EMBA, Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
Elena Vitchak is a Professor of Business Practice at SKOLKOVO School of Management. Elena holds an Executive MBA, and will complete her Master's in Psychology and Psychoanalysis at the Moscow Institute of Psychology in 2022. She also has many years of practical experience in management and human capital management, including as a member of the Board of Directors of the largest companies in Russia and the CIS.
Professor Vitchak is a certified coach for senior managers, and a PCM (Process Communication Model) certified trainer.
Elena's educational and consulting work is focused on topics related to organisational culture, organisational behaviour, leadership, change management, motivation and engagement, analysis of individual behaviour, and issues related to team management and the use of modern HR tools.
Elena is a renowned specialist in the field of the labour market and modern trends and a multiple winner of Kommersant’s Top 1000 of Russia’s Best Managers. She has written for Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, and specialised HR publications. In 2022, she received the SKOLKOVO Teaching Excellence Award, which recognises outstanding teaching, high praise from students, and a vivid teaching philosophy.
Professor Vitchak brings together academic knowledge in organisational behaviour, psychology, general management, communication, coaching, and a wealth of practical business experience. Her academic experience combines perfectly with her in-depth business expertise and knowledge of all tools for managing people and teams.
Elena's 18-year managerial experience has encompassed transformational experience in the consolidation of large assets, the implementation of a management accounting system and corporate policy principles, the transformation of an operating model from an operating holding into an investment group, and much more.
Between 2008 and 2017, Elena held various positions at the AFK Sistema holding, which controls more than 18 assets in all leading sectors of the economy. Over 9 years working in the structures of Sistema (a shareholder company of leading Russian companies MTS, Detsky Mir, MTS-Bank, Segezha Group, Medsi, STEPPE Agroholding, and more), she carried out projects to transform the holding, from changing its management model to changing all management and personnel management procedures.
Since 2017, Professor Vitchak has been teaching at SKOLKOVO on educational programmes related to managing people and teams within an organisation, and also manages Executive Coaching modules on leadership programmes for senior executives of business structures and the public sector.
Professor Vitchak is the Academic Director and Producer of the HR as a Partner for Business and Employee as a Client programmes, which are aimed at helping owners build their people management functions, as well as organising HR processes in the face of high competition for professional staff.
