Olga Sorokina, a mother of many children, how she lives now. Business women with many children: does this happen? Enlist support, moral and not only
And it’s impossible to have a successful career? But Olga Sorokina, co-owner of one of the leading consulting companies, gave birth to her eighth (!) child last year
Discover America
Olga did not dream of a large family in her youth: there was no example before her eyes. Like her mother, she wanted to build a career and started working with school days: she graduated from a French special school with a medal and worked part-time with groups of foreign tourists. At the same time, already a student at the Law Academy, she met her future first husband and soon followed him to the USA, where she entered university.
“In America, we rented an apartment on campus without furniture, because it was $40 cheaper, and that was a significant amount,” says Olga. — Things were collected almost from landfills. When I tell this to my children, they don't believe it...
The difficulties of American life, however, did not frighten the young couple. They decided to give birth to their first child in the USA: they wanted to provide their daughter with American citizenship.
“It’s even strange that at 18 I was so pragmatic,” she laughs.
However, in the States young parents didn’t stay: they were homesick. Olga returned to law school, started working and again... giving birth to children, of whom there were already four by the time she graduated from university.
There are two paths in law: work within a company and become a specialist in a narrow field, or engage in independent consulting, acting as an adviser to companies from completely different sectors of the economy. The first is stability. The second is risk. Olga Sorokina chose the second. Oddly enough, despite having so many children, there were no problems with work. Olga always managed to negotiate with employers regarding a special work schedule, which was adjusted to the needs of the children.
Children on shoulders
Starting as an international tax consultant, within a year she was managing the company's international legal department, and a few years later she took a senior position (and then became a partner and co-owner) in a large consulting company leading transactions worth billions of dollars.
“I don’t know how to do housework at all,” Sorokina admits. — Other people do all the household chores for me. But the upbringing, education, and leisure of children are on my husband’s and my shoulders.
By the way, Olga is now in her second marriage.
“I never thought that with five children I wouldn’t get married, but I was afraid that new chosen one won’t be able to get along with them,” says Olga. — Before we met, my second husband was a secular young man, he worked a lot and was active. nightlife, far from any children's worries, feedings and diapers, and for a long time I could not believe that I was a mother of five!!! And when he finally realized it, he was worried whether he would be able to build a relationship with the children, support us and take care of us. Happened! We had three more babies!
I ask Olga why many business women they don’t want to have children, they are afraid that it will interfere with their career.
“The stereotypes are strong,” she says. — It is believed that while pursuing a career, you will not be able to pay the necessary attention to children. But you can combine everything successfully. Although there is, of course, no time left for yourself - to lie on the couch, go to a beauty salon. Secondly, labor legislation should give preferences to women with many children. As an employer, I myself am not afraid of employees having children. We support pregnant women - financially and by giving them the opportunity to work remotely. And, finally, the state should stimulate the birth rate not only among the poor. The support that is provided to the middle class today is not particularly noticeable. For example, tax breaks would be very useful to me - they exist in many Western countries. In the meantime, I don’t even have a certificate for a mother of many children—there’s no time or incentive to get it.
City: Moscow
Five years ago, in one of the first issues of Forbes Woman, the head of the legal complex of Sistema, Anna Goldin, talked about how she effectively uses time for the three main components of her life - work, children and health, despite the fact that she works seven days in Week. “Since then, the lifestyle has remained the same,” admits Anna, “I travel a lot. For one working week I can visit two or three countries.”
However, there are changes in my career. Now Goldin, in the rank of advisor to the chairman of the board of directors of Sistema, is engaged in international projects corporations. If previously she focused on legal issues, she is now developing new plans. “Previously, I was part of a large corporate machine and rotated in it like a cog, but now I am creating this machine myself. When I have a new goal - a project, I myself create a route to this goal. It’s more difficult, but more interesting,” says Anna.
According to her, over the past four years, AFK Sistema has undergone a certain transformation and from a company acquiring assets for operating activities, it has turned into a company acquiring assets from the point of view of increasing their value, that is, from a quasi-operational holding Sistema has become an investment company.
What about homemade ones? The eldest son Anthony entered the University of California. “Recently I was leafing through a magazine on a plane and saw new recipe and thought: “I need to cook this for Tony,” says Anna. “And then I remembered: he had already left home.”
Goldin advises all working women to learn to divide their main components - home, work and health - into three different boxes and under no circumstances combine them. “Give yourself fully to the moment you are in right now,” she says. “Don’t bring home work, and vice versa.”
Alexandra Olsufieva, Coolcoz
When hit VForbes Woman:
City: Paris
The heroine of the first issue of Forbes Woman, Alexandra Olsufieva, a Frenchwoman with Russian roots, lived in Moscow in 2009, worked as a lawyer in a large company, ran her own business and held charity dinners and parties, which became very popular in the secular capital. In 2010, Alexandra quit her job and created own fund Generositas and the international online platform CoolCoz for fundraising in favor of various funds and began to live in two cities - Paris and Moscow.
It took two years to create and develop the resource. At the same time, Alexandra, with the help of volunteers, organized more than 200 charity events. The funds raised went to the benefit of the foundations “Nastenka”, “Children’s Hearts”, “Children of Mary”, several Russian orphanages, as well as victims of the earthquake in Japan. In addition, Alexandra took part in two popular culinary TV shows in France and also donated the proceeds to charity. In 2013, Olsufieva left Moscow and settled in Paris to develop her foundation and company.
Coolcoz is now a true crowdfunding platform with a focus on charity and events. The service makes it possible to raise funds for any purpose - from complex operation before a concert or your own startup. In addition, the company provides paid services for subscribers - creation of a mobile application, digital marketing, data analysis.
Since its inception, Coolcoz has held more than 330 events and raised more than €2 million, all of which went to charitable causes.
“I am very happy that everything has turned out this way in recent years and that Coolcoz has developed so much. I like the way the project has become now,” Olsufieva says in an interview with Forbes Woman.
True, now Coolcoz does not work in Russia. After the introduction of new laws over the past two years (the law on foreign agents and the obligation for all NGOs to keep computer servers in Russia), it has become almost impossible for the project to exist in the country, even donations are now difficult to accept in rubles. “They demand too much from us, projects like mine have to be closed here,” Olsufieva admits. “Although, of course, I miss Russia, especially my friends, people in general and some Russian products, for example, sea buckthorn tea.”
Maria Shevtsova, DMP, Mayragon Digital
City: Moscow, Singapore
In 2007, Maria Shevtsova came up with the comparative and analytical portal “SravniSam.ru” and launched the website in 2008. In mid-September of the same year, Russia collapsed stock market and burst out financial crisis. “It was a shock test,” Maria recalled in an interview with Forbes Woman in 2009.
Since then, in Maria’s life, according to her, many events have happened that have radically changed both her personal life and her business.
In 2011, Maria received an offer to purchase “Compare Yourself” from the Sanoma Independent Media corporation, which the founder of the service happily accepted. But after the completion of the first stage of the transaction ( shareholders agreement signed for almost a year and a half) happened within the corporation personnel changes, and the people who started the deal left. And those who replaced them could not immediately get involved in the process; in fact, they pushed the project back for several years and only recently remembered its existence. Thus, Compare Yourself was effectively frozen and is still in that state. “In such a business of large corporations, it is wrong for small startups to deal with big strategists,” says Shevtsova. “For a startup, a deal in six months is equal to death, but for a strategist, signing only a shareholders agreement for a year and a half is the norm.”
Since then, the venture fund Digital Media Partners has become Maria Shevtsova’s main business. There are currently nine companies in the DMP portfolio, one of which MIG33 Shevtsova and partners brought to IPO in Indonesia. “During this time, we have become the main consultants for Russian investors who decide to invest in the booming markets of Southeast Asia,” says Shevtsova.
There are also specifics of doing business in Asian countries. For example, Shevtsova recalls how in Vietnam an attempt was made to withdraw assets from an Internet project in which the fund’s money was invested. It all ended with the police storming the office. As a result, through the hands of one person, a very serious and promising Internet project was greatly thrown back in its development.
Since 2011, after the work on “Compare Yourself” was frozen, Shevtsova completely went into another Russian project related to CPA (cost per action) and created the company “Mairagon Digital”, which became one of the leaders in the industry, with the largest e-commerce stores and banks as clients.
But even here there were some shocks. “After all, we live in Russia, where we are still very far from civilized business practices,” comments Shevtsova and recalls how one of the company’s advisers attempted to withdraw assets before its sale. After a thorough audit, it turned out that an entire scheme was created to purchase traffic through shell companies created by this person. And fearful of an audit before selling the company, he took steps to cover up his misdeeds.
After the sale of Compare Yourself, changes occurred in the personal life of Maria Shevtsova. She was preparing to move to Singapore and continue her career there, but in the end she divorced and remarried, and Maria and her husband had a daughter, Elizabeth. "We are planning to next year“We’ll move our family to Barcelona,” says Shevtsova, “and we’ll live more on planes between Spain, Russia and Singapore. But I will still work in Moscow and Singapore.”
Gulzhan Moldazhanova, Basel
When I got toForbesWoman:
City: Moscow
Former and current CEO of Basel own experience refuted the truth of Heraclitus of Ephesus “You cannot enter the same river twice.” In 2009, when Forbes Woman wrote about Gulzhan, she had already gone from secretary of Aluminumproduct to head of Oleg Deripaska’s holding.
In addition to education, intelligence and self-discipline, she formulated her secret of success as follows: “It is important for a woman to know that she is doing everything right, and not to demonstrate that she is cooler than someone else.” After Moldazhanova left Basel (in 2009, Deripaska took over as CEO in order to negotiate with creditors on debt restructuring on his own), another participant did not fail to take advantage of her talents Forbes list. From 2009 to 2012, she led the business of Grigory Berezkin in the ESN Group.
And three years later, Deripaska came to his senses and returned first to Gulzhan the post of chairman of the supervisory board, and soon the operational management of the holding. Now, more than 250,000 people work at more than 100 enterprises under the command of the native of Almaty. Basic Element“, but she does not forget the rule formulated for Forbes Woman readers: “We do not live only to work.”
Natalia Gandurina, Polina Maltseva, Du Pareil au Meme
City: Moscow
In 2008, two friends - former CEO publishing house "Conde Nast Russia" Natalya Gandurina and Polina Maltseva - created the company National Retail Group (NR-Group), which became the exclusive representative in Russia of the French children's clothing brand Du Pareil au Meme. The friends then expected that by the end of 2009 they would open ten stores. However, they opened six: the crisis interfered with the plans. Over the past five years, the network has grown to ten stores, the eleventh was opened in the Metropolis shopping center in August.
Natalya Gandurina names several reasons why reality diverges from original plans. Firstly, several unsuccessful projects showed a limited number of financially attractive potential sales points in Russia. “In all the stores we closed (there are six of them), the rental rate did not correspond to traffic and revenue. No store will make a profit if the rental share exceeds 25% of revenue. We tried to convey our problems to the developers, but not everyone was open to dialogue,” explains Gandurina.
The attitude towards small businesses on the part of some regulatory authorities, the entrepreneur notes, also had a negative impact on investment sentiment. Business is very dependent on government regulation. For example, this year new standards of the Customs Union require a complete replacement of certificates for children's clothing with new ones. At the beginning of this year, the import of children's clothing to Russia practically stopped because no one knew how to make these certificates.
But Natalya and Polina are not used to retreating. Therefore, we decided to develop the online store Du Pareil au Meme. Currently, sales of Du Pareil au Meme online are slightly lower than in stores, but the share is growing. It is planned to launch other projects on the Internet; NR-Group recently opened a wholesale direction.
Olga Dergunova, Rosimushchestvo
When I got toForbesWoman:
City: Moscow
Appearing on the cover of the spring issue of Forbes Woman four years ago, Olga told in an interview what it cost her, after a 15-year career at Microsoft, to move to work at the state-owned VTB and start doing sales rather than implementing information technologies.
In February 2009, Dergunova was included in the “first hundred” of the reserve of managerial personnel under the patronage of the country’s president, in October 2011 she became a member of the public committee of Medvedev’s supporters, and in the summer of 2012 she made another career somersault and headed the Federal Agency for State Property Management ( Rosimushchestvo).
What has been done on public service? Dergunova organized the work of officials according to the principles of corporate governance - for example, she formed an internal control department (the so-called local “third eye”), based on the principle of banking practice, she erected a “Chinese wall” between the selling and servicing divisions of the agency and created a unified management system in the territorial divisions of the state agency in 83 territories. At the end of 2013, the state received 286 billion rubles from privatization, organizing six public transactions. Among them are the additional capitalization of VTB, which Dergunova knows well, by 102.5 billion rubles, the purchase of TNK-BP by Rosneft and the placement of ALROSA on the Moscow Exchange.
Dergunova never hid the fact that she and her family members are professional workaholics. “In principle, I am for everyone’s happiness, but I will have to suffer along the way,” is how Dergunova described her activities in the civil service in a recent interview with the ITAR-TASS agency.
Olga Sorokina, O2Consulting
When I got toForbesWoman:
City: Moscow
Olga Sorokina became the heroine of one of the first covers Forbes magazine Woman, and not alone, but with her two children. And only with two only because the other five would not fit on a magazine cover. At that time, Olga Sorokina was a mother of seven children, a partner and head of the international legal practice of AGA Management, a leading company in the field of legal and tax consulting, where she was involved in large projects in the field of mergers and acquisitions and support of complex international transactions for the purchase and sale of assets. “I realized very early that children are the best incentive for one’s own development and for successful career, - Sorokina said in an interview with Forbes Woman, - and I don’t know what would have happened if we had one or two children. Perhaps my husband and I would live like this in a small two-room apartment.”
4 years have passed since this article was written. Since then, Olga and her husband Marat have had another boy: Max is now 2.5 years old. And the family, almost in its entirety, moved to Europe more than three years ago. “In principle, we have been thinking about moving for a long time, because we wanted to give our children quality European education, I wanted safety, good ecology, medicine, quality nutrition,” says Sorokina. As a result, it was decided to open a company office in Zurich, as well as a representative office in Italy. Olga herself headed the Swiss office and moved the family with six children. At the time of the move, the eldest daughters were already studying at institutes, so they refused to move, and the family now gets together only for the holidays. The remaining six children began their education in international schools. The eldest of them, Vanya (now 19), decided to return to Russia a year later and entered the Faculty of Economics Plekhanov Academy.
The younger children (two of them are pictured 4 years ago) have completely assimilated. “They grow up in an international atmosphere with friends from different corners world: from Turkey, Germany, Italy, USA, etc. All four, even little Eva at 6 years old, communicate freely, speak, read and write in three languages, and some in four, as Eva and Arthur is learning Chinese as his first foreign language,” says Olga.
Olga and her husband work mostly remotely, so they have the opportunity to personally take their children to training and classes, communicate with teachers and coaches.
There have also been changes in business. In September 2010, AGA Management carried out restructuring and rebranding, the partner group changed, two of the three partners were separated - and the company began operating under the new brand O2Consulting. The company took top positions in international and Russian rankings for two years in a row, in 2012 and 2013, having received the status of one of the leading Russian law firms from Legal 500, Chambers & Partners, Best Lawyers International. For two years in a row, O2Consulting received the M&A Awards (assigned by the International Acquisition agency), and in 2013, the Finance Awards. "All this - international awards and ratings, places in which it is simply impossible to “buy” or obtain in any other way other than the quality of work, the number and size of transactions,” Sorokina proudly adds.
Olga herself is responsible for strategic issues in the company and participates only in some of the most key meetings. In addition, Olga is often invited to participate as a speaker at conferences and business forums, both on narrow professional topics and on topics about the role of women in business, balance and harmony of family and professional life, where she shares her knowledge and experience with women who are trying to harmoniously combine their professional and personal lives.
Elena Masolova, Eduson.tv
When I got toForbesWoman:
City: Moscow
In the spring of 2013, Elena, together with a team of three people, launched a new project, Eduson.tv - video courses on sales, management, personal effectiveness and finance. In the first six months of testing the business model, it had to be changed.
“At first, we assumed that professionals who could not go to Harvard or Stanford themselves would take online courses from a traditional MBA program,” says Masolova. “And then we saw that in companies with 10,000 or more employees who work in different cities, there is a great need for applied courses without sending expensive trainers on site. Corporates have a stronger motivation to train staff, and stand out more money for education."
How expensive are such services? Masolova does not disclose revenue for the first year of the project, but gives an example - a large metallurgical company with a staff of 60,000 people for $100,000 a year has access to 721 video courses. This is only $1.5 per employee, notes Elena; of those who started studying, 56% passed at least 1 exam and received a diploma, and 11% received more than 10 diplomas.
For comparison, at the American analogue Coursera.org, 2-3% of students “survive” a diploma. Another project, BeautyBox.ru, which started in 2011, had to be closed after six months of work due to the high cost of delivery.
Despite the fact that, according to Masolova, she devotes 200% of her time to work, the girl has a completely masculine hobby - Elena trains in a football team. And last fall I was an active participant election program Alexei Navalny to the Moscow City Duma.
By the way, on Eduson.tv you can listen to a free lecture by the head of Navalny’s election headquarters, Leonid Volkov, “Managing a political campaign.”
Alisa Chumachenko
City: Moscow
The founder of Game Insight, Alisa Chumachenko, has been included in Forbes twice. In the spring of 2011, Forbes Woman wrote about Alisa Chumachenko as one of the most prominent figures in the online business. A director by training, Alisa Chumachenko began her career on the Internet from the position of secretary at the Astrum company. “I played a lot of online games and one day I decided that I was interested in connecting my work with this,” Chumachenko said in an interview with Forbes Woman. When Astrum became part of Mail.ru in 2009, Chumachenko, then vice president of marketing, decided to go to own business. She raised part of the investment for the creation of Game Insight from unnamed investors. Later, Igor Matsanyuk’s IMI.VC fund also invested in the company, former president Astrum.
For the second time, Chumachenko was featured in Forbes, and immediately on the cover - together with her partner Igor Matsanyuk.
During this time, Game Insight has become one of the world leaders in the field of development and publishing free games for mobile devices and social networks. Its user base numbers about 250 million people. In 2014, Forbes included Game Insight in the top 10 largest Internet companies in Russia.
Chumachenko herself values internet business precisely for this speed. “The thing that eats me is time. - said the founder of Game Insight in an interview with Forbes Woman. - It goes especially fast in our business. Even during interviews, I worry that I might miss something: maybe something important happened while we're talking, maybe... new technology invented. That’s why in business it’s important not to be inert and to make decisions quickly.”
According to Forbes Woman, published in August 2014, Alisa Chumachenko took 20th place. The magazine estimated Chumachenko's fortune at $90 million (at the time of compiling the rating, she owned 30% of the company).
In May, Game Insight moved its headquarters from Moscow to Vilnius. In August 2014, Alisa Chumachenko left the post of CEO.
From Forbes Woman's comments about her departure and future plans Alisa Chumachenko refused with the words: “Unfortunately, I can’t and don’t want to comment on anything related to Game Insight. Maybe next time".
Anastasia Tatulova, "Anderson"
City: Moscow
When we wrote about Anastasia Tatulova, who decided to leave the position of top manager of a large confectionery holding for the sake of her own cafe, she had just opened the first Anderson. Now this is a network of 12 family cafes, this year plans to open three franchise cafes - in Yaroslavl, Kazan, Almaty.
The number of employees increased from 15 to 500 people. By the way, all five people who started with the first cafe still work in the company. Is it true, Last year three of them are now on maternity leave. As Tatulova jokes, “probably the aura in the company is so childish.” The children's play space, which was completely unplanned for in that first cafe on Ostrovityanova Street, created by Tatulova more for pleasure, became the main “feature” of the network. “Anderson” is sometimes even called a “children’s cafe.”
In November last year, a small confectionery production (200 meters) moved to a new premises with an area of 2500 meters. “The project turned out to be very difficult both financially and morally, it has been taking up all the time, energy and resources for the last year and a half, but in September we will be ready to welcome the first group to our Happiness Factory,” says Tatulova. Interactive excursions Tatulova decided to conduct it in order to show the children what the work of a pastry chef is. Also at the “Factory” there is a loft for large events and weddings.
Anastasia notes that if she had known at the very beginning how all this would happen, she would hardly have agreed to go this route: “But ignorance in this case minimizes fear.”
Evgenia Belonoshchenko, “Baby Club”
City: Samara
When Forbes Woman wrote about the owner of Baby Clubs, Evgenia Belonoshchenko, there were 47 clubs in the network. Three years later, 132 clubs operate under the Baby Club franchise, one is owned by Evgenia. The total revenue of the network in 2013 amounted to more than 300 million rubles.
In 2012 Management Company“Baby Club” received the “Impulse of Good” award from PwC for its contribution to social entrepreneurship. Experts from PwC were very surprised at how well all franchise standards were met. Actually, there was a moment when Evgenia panicked that the partners were moving too far from the Baby Club ideas. Husband Yuri Belonoshchenko helped find a solution ( CEO Management Company "Uralsib"). “Yura remembered that he was once amazed by the checklist of a German cleaning company, and suggested doing something similar.” The Baby Club checklist consists of 302 points, for violation of each point - both for fresh flowers and for the fire alarm - the same fine. Despite the tough conditions, the network is growing. “This is not only a business, but also special world with your values. When people want to do good, and not just sit for eight hours in the office, they buy our franchise,” says Evgenia.
Beyond the franchise children's club(1 million rubles) franchise has now been developed kindergarten(1.3 million rubles) and a franchise for small cities (490 thousand rubles).
Belonoshchenko’s plans are to create an educational empire of the “Baby Club”. It will include its own production “Baby Fan” (stationery, clothing), the “Baby Holiday” franchise, and an educational portal for all teachers, not just their own. “We want to change education through educators. We want as many people as possible who understand the value of a child to work with children,” explains Belonoshchenko.
But the main dream that Evgenia spoke about in a previous interview and which will become a reality in September 2015 is an elementary school “ White crow" In addition to the mandatory school curriculum Children will have subjects “time management”, “ critical thinking", "team building", "self-understanding", "acceptance of others". “We want to prepare children for real life, and not just cram knowledge into their heads. And the most important thing is that they are happy during their studies,” says Evgenia. Renovations have already begun on the school building. Evgenia Belonoshchenko expects that the school project will be successful, since, like the first Baby Club, the school starts from her native Samara.
Irina Golitsyna, Feru
When I got toForbesWoman:
City: Moscow
“I never set myself the goal of making an international career,” said Irina Golitsyna, who in 2012 held the position of general director of the jewelry company Carrera y Carrera in Russia, about herself two years ago. Shortly before this, the Spanish owners sold the brand to new shareholders, who, oddly enough, turned out to be Russian investors, who soon replaced the entire team of top managers.
“I was very worried about leaving Carrera y Carrera, because in any company I work not only as an employee, but also with my heart attached to the work I do, which is completely wrong, but I can’t do it any other way,” says Irina Golitsyna .
Soon she found herself at an interview with the general director of one of the houses high fashion- an impressive 40-year-old Frenchman, who, despite recognizing Golitsyna’s professionalism, made two unexpected comments: the first was the lack of experience in retail, and the second was that “she is too old.” Then 55-year-old Golitsyna decided to continue her academic career and returned to her “native” Faculty of Geography at Moscow State University with the idea of a new series of classes in economic geography.
“My friends who are the same age, even in Europe, admit that at our age they don’t take us anywhere,” says Golitsyna. And then I decided that this was just a problem of the market, which does not need people with rich experience, and not my problem.” Before the beginning school year Golitsyna allowed herself a break to prepare for her daughter’s wedding in Antwerp and for the Winter Olympics in Sochi. “I once had a chance to work on the branding of the Sochi Olympics, but I preferred Carrera y Carrera, and now I was interested to see what happened in the end,” she explains. And then in the midst May holidays, Golitsyna received an invitation to a meeting with the founder of the luxury men's clothing brand Feru Ferutdin Zakirov.
Now Golitsyna’s plans are to develop not only in Russia, but also in the world the men’s clothing brand Feru, owned by a Russian shareholder of Uzbek origin. “Zakirov amazed me not only with his deep knowledge of classical tailoring art, rare for a person who grew up in the USSR, but also with the fact that he was not afraid to take on men's clothing a woman older in age - Golitsyna recalls, comparing this with the impression left after meeting with a representative of the famous French house. “Besides, Zakirov himself has daughters, and it is obvious that he is not afraid of female power.”
Elena Shishkina, SAP
City: London
Despite the fact that Elena Shishkina still continues to be responsible for the company’s finances in the UK, Ireland and Scotland, her business tasks have expanded significantly. “We changed the product portfolio for clients, acquired several companies and integrated them into SAP, and also significantly reorganized the financial organization internally,” Shishkina said in an interview with Forbes Woman. - Now I don’t do accounting and bookkeeping (they do that internal divisions and third-party outsourced companies), but I am responsible for them.”
Even more important events and discoveries occurred in Elena’s non-working life. “On 12/12/12 I gave birth to my second son,” shares Shishkina. - Stefan chose this date himself, which showed everyone around him his character from the very beginning. I went back to work three months after giving birth, now I live in London with my children, and my husband continues to live and work in two cities - his business operates in Moscow. The children constantly travel to both houses and visit Moscow even more often than I do.”
At the same time, Elena admits that recently, together with her family and friends, she seriously thought about the dilemma - what is a career and professional growth in the current understanding and how justified is their upward striving. “This question turned out to be completely ambiguous, and even more so for women,” says Shishkina. – Not because women, having achieved certain family events, no longer want to strive upward, but because there are other options for finding wealth and self-realization. You can stay at one corporate level, but do new things. This is especially significant in such a mature market as the British one. In a mature market, people make choices for the future, but in a slightly different way, and they focus on what is interesting and important right now. That same notorious five-year plan, which in youth seemed endless, can now accommodate a lot of events, and not only career ones. For me, the most important thing now is health and happiness, because everything else is less rewarded.”
Marina Kolesnik, Oktogo.ru
City: Moscow
In 2012, when Forbes Woman wrote about the startup Oktogo.ru (a hotel booking service), its owner and CEO Marina Kolesnik raised $5 million for the project from European venture funds Mangrove Capital Partners and Ventech. In 2014, the total investment in Oktogo.ru reached $26 million. VTB Capital and Victor Sazhin Group were added to the pool of investors.
Part of the investment money was invested in the acquisition of the travel portal Travel.ru in the fall of 2013. “In this way, we combined travel content relevant for the Russian traveler with hotel booking,” says Kolesnik.
Since Travel.ru is the oldest (15 years since its founding) Russian travel portal with a large audience, promotion will be focused on it. Travel.ru will become the entry point for clients and, as Kolesnik plans, will have to meet all their travel needs. Already now, visitors to the portal can book not only a hotel, but also air and train tickets, order an insurance policy for a trip, a transfer to a hotel or a taxi. Kolesnik will continue to expand the range of services. So, next year a car rental service will appear.
Investment funds also went towards development software for direct connection of Russian hotels (today there are 5,500 hotels in the Oktogo.ru database), as well as promotion.
Oktogo was named the most innovative company in Russia by Fast Company magazine. In addition, the Kolesnik company twice - in 2012 and 2013 - won the National Geographic Traveler Awards in the category "Best Internet Service". It constantly introduces new options that are convenient for customers. The bonus program was launched, it came out mobile app Oktogo.ru for operating system iOS. For those who are afraid to use bank cards or do not know how to pay via the Internet, the “Book now, pay later” service has appeared. Online bookings can be paid in cash at Euroset stores and at various payment terminals in Russia.
Kolesnik doesn’t want to miss out on those travelers who don’t have the Internet. For such people, she launched a hotel booking service in the Svyaznoy network (more than 3,000 stores throughout Russia).
In a previous interview with Forbes Woman, Kolesnik named the leading European service Booking.com as her main competitor. But in 2012, she entered into a partnership with a former competitor. Kolesnik constantly makes changes to the business model and believes that flexibility is the key to business success.
City: London
Elena Baturina, Inteco Management Despite the fact that the wife of the former mayor of Moscow has not lived in Russia for several years, she continues to remain Russia and the only representative of the “weaker” sex from the list of the richest Russian Forbes. Baturina ranks 106th with a fortune of $1 billion. Where does the money come from? Three years ago, Baturina parted ways with her main brainchild, the Inteko construction company. Now she manages several properties in Kitzbühel, Austria, owns a hotel in Dublin, Ireland, has invested in US real estate and even invests in solar energy in Europe.
However, her activities are also noticeable in her homeland. In 2012 Baturina in all Russian courts lost to the Federal Property Management Agency the case regarding embassy lands (previously she won all instances in the same case). The court ruled that the Department land resources Moscow illegally registered 24.4 hectares of land in the southwest of Moscow that belonged to Baturina. Now she is trying through the court to recover 33.6 billion rubles from the Ministry of Finance for the funds seized from her in favor of the state in 2013 land in the west of Moscow, as well as 1 billion rubles from the Moscow government to compensate for the costs of building the MEPhI dormitory.
“I know exactly who is to blame for the fact that I’m here, and I won’t even hide it (and he doesn’t hide it), it’s Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, who started this campaign and continues it,” Baturina said a year ago in English BBC interview.
Almost every day in conferences on 7e topics like “Career or children”, “I want to be a housewife!”, “Should I go to work?” appear. Today we are talking with a woman in whose life children, family happiness, professional growth and a successful business have combined, it seems, perfectly. Olga Sorokina (Koneeva) is a lawyer, managing partner of O2Consulting, mother of eight children - five sons and three daughters. The eldest daughter is 20, youngest son- 7 months.
— Olga, did it all start with learning foreign languages?
- Yes. My mother had a dream - she really wanted to learn French. She began to teach him, but could not continue: life was difficult. And she had a fixed idea that her daughters should be fluent in French. Therefore, I was sent to a school where a number of subjects were taught in French.
From the age of 14, I worked part-time as a translator, accompanying foreign groups. It was both practice and income. And at the age of 16, when we went to France, to Brittany, local residents We were completely sure that we were from Paris. But for the last 20 years I have rarely used French, only on vacation.
Based on French, I very quickly learned Italian - I really liked it, and it took literally three months. Within three weeks I could speak freely. Of course, I didn’t know grammar very well, but I could communicate on any topic.
- That is, you are unfamiliar with the feeling language barrier?
“We recently decided to move our family to Europe and began to actively communicate about this topic with friends and relatives. And I realized that many would like to leave, but their tongue holds them back. “Imagine, you will be among strangers,” they say. "Why among strangers?" - I do not understand. "Well, you can't just sit down and talk to them." - “Why can’t I? I can.” - “Well, it’s still hard, it’s not your native language...”
— Is your working language now English?
- Yes. I learned English when I came to the States. My first husband worked as a translator and once got into a conversation with the rector of one of the American universities - he offered to study with them. It turned out that the cost of training is very high, but they can give a grant if you pass the exams. And my husband decided to try it. We went there, he started studying, and it turned out that there was a special program for the wives of students: they have the right to score fewer points to enter the university. Three months later, thanks independent studies and attending free courses for illiterate Americans (I didn’t even know there were such things in America!), I was able to pass the exam and study international law in English for a year at Indiana University.
— Before leaving for the USA, you studied for a year at the Moscow State Law Academy...
“And she continued to study there upon her return.” Law was my choice right after school. Many classmates were planning to enroll in Foreign Languages, but the head teacher dissuaded me from foreign languages: “Why do you need a language, you already have it. Go get a profession. A profession plus a language is what you need.” I am very grateful to her for this advice.
It was not difficult to study. Now I’m watching my daughter study at Stroganovka, and I understand that it wasn’t so hard for me. And at the time of writing my thesis, I can honestly say that I knew my subject better than my supervisor - I was already consulting clients. I could read the Napoleonic Code and a bunch of other untranslated literature, but my teachers could not. I independently studied the legislation of other countries using the Internet. There were no specialists of this level at the time of the start of my career - the mid-90s. It was not difficult to become in demand: people who could bring our and Western businessmen together were worth their weight in gold.
Good difference
— And at this very time you not only studied, consulted, earned money, but also gave birth to children.
— When we got married and left for the States, we expected that our first child would be born there. I knew that there was better medicine there. In addition, American citizenship is conferred by birth...
— So, at the age of 18, you already decided everything in your life on your own?
“My parents really discouraged me from having my first child.” My dad, an obstetrician-gynecologist, believed that I was very sickly and that I should not give birth. In addition, he believed that I should devote my life to a career, to become a famous lawyer or journalist.
— It turns out that your education is thanks to you, but your children are contrary to their parents’ will?
“I just always liked studying, and at some point I had a strong desire to start a family.” Since childhood, I believed that you need to clearly know what you want and enjoy what you do.
— And the age difference between the children was planned?
- Almost always. My sister and I have an age difference of two years - and very a good relationship. I considered that the optimal age difference between children is two to three years: they common interests, they can support each other. The weather is too much. Between the eldest and younger group, as I call them, a six-year gap. Then a break of two years, the weather changed (I also had the desire to “shoot back quickly” - but it turned out to be very difficult). And three years later - the youngest.
— Have you always had assistants?
— With our first child, we didn’t attract anyone. But as soon as I started earning more than a housekeeper, I gradually delegated the entire household. There are professionals, and their hour of time is cheaper than your hour doing what you love.
— How did you study and work with a small child?
“But I didn’t know then that you can’t work with a small child.” I didn’t know that you couldn’t go to the store with a child who had just come from the hospital. I didn’t know that something needed to be wiped, sterilized, ironed. I didn’t know a lot of things, and I felt very calm. It was a little difficult not to get enough sleep while feeding, but that's normal.
— All the children were on breastfeeding? For a long time?
“I’m feeding my youngest for now: I express the milk and leave it.” I think this is important - especially in modern world when there is so little of everything real. One child had to stop feeding at 4 months - this was due to my treatment. And the rest - some I fed until they were a year old, some - until they were 10 months old. Now it’s the way it is in the family that I’m the only one who gets up at night to see the youngest – and I even like it.
— Do you delegate childcare?
“My children have nannies who can cook food, dress them, accompany them somewhere - that is, they are involved in supporting their livelihoods. Or a child sleeps in a stroller for two hours - it doesn’t matter to him who drives this stroller, me or the nanny. From time to time, professional teachers appear who can teach them something: well, say, problems with Russian or another subject. Why would I waste my time teaching children when there are people who can do it better?
But governesses - those who are called upon to spend time with children, communicate with them, educate them - this, I think, is just not necessary. Parents must convey their concept of the world to their children. Governesses cannot be entrusted with going to theaters and museums with children - because this is live communication, you must observe their emotions yourself and experience your own.
— What is important to you in children’s education? What do you expect from school?
“I want from schools that they can interest children, motivate them, and instill in them a love of learning. This is how Western schools won me over. When I spoke with the director of the school where the youngest will go this fall, she said: if a child wants, then even the most incapable can be taught. And it is very difficult to teach the most capable person, if he does not want to. Therefore, they spend all their efforts on instilling in their children a love of learning.
In Russia this was very difficult, because in schools with a good academic level there is often such an atmosphere that you don’t want to go there at all. Nobody likes it when they shout at you...
But in private schools it’s different. The main thing for them is that their parents are happy. The children always went there with pleasure, but they did not go there to study. In theory, the children in this school full day they had to study sports, music, some additional languages - but as a result they did almost nothing. They were always offered a choice: do you want to study Chinese or watch cartoons?
Only after a long time did I get the feeling that they weren’t doing enough work there. I remembered that at that age I worked much harder and strained myself at school. Therefore, I took two older girls and two older boys to the gymnasium and asked them to test them in the main subjects - the results were simply shocking! I realized that everything this private school offered would work - but with my active participation.
After that, we transferred them to home schooling. From the point of view of gaining knowledge, this actually turned out to be more effective, but a psychological problem arose. It turned out that it is difficult for children to work when they have no competition. He is worse, better than others - the child does not understand. Although they communicate a lot with each other, skills such as the ability to build relationships, the ability to make friends, and the ability to protect themselves are not sufficiently developed. And the children felt it: there are no friends, there are no collective holidays, no school competitions. They all came together and said: we want to go to school, we will try very hard. And we found them a good state gymnasium.
— What plans do they have – or do you have in connection with them – for the future?
— The eldest daughter studies at the Russian State University for the Humanities at the Faculty of Cultural Tourism, she is a future art critic. The next daughter is studying at the Stroganov Academy at the Faculty of Design. My son, who is now 14, is going to architecture school. In general, and I can’t say that I’m happy about this, my elders are creative children, they want to get a profession that is not related to business or the areas in which their parents have always worked.
And the younger ones too. A six-year-old child says: “I was made for music and dance.” And I look with hope at my four-year-old daughter: maybe she will at least follow in her parents’ footsteps?
It is important for me that children are kind, that they look at life and people with a positive attitude. It is important to show that the material component does not always determine the spiritual fulfillment of a person, the quality of his education, and the life he will lead.
Interests and compromises
— How to choose a man who will want and be able to handle so many children?
- This is the main thing - to choose a man for yourself and, in general, to choose the right people who surround you. A woman often grabs onto someone who seems acceptable to her and makes some compromises - in advance or only later.
I really don’t like compromise in life and in relationships. Many people say: we need to work on relationships, we need to reconcile - I think that this is a waste of time. You need to be comfortable and in harmony with yourself all the time. And you need to find a person with whom you will have common life principles. How to raise children? What should be the relationship between a man and a woman? What family model do you want to pass on to your children? If you have common views, then the potential for future conflicts is reduced to zero.
It is important not to compromise at the very beginning of a relationship. There are a lot of people, and we must not give up the road to “our” person, clinging to the “not our” person. Because, trying to maintain such relationships, we close for ourselves the path to that happiness that, perhaps, awaits us somewhere.
Women ask: where is the guarantee that we will find “our” person? There is no guarantee. But if you cling to this, you will definitely not find anything.
I think that my life has been successful in this regard. Both in my first marriage and now. We have maintained a good partnership with our first husband, we communicate about children, and we see each other on vacation.
- How do you manage to combine serious business and raising children? Do you know some secret?
- Well, first of all, not everyone needs to combine this. For some, children are enough to realize their goals, for others, work is enough; for others, these components of life exist in other proportions. If a woman wants to realize herself in this way, I can say that it is possible - and I can prove it with my example and somehow support it.
Secondly, a woman must clearly understand what she wants in this life. If there is an answer to the question “what?”, then there is a way to “how”. If she has confusion in her head, she cannot formulate her desire, then it is very difficult to realize it - and this does not depend on the area of application of strength and knowledge.
— What is important to you? Family and children come first, and then?
— I am interested in the subject that I study. My clients do billion-dollar deals, and I serve as their consultant. We are participating in negotiations, preparing everything legal documentation, we check assets, identify risks, and try to evaluate them. We help two parties reach an agreement with each other when they suddenly quarrel and the deal risks not taking place.
On the one hand, this is flattering to me, on the other hand, it’s very high degree responsibility and trust, and I cannot fail to justify this trust. In addition, it is endlessly interesting to communicate with business “icons”, people who have achieved a lot. This is probably as interesting as communicating with famous writers, scientists - the best people in their field. It is very difficult to give up this - it is a kind of doping.
The second important thing for me is income. I want to show my children a lot, teach them a lot, and this costs some money.
It happens that they say: if a woman could not work, she would not work. I tried this option on myself: I take care of the children, and we are completely supported by my husband. But then he works 20 hours a day, does not see his family and has almost no contact with the children. But for me it is important that children “get” mom and dad in equal parts.
Sometimes I feel kind of tired: I want to spend less time on business and more time on family. But I can’t completely give up work, because otherwise I’ll have to change some desires and needs for myself and my children. And I want to show them the maximum possibilities, the whole range - what there is in this life. So that later, when they grow up, when they can make responsible decisions, they can make a choice, knowing that there is a choice.
experience/skills
Olga has been the managing partner of O2 Consulting since its founding. In 2006, Olga took the position of vice president and headed the international legal practice of the consulting company AGA MANAGEMENT, and in 2008 she became a partner of the company. As a result of restructuring in 2010, the company headed by Olga continued to operate under the O2 Consulting brand.
Olga has been practicing law for over 20 years and specializes in supporting cross-border transactions, including issues of international taxation and corporate law foreign countries, building international holding mechanisms and supporting investments.
During her work at O2 Consulting, Olga implemented many projects in the retail, development, finance, mining and telecommunications industries, Agriculture, production and IT. In the business community, Olga is known as a leading specialist in the field of asset protection, as well as in the field of structuring and support of complex international transactions, in which she acts not only as a legal consultant, but also as a negotiator. Olga has an exceptional ability to conduct a constructive dialogue, find original solutions and new paths, and ultimately come to a compromise even on the basis of diametrically opposed positions. Olga also oversees the work of the Swiss family office, part of O2 Consulting, which deals with transactions with personal assets, as well as tax and legal advice to private clients.
education
Olga graduated with honors from Moscow State University legal academy specialty " International law”, and also successfully completed the International Law course at Indiana University (USA). She is the author of numerous articles and publications in the press, the heroine of glossy magazines and business publications, as well as a speaker at numerous conferences and business forums.
Olga is an exceptional person who managed to maintain the perfect balance between successful career in business and a family in which he is raising eight children.
English
Italian
French
publications
selected projects
Transaction support and development tax structure deal to sell one of the most popular MSQRD applications to Facebook Inc.
Supporting the transaction for the acquisition of a controlling stake in Foaminvest (owner of the ISOCOM brand) by NMC SA (the world's leading manufacturer of synthetic foam materials)
Supporting a merger transaction between the leading duty-free retail company Regstaer and the world leader in the travel retail industry Dufry AG
Supporting the creation of a corporate and tax structure for the company Prisma Labs, Inc - the owner of one of the most popular Prisma applications, supporting investment rounds for investors to enter the company, developing a package of documents structuring shareholder relations and developing protection mechanisms intellectual property companies
Development and implementation of an international corporate structure, a structure for ownership and use of IP, as well as a structure for licensing relations for a group of companies that own an IT platform for the provision of services operating in the markets of the USA, Great Britain, Ireland and a number of other countries. Providing advice on issues related to regulation of payment systems and financial organizations in USA
Providing legal support for investment rounds, including direct investment and ICO for a group of companies specializing in construction financing solar power plants<
Creation of an international corporate structure and tax model of an investment holding company for managing development projects
Development of a holding structure and financing structure for one of the leading development companies in the Southern Federal District - A2 group of companies
Restructuring the business of the Gulf Stream group of companies engaged in the development, installation and maintenance of security systems, including the development and approval of a new tax model and structure of commodity and cash flows
Development of an ownership structure and property protection structure for a group of companies owning pulp and paper production
Development of an ownership and management structure, as well as restructuring for a Russian bank (included in the top 100), which is a subsidiary of a foreign financial group
Implementation of restructuring and implementation of a tax model for a company that is a leading IT integrator in the Russian Federation
Development of an international corporate holding structure for the ownership and management of assets belonging to financial industrial groups of Kazakhstan
Reorganization and structuring of the business of a diversified holding company operating in the field of medical equipment trading
Development of an optimal corporate and tax structure for several private equity funds and venture funds in the jurisdictions of the Cayman Islands and Jersey; legal support for the creation of funds
Olga did not dream of a large family in her youth: there was no example before her eyes. Like her mother, she wanted to build a career and started working from school: she graduated from a French special school with a medal and worked part-time with groups of foreign tourists. At the same time, already a student at the Law Academy, she met her future first husband and soon followed him to the USA, where she entered university.
In America, we rented an apartment on campus without furniture, because it was $40 cheaper, and that was a significant amount,” says Olga. - Things were collected almost from landfills. When I tell this to my children, they don't believe it...
However, the young spouses were not frightened. They decided to give birth to their first child in the USA: they wanted to provide their daughter with American citizenship.
It’s even strange that at the age of 18 I was so pragmatic,” she laughs.
However, the young parents did not stay in the States: they were homesick. Olga returned to law school, started working and again... giving birth to children, of whom there were already four by the time she graduated from university.
There are two paths in law: work within a company and become a specialist in a narrow field, or engage in independent consulting, acting as an adviser to companies from completely different sectors of the economy. The first is stability. The second is risk. Olga Sorokina chose the second. Oddly enough, despite having so many children, there were no problems with work. Olga always managed to negotiate with employers regarding a special work schedule, which was adjusted to the needs of the children.
Children on shoulders
Starting as an international tax consultant, within a year she was managing the company's international legal department, and a few years later she took a senior position (and then became a partner and co-owner) in a large consulting company leading transactions worth billions of dollars.
“I don’t know how to do housework at all,” Sorokina admits. - Other people do all the household chores for me. But the upbringing, education, and leisure of children are on my husband’s and my shoulders.
By the way, Olga is now in her second marriage.
“I never thought that with five children I wouldn’t get married, but I was afraid that the new chosen one would not be able to get along with them,” says Olga. - Before we met, my second husband was a secular young man, he worked a lot and led an active night life, far from any child cares, feedings and diapers, and for a long time he could not believe that I was a mother of five!!! And when I finally realized, then, support us and take care of us. Happened! We had three more babies!
I ask Olga why many business women do not want to have children, they are afraid that this will interfere with their career.
Stereotypes are strong,” she says. - It is believed that while making a career, you will not be able to pay the necessary attention to children. But you can combine everything successfully. Although there is, of course, no time left for yourself - to lie on the couch, go to a beauty salon. The second is labor legislation. As an employer, I myself am not afraid of employees having children. We support pregnant women - financially and by giving them the opportunity to work remotely. And, finally, the state should stimulate the birth rate not only among the poor. But it's not particularly noticeable. For example, tax breaks would be very useful to me - these exist in many Western countries. In the meantime, I don’t even have a certificate for a mother of many children - there is no time or incentive to get it.