Русский 
Moderator
Valentin Makarov
President, RUSSOFT
Valentin Makarov was born in April 16, 1955 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia.
He graduated from Leningrad Aircraft Instrumentation Institute (now State University of Space Instruments, St.-Petersburg) in 1978 and had been working in Defense industry until 1985. In 1993 he attended courses of Manchester Business School and in 2000—courses of Diplomatic Academy of Russia.
Since 1985 and until 2000 Valentin Makarov devoted his life and energy to extending economic and cultural ties of St. Petersburg and Russia within the country and overseas, while working in the Leningrad Polytechnic University, then in the Permanent Delegation of Russian Federation to UNESCO, in the “Association of Free Economic zones of St.-Petersburg” and finally as the deputy chairman of the Committee of External Relations of Administration of St.-Petersburg.
In 1999 he was elected the president of the “St Petersburg Consortium «Fort Ross» IT services”, then after amalgamation with the National Software Development Association in May 2004 he became president of the united “RUSSOFT Association”, which is the unique voice of the software development industry in Russia.
Valentin Makarov got significant experience of lobbying interests of the industry in the State of Russian Federation. He had been also involved in conducting Nation-wide market studies and organizing marketing activities of RUSSOFT in Russia and abroad (Russian IT-Seasons, Road-shows, ROSS Forum, etc.). He was also representing APKIT (Russian IT&Computer Association) in WITSA in 2002–2007.
Panelists
Oleg Plaksin
Director, International Projects, Russian Venture Company
In February, 2013 Oleg Plaksin has been appointed as Director, International Projects. He will be responsible for planning and execution of company’s international initiatives as well as for coordination of its international representatives.
Oleg graduated from Leningrad State University, Oriental Department. He worked in banking sector, IT companies and Government. Oleg commands wide experience in international activity. He took part in large scale projects of Russian and International companies in the USA, UK, in the Middle East and CIS countries.
Eugene Kovnir
Deputy Director, Strategic Initiatives Agency
Alexey Sokolov
Vice Minister, Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, Russian Federation
Alexey Sokolov was born in Saint Petersburg in 1982.
He graduated with honors from Saint Petersburg State University with degree in Law and received second higher education in Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry with degree in global economics.
Since 2003 Alexey Sokolov has started to work in public authorities. In 2008 he worked in the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, where he dealt with topics concerning international affairs, law and safety, collaboration in the sphere of information technologies and mass communications.
In May 12, 2014 he took position of Deputy Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation.
Dmitry Dyrmovsky
CEO, STC
Alexander Egorov
CEO, Reksoft
Alexander Egorov was born 1969 in Leningrad, USSR and co-founded Reksoft in 1991 while studying in St.Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation. Alexander holds Master Degree in CAD/CAM from St-Petersburg University of Aerospace Instrumentation (1993) and MBA from the Stockholm School of Economics (2004).
Under Alexander’s leadership Reksoft evolved from an IT start-up into one of the leading players on the Russian software engineering market, serving both international and domestic customers. Along with its core business as an IT solutions and services company, Reksoft has served as business incubator and venture launchpad for a number of high-tech companies with a current combined turnover of more than $500 mln. Among them are: largest Russian online retailer Ozon, country’s leading Internet payment gateway, Assist, telecom OSS/BSS product developer Barsum, IT consulting companies Technoserv Consulting and Edelink.
As business angel Alexander also continues to support ventures in field of IT/Internet and sits on the board of directors of several international projects.
Nikolai Puntikov
President, First Line Software
Dr. Puntikov is the President of First Line Software, a global company offering broad range of software development and technology enablement services and solutions. Nikolai is a serial entrepreneur and business executive with a proven track record in building successful global organizations. He is also a committed advocate for the development of the Russian innovative ecosystem. In 2010, Nikolai co-founded the Russian Chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum, a non-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth and success of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures. Currently, he is the Chairman of CEE-SECR, the largest software engineering conference in Russia and Editor-in-chief of analytical portal Software Russia. Dr. Puntikov holds his M.S. degree from the St. Petersburg State University and a Doctorate degree from the Institute of Informatics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Andrey Ivanov
Chief Designer, Synclock
Andrey Vasilyev
CEO, Seolite
Dmitry Novitsky
Power Systems Institute
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