Society

State and Municipal Management master’s programme graduate Anor Tukaeva chose to become not a government official, but an activist. Her goal: use the activities of the Krokhino Foundation and ProNasledie.Media project to draw the attention of society and the state to the problem of preserving architectural monuments. In this interview with Success Builder, she explains how familiarity with the Russian hinterland changes a person’s worldview, why Russia tends to deny its past, how to build an artificial island for the sake of an idea and how an activist gets started.

The past year has made us all think about the importance of health and how vulnerable we can suddenly become during a global problem. Natalia Belova, graduate of the Faculty of Management and now Director of Market Management at Rosgosstrakh Zhizn, knows everything about how to ensure your financial health. In this interview with Success Builder, she explains why the best and brightest enrolled at HSE in the 1990s, the ins and outs of working with such a ‘product’ as human life, and how to be a good mom and a Board of Directors member at the same time.

When hard times hit the financial industry, economics university graduates gravitated to jobs in the public sector. Denis Deryushkin, head of the Energy Ministry’s Analytical Centre, told Success Builder how an ICEF graduate could wind up in a key role in the energy sector. He also explained how to monetise research skills, why government ministries are being reformed, the latest developments in the fuel and energy sector and what is so appealing about working for the state.

Sergey Korotkikh, graduate of HSE Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, now manages consulting for CAG and teaches at HSE University. He has managed to make mentoring not only his profession but also his mission. In this interview with Success Builder, he explains how students can get the most from a university, the true meaning of ‘agile’, how to raise a new generation of managers and how goal-setting skills help in life.

Study at HSE University, then go to Oxford and on to Yale to plumb the full depths of economics as a social science—that is the path that Dmitry Aksakov, graduate of the ICEF bachelor’s programme and now head of ESG Banking at VEB.RF has followed. In this interview with Success Builder, he explains how Mick Jagger helped him choose a university, why employers themselves seek out Oxford students, what ‘green investing’ is and how working with it can change your lifestyle.

Recognized card game masters claim that victory is possible only after making a thorough analysis of the likely combinations contained in your opponent’s cards, making it a literal application of data analytics to game theory. Anastasia Erastova, now a data scientist at the New York office of BNP Paribas, graduated from ICEF with honours. At the time, she was also the Russian vice-champion at bridge. In an interview with Success Builder, she explained why mathematics and gambling often go hand in hand, the advantages of studying next door to Wall Street and how math students can get a work visa in the United States.

Despite the crisis in the labour market caused by the pandemic, the Mail.ru company has hired approximately 1,000 new employees over the past six months. HSE graduate Dmitry Smyslov, the Mail.ru Group Vice President for Personnel and Educational Projects, played a central role in that process. In this interview with Success Builder, Mr Smyslov explains why there are not enough mathematicians and economists among HR directors, how Mail.ru is blurring the line between fundamental science and the IT industry, which types of specialists are in demand right now and what exactly makes Russian companies good for careerists.

Light is a perfect medium according to Marshall McLuhan, who was the first to seek a deeper understanding of electronic communications. Modern media, however, have become the means not only for conveying facts but also for managing meanings — which is why the current agenda is shaped, to some extent, by the media. Dmitry Elovsky, Deputy Chief Editor at Dozhd TV and graduate of the Applied Politics programme at HSE, told Success Builder about the media’s strength as the so-called ‘fourth estate,’ how journalism is taught in the West, why working in Russian media is the province of the young and why the risk of ‘burnout’ is so great in this country.

The Master’s Programme Lawyer on the Global Financial Market began accepting students in 2018 and graduated its first class this year. Among them was Sberbank Chief Legal Advisor Irina Gridasova. In this interview with Success Builder, Ms Gridasova explains how to switch from political science to law without missing a beat, looks at gender stereotypes in the legal field and describes translating the clerical language of contracts into the language of living and breathing clients — a task all lawyers dread.

Foreign investment plays a huge role in determining how the Russian economy will recover after its long illness. The RDIF accompanies most of those transactions. But, as HSE graduate and RDIF Investment Department Vice President Mikhail Kireev explains, the organization also has a social mission, in particular, to develop medicines and vaccines. In this interview with Success Builder, Mr Kireev also explains why HSE graduates are sought after, how the RDIF chooses companies for investment, where you can get an international degree when borders are closed and what constitutes a global education.