Winners of Platform for Young Professionals Announced

Winners of Sustainable Future of Russia Platform for Young Professionals were announced at the Gaidar Forum. 

The platform participants had been waiting trembling with eagerness for this D-day when everybody’s efforts, contributed to development and implementation of the projects, would be evaluated on their merit. 

True masters of their respective fields selected the projects to be admitted to the finals. Experts from such well-known companies as Unilever, ACIG Group of Companies, SAP and representatives of one of the largest European universities, RANEPA, viewed more than 1,500 works from 220 universities out of 55 Russian regions, and only the strongest, most relevant and constructive ones took it to the finals. 

Managing Director of the platform Alexey Shipov delivered the opening speech for the awards ceremony, “Our Sustainable Future of Russia is a huge inspiration and source of power. Each of our event stirs a desire to be there, to create together and to celebrate together our successes.” Next, the floor was taken by Victor Tolmachev, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board at ACIG Group of Companies, “Good to see the like minded team of people that year after year gets refreshed with new faces both from partners and participants. I am happy that the platform encourages participants to find their identity and ensure the rightness of the chosen path.” 

In the category “Sustainable Pursuit of Perfection: Implementation of Lean Production in Russia”, introduced by ACIG Group of Companies, the judges gave out the winning places: the 3rd place for the team of Aleksandr Portnov, the 2nd place went to Sergey Sutyagin, and the winner was the team of Aleksandr Demin. The winner congratulated his competitors on their results and acknowledged the platform management and jury members. 

Digital transformation is impossible to ignore in the age of global informatization. It is largely developed in the international market by SAP, one of the leaders thereof. Its representatives, since they had become partners of the platform in 2016, were the first to offer the participants to think about the outlooks of digital economy over 15 years under the category “Digital Transformation: How the Economy Will Change in 2030”. At the awarding ceremony, the company's Deputy General Director Dmitry Shepelyavy said, “The future of the economy is global digital transformation. You, the platform participants, are the people who are willing to make Russia a power with strong economy!” The places distribution among the future authors of the Russian economy was as follows: 3rd place, Vladimir Zaytsev; 2nd place, Anastasia Saburova; 1st place, Anastasia Arkhipenko. Anastasia Arkhipenko’s profound and professional work caught the interest of the company’s representatives so much that they invited her to extend cooperation.

The winner emphasized in her speech the main commodity of Russia: “I believe that the people should be thankful to the oil for it promotes their development. But in the future, we must seek development by deploying advanced technologies. 

Sustainable Future of Russia Platform for Young Professionals shares the same direction with leaders of our country. In his address to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin placed particular emphasis on the fact that “human capital is the basic wealth of Russia.” It was the reference of the projects developed under the third category “Human Potential as a National Resource and Public Policy Factor of Russia”. Having studied the work of the participants, the experts came to the conclusion: 3rd place, Irina Vinogradova; 2nd place Maria Rasina; 1st place, Elizaveta Zatsepa. 

Elizaveta Zatsepa congratulated her team, “My project helps young people explore the history and culture of our nation.” Undoubtedly, the project has potential to become an important tool for forming the worldview of Russian citizens. 

The category “Legislative Regulation as an Enabler of Sustainable Business in Russia” drove the participants to give a thought on how to pursue flexible and predictable legislative policy in our country, as it is the key to a successful business. The company Unilever coordinated work under the category. The company's Vice President for sustainable business development and corporate relations Irina Bakhtina drew particular attention to the high quality of contestants’ works and their thinking outside the box about existing problems. The places in this category fell as follows: 3rd place, Svetlana Mayorova; 2nd place, Karina Drits; 1st place, Aleksandr Mironov. 

The category winner Aleksandr Mironov expressed words of gratitude, “I would like to acknowledge Sustainable Future of Russia Platform for Young Professionals, ACIG Group of Companies and say sincere thanks to the company Unilever. But, first of all, I want to thank the teachers of my academy who helped me prepare the project.”

The winners were granted cash prizes (amounts varied depending on the places), commemorative gifts from the platform’s partners: Unilever, career portal HeadHunter and Moscow Business School. The young talents may spend the prize money on their education and development. 

Unilever also awarded special prizes to the participants of the original “New Year” nomination. This year, the leader of the world market of food products and household chemical goods decided not to give gifts to their partners for the New Year and instead redirected the company’s funds intended for these purposes to develop the projects introduced under the platform. To pursue this, a whole voting system was elaborated to rally the company's partners. The voting results revealed the most interesting projects aimed at development of a sustainable future of our country. The authors of these projects are Svetlana Mayorova, Aleksandr Portnov, Anastasia Arkhipenko, Maria Rasina. They were awarded additional educational grants. 

Towards the end of the ceremony, Executive Director of the platform Dimitry Lenkevich declared the foundation of Alumni Association of Young Professionals Platform and its chairman Daniil Kozlov, the last year winner. His success story is passed by word of mouth, because a whole delegation from Unilever visited his farm. Daniil noted the significance of this move and expressed hope, stressing that this is another step in the development of the project. 

In the final ceremony, traditionally, the project categories for 2017 were announced under the following names: 

• “Ideal Higher Education System” by ACIG Group of Companies.
• “New Technologies in Food Processing Industry: Addressing Issues of Food Safety, While Ensuring Decent Quality of Consumer Life and Health” by Unilever.
• “Effective Management in State and Municipal Authorities of the Russian Federation” by RANEPA. 

Sustainable Future of Russia Platform for Young Professionals expresses its gratitude to all the participants, partners and organizers who have worked for common welfare throughout the year to ensure that the platform has gained its current identity. We open a new chapter, and not just new members, but also existing partners can become its authors.