the largest Russian online-bookstore) and Assist (1999, Russia's leading Internet Payment Gateway). Mr. Egorov repeatedly enters the “IT TOP 100” rating presented by the largest Russian nation-wide business newspaper “Kommersant”. In April 2003 - February 2004 he served as a Chairman of the Board of Russian Software Development Association RUSSOFT and is a constant member of the Board since that. Mr. Egorov is a frequent speaker in the world’s famous IT-related events hosted by Gartner Group, Forrester Research, ETRE and The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals. Mr. Egorov holds an MBA degree from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Dmitry Loschinin serves as CEO of Luxoft, an emerging global IT outsourcing leader, managing the company since its inception in 2000. Upon graduating summa cum laude from the Computational Mathematics and Cybernatics department of Moscow State University, he started his career as a software engineer in the late 1980s. Over years he worked on management positions for a number of global companies, including KED GmbH, MCP GmbH and IBM. In 1998 he joined the IBS Group (Russia’s number 1 systems integrator) where he successfully established SAP R/3 implementation practice before taking charge of the IBS initiative to offer offshore software services. This initiative eventually became Luxoft. In eight years, Luxoft has grown to over 3,000 technology specialists and built global presence with delivery centers in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia and North America. Company’s client base includes some of the world’s most successful companies, such as Deutsche Bank, UBS, Boeing, Dell and IBM. To remain the leading Eastern Europe’s IT outsourcing vendor, Luxoft continuously expands its service offering, focuses on building industry-specific practices and hires best-in-class specialists.

Makarov Valentin was born 16.04.1955 in Leningrad, Russia. Graduated from the Leningrad Aircraft Instrumentation Institute in 1978, in 1978-1985 he had been working in the Defense Industry. In 1985 entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. Since “perestroika” time he has got good experience of organizing international cooperation (1988-1992 – secretary in the Russian Delegation to UNESCO, in 1996-2000 as deputy Chairman of International relations’ Committee of Administration of St Petersburg). He has also got extended managerial experience in private business (1992-1996 – in Interprivatization Foundation and in the EuroConseil Rusian-French JV consulting company). President of RUSSOFT Association (earlier Fort Ross) since its foundation on 9.9.99, he has been organizer of lobbying campaigns in the Government and Chairman of numerous IT-events in Russia and abroad (RUSSOFT Forum, Software Outsourcing Summit, Mobile Software Forum, Russian IT-seasons). Chief-editor of the annual Russian export software industry survey since its beginning in 2003. Representative of Russian IT Association (APKIT) in WITSA in 2004-2006, 2012. Invited speaker at numerous international conferences and author of dozens of articles on IT in Russia.

Mr. Plugotarenko graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Department of Physical and Quantum Electronics (1993–1996) and Department of Control and Applied Mathematics (1996–1999), certified as Physical Engineer specializing in Applied Mathematics and Physics.From 2002, he was leading ICT specialist at the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE UNESCO – http://ru.iite.unesco.org).In 2004–2006, he was executive director and, from 2007, director of the Runet Awards competition. Since 2005, he has served as coordinator of programme committees for some high-profile sectoral conference events, including the Russian Internet Forum (RIF), Russian Interactive Week (RIW) and others.In 2005–2007, he served as deputy executive director of the Regional Non-government Centre for Internet Technologies (ROCIT – www.rocit.ru) – the oldest NGO engaged in expert evaluation, promotion and development of the ICT segment in the Russian Federation, upholding the interests of Internet users. In 2007, he was elected executive director of ROCIT.From 2005 he was ideologue and founder of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (NP RAEC – www.raec.ru), promoting the interests of Russian Internet players. From 2006, he was deputy general manager of NP RAEC.In 2011–2013, Mr. Plugotarenko was member of the Council of Coordination Centre for National Top Level Domains RU/RF – www.cttld.ru. Since 2010, he has been director of The Russian Association for Electronic Communications (NP RAEC).

Andrew Sviridenko is a recognized global leader in Voice and Video over IP processing. He has more than 20 years' experience in the international software business. SPIRIT communication software is now used in 80+ countries and powers 200+ million voice and video channels worldwide. Sviridenko founded SPIRIT in 1992 without any funding, right after graduating with honors from the Computer Science Department of Moscow State University. Today, SPIRIT is the world’s top voice and video over IP engines provider, counting among its customers Apple, Adobe, ARM, AT&T, Blizzard, BT, China Mobile, Cisco, Ericsson, HP, HTC, Huawei, KT, Kyocera, LG U+, Microsoft, NEC, Oracle, Polycom, Radvision, Samsung, Skype, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, Veraz, Viber, ZTE. VideoMost.com is the SPIRIT spin-off for multipoint video-web-conferencing service. Andrew’s opinion is one of those that count today. He has been interviewed and widely quoted by leading industry media, including the following: Wall Street Reporter, VON-Magazine, VoIP-Magazine, Business Week, Computer World, Byte, The Economist, Time Magazine, Internet Telephony, Communications Week, PC Week, PC World, The LA Times, and many others.