American Business Association of Russian Professionals

Stas Khirman
Co-founder and CTO, Skyrider

Prior to founding Skyrider, Mr. Khirman founded Narus, a global leader in software and technology for the telecom industry and government agencies, where he helped designed the world’s most scalable network transaction analysis system. He had previously served as the networking group leader at VDOnet, a pioneer in internet video.
Mr. Khirman brings more than 20 years of experience in the software industry as an architect, manager, visionary, and inventor; he was behind the development of a number of standards organizations and participated in the early definition of the VoIP protocol. Mr. Khirman holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Kiev.

Natasha Krol,
Managing Partner, Alexander and Krol Executive Search

Natasha Krol is a Managing Partner at Alexander and Krol, an Executive Search firm specializing in the US and Eastern European Technology Markets.

Prior to that, she was a Senior Client Partner with Korn/Ferry International’s Global Technology Market, based in the firm’s Silicon Valley office.  He clients included companies like Google, HP, Audatex, TransUnion and others.  

Ms. Krol has more than twenty years of experience in the development and application of information technology. 
Most recently, Ms. Krol led overall marketing efforts for several start-up and medium-size Silicon Valley software companies, including Evoke Software (now Informatica) and eMotion (now Corbis).

Previously, Ms. Krol was a Founding Member, Vice President and Service Director of Advanced Information Management Strategies for the META Group (now Gartner), the leading provider of information technology research, advisory services and strategic consulting in Stamford, CT.  Her clients included senior executives in Global 2000 companies, as well as the venture capital community. She was also instrumental in establishing company subsidiaries throughout Europe, South Africa and Asia Pacific.
Prior to Gartner, Ms. Krol managed advanced technologies for John Hancock Financial Services in Boston, MA, where she developed strategic technology plans and overall information architecture. 

She began her career as a Marketing Officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in St. Petersburg, Russia. Ms. Krol holds an M.S. degree in Linguistics from St. Petersburg University. 

Ms. Krol has served on the technical advisory board for American Express, and has been a featured keynote speaker at more than 50 international conferences.

Alexei Kudriashov
Co-founder, President and CEO, SperaSoft, Inc. 

Prior to founding SperaSoft, an offshore software development and outsourcing services company, Alexei was a Channel Development Manager with the Software Marketing Group, Sun Microsystems. He was responsible for business and channel strategy and management in driving adoption and deployment of Sun's business productivity suite worldwide. Previously, Alexei founded Martak International, Inc., a manufacturer's representative and export company, distributing hi-tech and medical equipment overseas. He received an M.S. in Management and Business from MIT, Sloan School of Management and M.D. from Volgograd Medical Academy, Russia. 

Igor Leonov,
Lead Performance Architect, Kaiser Permanente IT 

Igor brings more than 15 years of experience in software engineering as an engineer, project manager and architect. At Kaiser Permanente IT Igor's major role is to assess performance and scalability of software applications that serve 3.5 million of North California region members. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Igor worked at two Silicon Valley startups: Attest Systems and Softchain Inc.

Before coming to the United States in 1999, Igor devoted 10 years of his life to Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology, where he studied, developed educational software, conducted scientific research and taught engineering classes.

Julia Pogodina,
Principal, IBCI Law Group

Julia Pogodina is a business attorney with over 10 years of legal experience and is qualified to practice law in California and Russian Federation. She is the Principal at IBCI (International, Business, Corporate and Intellectual Property) Law Group and is "of counsel" at Intellectual Property Law Group. Ms. Pogodina specializes in business, corporate, international and intellectual property law. She represents domestic and foreign companies in various corporate, legal and business transactions, including structuring and negotiating cross-border deals.  Besides legal, Ms. Pogodina also has an extensive business experience. She was the Director of the Moscow's North-Western Branch of Miel Real Estate Agency, major real estate agency in Russia, where she managed legal, financial, and sales activities. Prior to Miel she worked for Trud Joint Stock Company, where she handled a variety of legal and business matters including international business transactions and real estate.

Vera Shokina,
Portfolio Manager at Silicon Valley Bank

Vera is in charge of a diversified portfolio of loans to emerging growth companies, primarily in the technology and life sciences industries. Prior to joining Silicon Valley Bank, she was a portfolio manager with GE Capital and a trader with Goldman Sachs in Menlo Park. Before coming to US in 1998, Vera was a relationship manager with Citibank Moscow where she worked with institutional foreign investors, including Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney, Goldman Sachs and Union Bank of Switzerland.

Vera was 2007 AmBAR President and Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the third Silicon Valley Open Doors (SVOD-2007) Technology Investment Conference.

Vera holds B.S. from the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages and MBA from the Finance Academy of the Russian Federation.

Olena Stadnyuk,
Manager, Genentech, Inc.

Olena Stadnyuk, MD, MPH is a Manager at Genentech's development department. Genentech is a public biotech company with over $100B market capitalization. Before assuming her post in Genentech, Olena worked in a medical device start-up PolyRemedy. Prior to joining PolyRemedy Olena worked in a venture capital fund Flagship Ventures in Cambridge, MA as an intern. At Flagship Olena led market competitive analysis and financial due diligence for prospective investments in biopharma and medical devices companies. Before moving to the US, Olena worked at Innovative Ventures Inc., a venture capital company located in Moscow, Russia. While at IVI, Olena selected investment and partnering opportunities in the Life Science field.

Olena was a semifinalist of the MIT 50K business plan competition. She has articles published in international biomedical journals and conducted presentations at international conferences. Olena Stadnyuk has an MD with honors from National Medical University, Kiev, Ukraine and Master in Health Care Management degree from Harvard University.

Ekaterina Tumanova,
Accounting and Finances, Consultant

Ekaterina provides outsourced services to several start-ups in the Silicon Valley. Her area of specialization is companies that either already have offices in both US and Russia, or plan to do it. Before moving to the United States in 2007, she held a position of Senior Accountant in Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE: MBT). There she was responsible for financial statements consolidation and control over North-West Region. She was responsible for tax accounting in that region and for international accounting of fixed assets. Prior to that, she was working as a Chief Accountant Officer and Financial Manager in Russian SMBs.