Programme

Amidst the new economic conditions, venture investments in high-tech companies can be very attractive, promising high returns – but they remain highly risky. What are the new approaches on the venture investment market? How should the risks of venture investments be assessed? What determines the investor’s decision and how should profitability and risk be balanced? What success stories are there on the global venture investment market?

Moderator:
Ruben Vardanian , Entrepreneur, Philanthropist

Ruben Vardanian

Entrepreneur, Philanthropist

Ruben Vardanyan, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, is Advisor to the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Sberbank of Russia. Prior to the closure of the deal to merge Sberbank with Troika Dialog in January 2012, he held the position of CEO, Chairman of the Board at Troika Dialog, one of the oldest and largest investment banks in Russia and the CIS. He serves on the boards of directors of KAMAZ, SIBUR Holding, Joule Unlimited, Inc (U.S.), Rosgosstrakh, Ameriabank (Armenia), and United Grain Company. He is a member of the Economic Advisory Board at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. Mr. Vardanyan is a member of the Investment Committee of Avica Property Investors International. He was Chairman of the Board at Sukhoi Civil Aircraft from 2005-2009, Chairman of the Board at Rosgosstrakh from 2004-2005 and from August 2011 through October 2013, and a board member at AvtoVAZ from 2008-2014. Mr. Vardanyan is a member of the Investment Council under the Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and a member of the Strategic Council for Investments in New Industries under the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia. He is a Founding Partner and Vice-Chairman of the International Advisory Board of Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, as well as Chairman of the SKOLKOVO Institute for Emerging Market Studies and Chairman of the Expert Council of the school’s Wealth Transformation Center. Mr. Vardanyan serves on the International Advisory Boards at the International Christian University (Japan) and at Fundação Dom Cabral business school (FDC, Brazil), as well as the Boards of Trustees of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration and the Faculty of Economics at Lomonosov Moscow State University. He is a member of the Supreme Religious Council of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Mr. Vardanyan graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University, and has completed post-graduate courses and programs at INSEAD, Harvard Business School, Yale University and Stanford University.

Panellists:
Kirill Androsov , Managing Director, Altera Investment Fund
Vasily Belov , Senior Vice President for Innovation, Skolkovo Foundation
Alexander Galitsky , Co-Founder, Managing Partner, Almaz Capital
Arkady Dvorkovich , Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
Ziyavudin Magomedov , Chairman of the Board of Directors, Summa Group
Victor Orlovsky , ‎Managing Partner, MoneyTime Ventures
Shervin Pishevar , Co-Founder, Managing Director, Sherpa Capital; Executive Chairman, Co-Founder, Hyperloop One
Alexander Povalko , Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Management Board, RVC
Martin Roscheisen , Chief Executive Officer, Diamond Foundry Inc.

Kirill Androsov

Managing Director, Altera Investment Fund

Born June 13, 1972 in Murmansk. 1994: graduated in organisation of the machinery industry from St. Petersburg State Marine Technical University as an Engineer-Economist. 2000: completed a post-graduate programme at St. Petersburg State University with a CSc (Econ.). 2005, obtained an Executive MBA degree from the Business School of Chicago University and holds a Ph.D.??? in Economics. 1999 to 2004, Senior Deputy General Director at Lenenergo, Open Joint Stock Company of the Power Industry and Electrification. 2004 to 2005: Head of Department for government regulation of tariffs and infrastructure reforms of the Russian Ministry for Economic Development and Trade. He has been Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister of of the Russian government since November 2005. May 2008 through April 2010: Deputy Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister's office of the Russian Federation. Mr. Androsov is currently a Managing Partner of Altera Capital. He has been as a Member of the Board of Directors at OJSC OC Rosneft; OJSC RAO UES of Russia; OAO Svyazinvest, Zarubezhneft, JSC Interregional distribution grid companies Holding (alternate name Joint Stock Company Russian Grids).Since 2011, member of the public council of the Federal Tax Service, Professor at the Higher School of Economics. Member or the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and the Public Council under the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation.

Vasily Belov

Senior Vice President for Innovation, Skolkovo Foundation

Vasily brings to his position broad experience from both the public and private sectors in developing strategies for innovation and modernisation, with particular experience in the energy sector. Vasily is a graduate from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, Moscow State University and an MBA from the American Institute of Business and Economics (AIBEc). He also took part in an Executive Management & Leadership programme at Cambridge Judge Business School in 2004. His career started at IBS (2001- 2002) before moving to work for RUSAL, where he headed the department of new projects in the Aluminium Structures Division. In this capacity, he participated in the development strategy of the company and initiated projects to increase the efficiency of his division, as well as strategies to develop new products. In 2004, he went on to work as a consultant for McKinsey, specializing in strategic consulting projects in metallurgy and the banking sector. This was then followed by his appointment as CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Fosborn Home, one of the earliest and biggest credit brokers in the Russian market (2006-2009). In November 2009, he headed the project office of the Energy Commission for Modernisation and Technological Development of the Russian President working group. Since 2009, he is a member of the working group on energy efficiency of the Presidential Commission for Modernization and Technological Development of Russia's Economy, specialising in public policy in the field of energy conservation and efficiency, investments, innovations and public-private partnerships. In this capacity, he worked with the Skolkovo Foundation’s Energy Efficient Technologies Cluster. In December 2011, he was appointed Executive Director of the Energy Efficient Technologies Cluster. In September 2013, he joined the Skolkovo Foundation Board. In November 2013, he was appointed Senior Vice President for Innovation.

Alexander Galitsky

Co-Founder, Managing Partner, Almaz Capital

Alexander Galitsky is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Almaz Capital Partners. Almaz Capital Partners has offices in Moscow, Russia and Menlo Park, CA, and is backed by Cisco Systems, EBRD and IFC. He is a well-known innovator, entrepreneur and investor in Russia/CIS, Europe and the USA. Prior to Almaz, Alexander formed the ICT investment practice at Russian Technologies, one of the first venture capital funds in Russia, and made a several private successful investments. His past and current investments include: Parallels, Yandex, QIK (sold to Skype), Vyatta (sold to Brocade), Acumatica, Jelastic, NavMaps (sold to TeleAtlas), 2Can, Alawar, AlterGeo, SJLabs (sold to VocalTec), EverNote, GridGain, WikiMart, etc.Prior to his investment career, he founded and headed five successful high-tech companies as CEO, including ELVIS+, TrustWorks Systems (sold to Hamsard), EzWIM (sold to TMT Ventures), ELVIS Telecom (sold to Telenor), NPC ELVIS. He specialized in WiFi, Virtual Private Network technology and product development on the Global market in partnership with Sun Microsystems and was a pioneer of the Russian Internet industry in 90s.

Arkady Dvorkovich

Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

Born March 26, 1972 in Moscow. Education 1994: Graduated from the Economics Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University with a degree in Economic Cybernetics. 1994: Graduated from the New Economic School with a Masters in Economics. 1997: Graduated from Duke University in North Carolina with a Masters in Economics. Experience 1994: Consultant, senior expert, chief executive and scientific director of the Economic Expert Group of the Russian Ministry of Finance. 2000: Expert at the Centre for Strategic Research. August 2000: Adviser to the Minister for Economic Development and Trade. 2001: Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Trade. 2004-2008: Head of the Presidential Experts' Directorate. 2008-May 2012: Aide to the President of the Russian Federation. May 21, 2012: Appointed Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation by Presidential Executive Order.

Ziyavudin Magomedov

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Summa Group

From 1994-1998, he served as President of Interfinans Investments, and later served as Chairman of the Board of Directors. From 2002-2004, he headed the Board of Founders of the “Dialogue” Program Support Foundation. From 2004-2005, he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Trans-Oil, then Chairman of the Board of Directors of First Mining Company. He is currently a partner of the Russian Olympians Foundation non-profit charitable organization, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bolshoi Theater, the State Institute of Cinematography, the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Foundation of the European University of St. Petersburg. In September 2013, he became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for the Development and Support of the Valdai International Discussion Club. He has been awarded the Order of Friendship (2010), a Presidential Certificate of Merit for his contribution to the restoration of the Bolshoi Theatre (2012), and the Order of Merit (2012). On July 1, 2010, by an order of the President of the Russian Federation, he was appointed Representative of the Russian Federation to the Business Advisory Council of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation for 2010-2012. In 2012, he served as Chairman of the APEC Business Advisory Council. Ziyavudin Magomedov graduated from the Economics Faculty of Moscow State University in 1994 with a degree in the Global Economy. In 2000, he earned a Candidate’s Degree in Economics.

Victor Orlovsky

‎Managing Partner, MoneyTime Ventures

Born 1974, in Tashkent. 1996 - Graduate from the Tashkent Electrotechnical Institute of Communications. 2001 - Graduate from the Moscow State University of Economy, Statistics and Informatics, majoring in Finance and Credit. MBA degree from the University of Warwick. From 1995 work in various structures of ABN AMRO in Uzbekistan, Netherlands and Russia, supervising over programs of bank transformation in IT, corporate, retail and investment business. 2001 to 2006 work in Alfa Bank as IT Deputy Director, Senior Vice-President, Director on development and support of products and operations of Retail Block. 2006 to 2008 a partner of IBM Russia/CIS consultancy for financial and insurance companies. From January 2008 to now: Sberbank's Senior Vice-President, Member of the Board, CIO. From January 2014 to now: Sberbank's Senior Vice-President, Digital Bank. Member of the Supervisory Boards of JSC Subsidiary bank of “Sberbank of Russia", Ukraine and OAO "Belpromstroyank", Belarus, Chairman of the Board of Directors in OAO "Universal Electronic Card" and ZAO "Sberbank-Technologies" companies, Member of the Board of Directors of "Sberbank AST" company. From July 2015 till now Managing Partner of Sberbank Venture Fund.

Shervin Pishevar

Co-Founder, Managing Director, Sherpa Capital; Executive Chairman, Co-Founder, Hyperloop One

Shervin Pishevar is a Managing Director at Sherpa Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm he co-founded with Scott Stanford in March 2013. Sherpa Capital is an investor in companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Munchery, ipsy, Shyp, Stance, Rent the Runway, Beepi, PillPack, Doctor on Demand, and Cue Health. Shervin is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at Hyperloop Technologies. Shervin is a Strategic Advisor to Uber Technologies and served as a Board Observer at Uber from 2011-2015. Previously he was a Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, a venture capital fund with over $4 billion under management. Shervin joined Menlo Ventures in 2011 and led investments such as Uber (Series B), Machine Zone, Warby Parker, Tumblr and Getaround. As an angel investor he personally seeded over 60 companies. Shervin founded and operated technology-enabled companies, including Webs.com (acquired by VistaPrint), Social Gaming Network (SGN), WebOS and HyperOffice. Companies he founded have reached an aggregate of over 100 million users. In 2016, Shervin was selected as an Ellis Island Medal of Honor award winner. Shervin was appointed by the President of the United States to serve on the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FFSB) in 2015. He was also chosen by the U.S. Government as an Outstanding American by Choice, one of the only 100 naturalized Americans to be chosen since the beginning of the award.

Alexander Povalko

Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Management Board, RVC

Mr. Aleksandr B. Povalko was born in Lyubertsy, Moscow Region, on May 16, 1970. He graduated from Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute majoring in Radio Engineering (1992) and Maymonid State University majoring in Applied Mathematics (1996). From 1994 to 2007, Mr. Aleksandr B. Povalko worked as Senior Consultant of Valuation Department, Project Director, and Director of Business Development of PACC. From 2007 to 2008 — Director of Strategic Planning, RENOVA Stroy Group CJSC. From 2008 to 2012 — Deputy Head of the State Committee for Youth Affairs of the Russian Federation and Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs. From 2012 to 2016 — Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. 2016 — CEO of RVC. Information on membership and participation in commissions, committees, advisory councils, and other public agencies: — Member of the Working Group of the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for monitoring achievement of targets of social and economic development of the Russian Federation; — Member of the interdepartmental commission for monitoring efficiency of educational institutions of higher education; — Member of the interdepartmental working group on implementation of pilot projects at leading engineering and technical universities to build engineering centers and companies; — Member of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Fund for Social and Economic Support of Russian Cinematography; — Member of the interdepartmental working group for development of the National Technology Initiative.

Front row participants:
Dmitry Korobkov , Chairman of the Board of Directors, ADV

Dmitry Korobkov

Chairman of the Board of Directors, ADV

Dmitry Korobkov (born 26 January 1969; Moscow) is an angel investor, primarily interested in marketing and advertising technologies (MAdTech), as well as Big Data and AI; his list of investments includes companies, funds and accelerators in Silicon Valley and UK. Founder and Chairman of ADV – marketing communications group representing Havas and Interpublic Group of Companies in Russia. Dmitry is an alumni of Moscow State Institute of International Relations under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a degree in marketing, history and economics. He speaks three languages, among which are English, German and French. In 2007 he opened “ADV – Marketing Communications” academic department in association with MGIMO, where he is still Head of Department. In 2016 he initiated the first MAdTech Contest in Russia “Go to AdTech”. Married, has five children.