annual forum of technology companies

Irina Kalashnikova, Co-founder and CEO of GoTech Innovation consulting firm, has 15 years experience in marketing, product design and team management. Worked in financial and consulting companies, corporates and startups and knows how to bring ideas to success. Irina strongly believes in the positive synergies between startups and established companies and loves to support technologies that make the world a better place.

Co-founder of TechScout.vc.

Maxim Konovalov co-founded NGINX, Inc. in 2011 and is currently the Vice President of Engineering. He brings 20 years of extensive leadership experience in software development, IT infrastructure, corporate information systems, and open source product and project management.

Denys is a Vice President of Marketing at Readdle. He is passionate about technology and entrepreneurship, efficiency and how we can optimize to live a fulfilled happy life.

He is also an investor and advisor.

Forbes 30 under 30, Denys has often been quoted about app economy and marketing by major media outlets such as WSJ, The Verge, USA Today, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Wired, TheNextWeb, FastCompany and Mashable.

Readdle aims to improve people's lives through technology. We are redefining personal productivity and shaping the "future of work" by creating best in class apps such as Scanner Pro, Calendars 5, Spark email, Documents and PDF Expert. Readdle apps were downloaded over 125 million times worldwide, won numerous awards from Apple and love from the tech industry.

Founding partner at TerraVC. He has over ten years of experience in investment. In 2009, Petr graduated from the HSE Faculty of Management. While he worked at Skolkovo Fund as a head of the investment department and as an investment director of Ruvento Venture Partners, Petr made a number of successful investments in oil refining technologies and big data as an angel investor. In 2013, Petr co-founded Phystech Ventures. After 6 years the company has over $50 million under management. In 2019, Petr co-founded TerraVC, a global investment firm with $70 millions under management and focus on enegytech, robotics and industry 4.0.

At the age of 16, Eduard opened an online store with attributes of FC "Zenit". In 2013, he won young entrepreneurs contest of the Russian Economy Foundation. In 2014, he began to develop an international online platform for selling cars CarPrice, which was included in the list of the 100 most discussed startups in Europe and  attracted  $42 million investments in total. After leaving CarPrice, Gurinovich invested in Dbrain, R-Set, «Blizkie.ru» One of Eduard’d latest investments is his own project, Expload, a blockchain platform that develops and distributes decentralized games.

Deputy editor-in-chief at Forbes Russia, Project Manager of Forbes Russia 30 under 30.

Anastasia graduated from the faculty of journalism of Moscow State University and post-graduate studies in Media management, received a master's degree in Media management from the University of Westminster in London. Worked as a correspondent Gzt.ru, interfax-russia.ru, freelance writer Slon.ru the editor of "Svoy business", newspaper RBC daily, correspondent and editor of Forbes magazine. Head  of  the "Entrepreneurs" section.

Konstantin works at Runa Capital for last 7 years where he mostly focuses on deal sourcing, due diligence and portfolio development. His primary areas of expertise include machine intelligence, cloud business apps and fintech startups, and favorite startup markets are UK and France. In 2019 Konstantin was recognized as Forbes Russia 30 under 30 for his investment activity. 

Besides VC experience at Runa, Konstantin worked at several startups, headed international startup competition, co-founded and subsequently sold small hardware company. Also he holds BS and MS degrees in Applied Mathematics and Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Ivan Melnik graduated from the Moscow Institute of radio engineering, electronics and automation.

Ivan received the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences in the Institute of computer science and informatization, an  MBA degrees from the Graduate school of management and NES Business School in Paris.

At X5 Retail Group, Ivan is responsible for finding and implementing innovative solutions for improving  the efficiency of the company business processes. X5 innovation team is working on pilots and testing hypotheses, assesses business cases and the amount of investment and coordinates  innovative projects in the company.

Ivan has been working at X5 since 2010 as a Business Development Director. Since 2015 Ivan Melnik was responsible for business development of "Perekrestok"  retail chain, and in 2016 he was appointed Director of strategic projects.

In 2015, Anna Belova, together with her partners Vitaly Averyanov  and Andrei Komissarov launched a startup Devar. The project is engaged in the production of children's books with AR technology. In the second year of operation, the company reached a turnover of $1 million. Today, Dewar products are sold in 40 countries, and 70% of revenue falls on foreign markets. There are more than 200 titles of educational and entertainment AR-books in the line. In February 2018, the startup attracted investments of $3 million from the well-known VC Leta Capital. In Russia, Dewar sells more than 1 million books a year.

Business angel, private investor and founder of Starta Ventures group - a leading player of  the Russian VC market.

Alexey received a master's degree in Economics at the Russian State University of Trade and Economics and has over 15 years of experience in audit and finance and over 10 years in the VC industry.

Alexey Girin together with his partners created a vertically integrated venture group in the field of pre - seed and seed investments - Starta Ventures.

Starta Ventures group contains two VC funds  - Starta Capital I and Starta Capital II, Starta Accelerator and Space Sputnik coworking in New York, a platform for joint investment Liqvest and other projects. Starta Ventures portfolio includes more than 100 startups.

Before joining VimpelCom, George Held served as vice president for connected commerce at Etisalat. He was responsible for implementing, integrating, and developing digital products in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. He had also held managerial positions at Airtel, Zain, Celtel, and Tele2.
George has experience working in Russia: between 1997 and 2001, he was Tele2’s CCO for the Ural region.
George received recognition from the GSMA Global Mobile Awards and the Global Telecom Innovation Awards as well as a FT/IFC special commendation, to name just a few of his many industry awards for innovation.
He graduated from the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology and also attended Harvard Business School and MIT. Speaks English, Russian, and French.

Maarika Truu has currently undertaken a position in the government sector as Head of Startup Estonia (startupestonia.ee) helping in making Estonia one of the best places for startups by supporting the development of a vibrant and sustainable startup ecosystem. 

She has sales and project management specialist background with 10+ years of international startup sector experience working in e-commerce, B2B Saas (Pipedrive.com), HRtech startups & organising the intensive week-end hackathon events (Garage48.org) boosting the local startup communities around the CEE region. 

PhD, MBA, more than 12 years in the banking. Has extensive practical experience in managing programs and projects of digital transformation, business process reengineering, service standards, methodology and retail sales management in large Russian banks: URALSIB, NOMOS-Bank, Otkritie, VTB Bank. Now he is actively engaged in projects of digital transformation based on DTL, AI, VR / AR technologies, biometric identification.

In 2017 Alexey joined the team of Estonia’s e-Residency programme and became Ukrainian Country Manager to have a deal with the local market. It is the biggest market for the programme for now.

Later in 2018 Alexey was promoted to Head of Markets role and now manages and oversees operational and business development activities in all countries outside Estonia. Also, he runs several operational projects related to the global growth of the program. He is aware of program’s characteristics, the main benefits and what it allows for Ukrainian customers, as well as specific of services available for e-residents.

Alexey’s background comes from IT industry. Previously, he worked as business development and operations consultant in a wide range of companies, from start-ups to multinational corporations (Procter & Gamble, Western Union, and others). Due to his high qualification, he earned a reputation of an excellent professional who is a part of e-Residency team now.

Alexander Korchevskiy is a Partner at I2BF, international VC headquartered in New York. He leads the firm’s initiative in enterprise software and IoT and his portfolio includes Vist, Buzzoola, Titan Power Solutions, RoboCV, Selecta Biosciences (NSDQ:SELB) and other companies. Alex is passionate about emerging technologies and a computer nerd in the past.

More 15 years of top-management experience in Russian retail banks, such as Trust Bank, Uniastrum Bank, OTP Bank, Russian Standard Bank. Responsibilities: POS-lending, Credit cards, E-channels, Internet-sales, CRM, Marketing, SME and Retail product development, Remote sales of loans and deposits.

In 2015 Vasiliy and his partners have founded SweetCard that became the leading interbank cash back platforms with offers from the biggest offline retailers. Company has contracts with more than 20 retail banks and more than 100 leading offline retailers.

Eldar Vagapov is the Managing Partner of Larnabel Ventures a technology-focused investment fund of Safmar Group – a leading privately owned business group in Russia.

Having worked at PwC Advisory Services, Eldar started his IT career at Yandex, where he was the head of Corporate Finance, responsible for M&A, IR and IPO preparation. Later he founded and run Erfid – an IoT software developer and system integrator. Eldar is an alumnus of Cambridge and Stanford Universities.

Igor Lutts is a media and advertising expert, ex-CEO of BBDO in Russia. Under his management advertising campaigns for well-known Russian and international clients have been created and launched: e.g. campaigns for Alfa-bank, Beeline, MTS, Sberbank, IKEA, Pepsi, M&M’s, Snickers, etc. Today Igor is a managing partner of the Untitled ventures - one of the most active seed funds in Russia in retail, media and fashion. Also Igor is a Board Member in several leading portfolio startups (e.g. GetShopTV - a solution that turns TV viewers into brand customers). 

At VTB, she works in a digital transformation team and is responsible for the development of the bank’s interaction with technology startups, search of innovative technologies on the market, launch and implementation of pilot projects with startups.

More than 15 years of experience in the field of IT products marketing, venture capital investments and technological innovations in the leading positions. Experience in attracting investments and bringing a technology company to IPO. Experience in managing startup scouting and corporate acceleration programs, as well as in developing partnerships with participants of the Russian innovation ecosystem.

Head of technology strategy programs, Digital Strategy Directorate, PJSC Gazprom Neft»

Education:
Voronezh state University, candidate of economic Sciences

Experience:
2006-2011 Siemens, business consultant, group leader
2011-2013 Ernst & Young J&M Management Consulting, senior consultant, head
projects'
2014-2019 PJSC Gazprom Neft, project Manager, head of the center, head of programs, actively engaged in the analysis of the possibility of introducing AR / VR technologies in the processes companies

Nikolay Vyatkin  - Head of digital ecosystem development, Digital Transformation Directorate of PJSC Gazprom Neft

Education:
2001-2006, St. Petersburg State University, faculty of applied mathematics
2010 – 2012, International Management Institute of St. Petersburg, MBA

Experience:
2012 – 2017, OOO LENTA, Deputy IT-Director
2017-2018 Agency for strategic initiatives (ASI), Head of the regional office, member of the Council for the implementation of STI under the government of St. Petersburg
2019 - ... PJSC Gazprom Neft, Head of digital ecosystem development, PJSC Gazprom Neft»

Specialization: Development of the digital ecosystem of the group of companies "Gazprom Neft" - the creation of favorable conditions, services, tools and rules of interaction between participants of innovation process for effective cooperation, development, exchange, use and transfer of digital technologies for the Company.

PR professional with a background in tech and innovative companies. Worked for the MTS mobile operator’s press service, led the press services of Odnoklassniki social media platform.

Eugenia is a high-level professional who has experience in managing business processes of the development of high-tech products. With over 10 years of experience in managerial positions in industrial and IT companies, she is a mentor of a number of promising startups. In the team, she is responsible for the development of corporate acceleration programs.

► Director, CIS Innovation leader, Digital and Innovation Coordinator for CESA region, Assurance and Advisory Business Services, Technology, Communications and Entertainment Group

► Driving innovation agenda critical components, including innovation strategy, new solutions development, business-model disruption, startup ecosystem, open ideation and culture.

► Over 15 years of experience serving clients in the technology, media and entertainment and telecommunications sectors; participated in audits and provided audit and financial advisory services and assistance with compilation of financial statements in accordance with IFRS, US GAAP and RAS; participated in due diligence and internal audit engagements;

► Member of EY Capital markets group participated in transactions of debt and equity financing by EY audit clients on LSE, NASDAQ and NYSE;

► Major clients: Mail.ru Group, Luxoft, Qiwi plc.

► St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Economics, degree in Financial Accounting and Audit

Katrin Vaga, current Head of PR for e-Residency programme, is former TV and radio journalist and foreign correspondent who has covered current affairs and politics in Brussels and London. Having private sector communication experience in the UK tech company and experience in entrepreneurship, she is now enjoying working for the unique GovTech initiative.

Alexey has extensive experience in technology investments in Russia. He manages investments and M&A division at Mail.Ru Group, the largest internet company by audience in Russia. Before joining Mail.Ru Group Alexey had worked in UFG Private Equity in consumer and internet sectors, and also worked for Belgian investment fund GIMV. Alexey participated in more than 30 deals with total sum of more than $500 million, and was involved in all the latest major investments of Mail.ru Group: Delivery Club, Aliexpress, Citymobil, ZakaZaka, Pixonic, Geekbrains.

Advisor at Bank "St. Petersburg", IT-businessman, venture investor with 5 years of experience.

President of the international investor organization INVESTORO and of National Association of individual venture investors (business angels)

Graduated the Lomonosov Moscow state University Graduate school of business, candidate sciense in of philosophy, graduate of the Executive MBA program of the Moscow school of management "SKOLKOVO", graduate of specialized programs on direct and venture investments MIT Sloan School of Management, UC Berkley Haas School of Business, Harvard Business School

Since 2009 - shareholder / investor and member of Supervisory boards of venture funds Addventure, Texdrive (Genesis Capital) and Venture Angels.

Since 2012 - head of the investors club of the Moscow school of management SKOLKOVO

Since 2015 - founder and member of the Supervisory Board of the SKOLKOVO Business community

From 2015 to April 2016 - Deputy Chairman of the Administrative Board of the National Association of business angels and other early stage investors.

Since 2016 - President of the National Association of business angels and other early stage investors.

Since 2016 - Member of the Board of Directors of the European Association of business angels, seed funds and other early stage market participants (EBAN)

Since 2017 - member of the venture market Council under RVC and the Ministry of economic development

Senior Investment Manager at Runa Capital, Ruslan has cross-functional experience in finance and strategy. Ruslan started his career as a strategy consultant with McKinsey and IBM, developing growth strategies on initiatives across Europe, USA and Asia. Ruslan holds a master degree in Mathematics and Mechanics from Moscow State University.

Alexey is a Co-founder and General Partner at Cabra VC with more than 14 years of work experience across various industries in business development, partnership, enterprise sales. In this role he is responsible for pipeline, deal structuring, business development and focuses on investing in Post-Seed and Series A stage subscription-based startups in the US.

Previously Alexey was a co-founder of retail, R&D and fintech companies in Russia. Alexey graduated from the Higher School of Economics National Research University with M.Sc. in strategic management.

Business-woman, business angel, VC, expert in VC, strategy, business development, internet technologies. More than 20 years of experience in developing technological internet projects, 10 years in VC-business.
Joined Rostelecom PJSC as a Head of Project office "Technology Development" in the Business Development Division in November 2017. Prior to this, in 2016, was the investment manager for the RVC Seed Fund. Since November 2010 was a leading expert in Almaz Capital Partners and headed the firm’s Internet practice for Russia/CIS. Prior to joining Almaz was Head of strategy and business development at Finam Investment Company, based in Moscow, and a project manager for eHouse Holding and Manifest, where focused on developing the system of online advertising and on some of the first online advertising campaigns for the nascent Russian Internet market. Recognized as one of the “leading ladies” of the Russian Internet and digital media industry. Member of council under the commission on the modernization and innovation development in the Russian State Duma in 2011-2012. In 2012 entered Top 10 power women in Russia (https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/top-10-power-women-in-russia-17871). Top-5 VC-ladies in Russia since 2014.

Dmitry Kurin - head of MTS StartUp Hub, an innovation platform for tech projects development.

A corporate entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in new technologies and products. Successfully launched and developed more than 20 commercial telecom and digital products with total revenues of more than 1 billion rubles. Expert in corporate innovation, mentor of startups.

Entrepreneur with 15+ years of experience in digital marketing and product development.
Proven managerial experience with a passion for new media and Internet technologies.
For the last 5 years I have been building an investment fund (Admitad Invest) and an incubator+accelerator (Admitad Projects) where we're launching and scaling projects “from scratch”.

• 11 years of business management experience;
• 8 years of investment experience;
• YC Startup Investor School Alumnus;
• Master's Degrees in mathematics and computer science, postgraduate in business administration and management;

Dmitry Filonov worked as a journalist in Forbes, RBC, Republic.

Founder of the Edinorog - Telegram-channel about venture business

5 years of business and project management experience;
Realized 100+ graphic design projects as a freelancer;
36 countries visited

Anastasiia co-founded a company in Estonia in 2018 via an e-residency for building a fashion tech startup. In April 2019, founders decided to pivot and started working on the Pickio app. Before starting her own company, Anastasiia worked as a business development director and marketer in startups and construction companies.

CEO Zaimoteka

Joined Beeline team in july 2016, since 2017 leading Innovation function, focused upon building non-telecom related value generation streams through new products, services and projects.
Before Beeline was in charge of business development across Russia and CIS in Ve Interactive, London quartered AdTech startup, before that took various roles in marketing and sales in VC, telecom, advertising and education industries.
Graduated from National Research Saratov State University as a specialist in Social Philosophy.