Introducing the Centre

SKOLKOVO Wealth Transformation Centre is an educational and research platform for business families, their family offices, service providers, philanthropic organizations, regulators and academia in Russia and CIS.

Goals and objectives

One of the main goals is to explore the phenomenon of family business in Russia and to develop educational programmes for different generations of business families and family offices managers. For this purpose we run regular surveys of the business community and service providers.

Our Approach

We study international and Russian experience of wealth management and succession, adapt best practices and offer effective solutions for Russia, through the work with the regulator.

Personalities behind the Centre

Ruben Vardanyan

Founding Partner and Vice-Chairman of the International Advisory Board of Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, Chairman of the SKOLKOVO Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Chairman of the Expert Council of the school’s Wealth Transformation Center. President of Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO in 2006-2011
- Ruben Vardanyan is an Armenian-Russian impact investor and social entrepreneur. He serves on the advisory boards of the IFC (World Bank Group) and Fundação Dom Cabral business school in Brazil. He is also a board member at Ameriabank (a major Armenian bank), SOLLERS (Russia’s auto major) amongst a host of other companies, NGOs, public and professional organizations. A prominent financier, Ruben owns a stake in a joint venture with the Otto family in a commercial realty management business in Russia. He is known both for his financial projects (Troika Dialog investment house) as well as his deep reaching philanthropic programs, such as the first UWC college in Eastern Europe (Dilijan, Armenia) and the Tatev Revival Project, part of which includes the construction of the world’s longest cableway leading to an ancient monastery. Together with his partners, Ruben has invested about $500M in projects in Armenia, developing a commercial approach that relies on involving blended financing to find solutions to social problems. He has also raised over $500M to finance the first private business school in Russia – a pioneering institution both in terms of scale and in its collaborative nature. In 2015, Ruben co-founded another global project, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors.
Alexei Anishchenko

Director of the SKOLKOVO Wealth Transformation Centre.
- Since 2015, Alexei works as a Managing Director at Phoenix Advisors, a company founded by Ruben Vardanyan, specialising in protection and management of family welfare and the preparation of a succession plan. In the course of his work, Alexei has supervised the key customer accounts and external partners business area, consulted in the matters of establishing family office, and has been in charge of mediating conflicting parties. Before that, Alexei worked in the Family Foundation of Ruben Vardanyan and Veronika Zonabend, where he tackled strategy, control and coordination of business projects.
- In 2012–2014, he was a consultant in Boston Consulting Group (BCG), an international company. During his work there, Alexei implemented numerous projects in the financial sector. Alexei made his first career steps in Troika Dialog in the Strategy and Change Group, which he had joined after receiving Master’s Degree from MGIMO.