News

Evgenia Kondrashina graduated with honours from the International College of Economics and Finance (ICEF) bachelor’s programme in 2005 before going on to receive her master’s from the London School of Economics. An excellent student, Evgenia for a long time thought that the next logical step would be a prestigious career at a top English consulting firm, but the idea of following in others’ footsteps doesn’t make everyone happy. Evgenia deviated from this trajectory and found herself in one of the world’s leading orchestras – the London Symphony Orchestra – where she continues to work today.

Maria Sarycheva, graduate of the MA in Applied Cultural Studies at HSE began preparing museum guided tours for people with special needs while she was still studying. Now she works in the department of inclusive programmes at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. She was instrumental in designing the new HSE Accessible Museum course. Maria Sarycheva talked to HSE News about what to do when there is no sign language gesture for installation and how to introduce art to people with visual and hearing impairments.  

The digital age is opening up more and more opportunities for some of the most unbelievable startups imaginable – startups for which ideas and a drive to conquer new business territories take precedent. For Vitaly Aleksandrov, an HSE alumnus and the founder and head of the studio Out of Cloud, this territory was email marketing. Below, he tells Success Builder how correct distribution methods differ from spam, how to write meaningful letter, and whether a student is able to make money off of scholarships.

Working abroad after the university is both a step forward in your career, as well as a valuable personal experience. HSE alumnus Mikhail Savkin, who is currently the Director of Global Strategy at France’s Schneider Electric, tells Success Builder how easy it is for a consultant to lead a nomadic lifestyle, why HSE should become a subculture, and how to survive in the French corporate world without losing your own cultural identity.

On October 16, Roll Hall was the scene of the annual meeting of HSE graduates for the HSE Alumni Awards ceremony.

The Public Charger project developed by HSE MIEM graduate Alexei Rolich has been selected as one of the winners in the Start programme developed by the Foundation for the Support of Small Businesses in Science and Technology. The programme focuses on researchers who want to turn their ideas into a sustainable business. Rolich will receive a 2 million rouble grant for the first stage of development of his project.

If you think all women in leather chairs are heavy-handed Miranda Priestlys in Prada heels, you might find yourself looking for a job your entire life. Over the last 100 years of women’s emancipation, the world has changed beyond recognition; being a mother, heading a large company, and looking good are all absolute norms for the 21st century. Anastasia Karpova, the CEO of the pharmacy chain Doctor Stoletov, tells Success Builder how she built her first business with the help of Saddam and Che Guevara, why the humanities need mathematical analysis, and why her pharmacies sell permanganic acid.

On October 10, a bench donated to the city by alumni of the Higher School of Economics was placed near the building at 22 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa. Graduates collected the money for the bench's installation in just one week. The bench's installation was also an occasion to discuss how students and alumni can participate in the city's development.

At the HSE campus in Nizhny Novgorod, Svetlana Bryzgalova recently gave a public lecture on ‘Pricing Theories in Various Classes of Financial Assets’ as part of the Second International Conference on Econometrics.

Polina Polunina, a 2012 graduate of HSE’s undergraduate programme in Mathematics, took second place at the Summer Alphathon — a global competition in which students and recent graduates from leading universities create financial and mathematical models. The competition was held with the support of WorldQuant, an investment company.