SKOLKOVO Business School Enhances Academic Unit

Tomas Casas, Director of SKOLKOVO EMBA International Module in China, professor at several leading business schools, has joined the leadership team as Academic Advisor to the Dean. Prof. Casas will advise the process of updating the school's academic agenda and integrating the expertise of its research centres and educational programmes. His mandate will included the development of a platform that will produce research on a variety of areas ranging from corporate governance or innovation in Russia, to top team performance or the Sino-Russian business and economic relationship. In addition, Prof. Casas will spearhead the development of international cooperation programmes with leading business schools across the world. Since 2012 he has been cooperating with the business school as Professor at the SKOLKOVO EMBA programme. In addition to Russia, Prof. Casas has an extensive experience in executive education at top Western and Asian universities; principally at the University St.Gallen, Switzerland as well as other institutions such as the Rotman School of Management or Fudan University, Tongji University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. His academic engagement is complemented by over 10 years of entrepreneurship praxis in China.

Denis Konanchuk, Head of SKOLKOVO Education Development Centre, is appointed the school's Deputy Dean, Academic Affairs. He will manage the development of new educational programmes and research products that meet the changing demands of the Russian market, creating up-to-date business cases on Russian companies and regions, launching the school's online courses for major MOOC platforms and developing business simulations for effective team and company management. Denis retains his position as Head of the research centre and continues to be responsible for creating research products in the field of education and manage projects for 5/100 and Global Education programmes. Denis has been collaborating with the business school since 2008. Moreover, he has for many years been managing SKOLKOVO consulting projects in the educational sphere.

"The emergence of new leadership positions in the academic unit is the most important stage of the School's strategy implementation, aimed at building and strengthening its academic platform. Our business school is accumulating unique human resources — world-class professors, experts and managers who have achieved great success thanks to excellent educational programmes for managers, entrepreneurs and companies in Russia and abroad. We are organising our experience to be able to respond quickly to market demands, to be the centre of the most relevant and sought-after expertise and support business in the most challenging times. I welcome the appointment of Tomas Casas and Denis Konanchuk — they have been working with the School for several years and are agents of the best educational and research practices", said Andrei Sharonov, Dean of the SKOLKOVO business school.