ICEF Alumnus Appointed Head of Sirius Science City by RF President
Andrey Stolyarov, a graduate from ICEF Bachelor’s Programme class of 2001, has accepted the post of interim head of Federal Territory SIRIUS and as such will be dealing with science and technology development and administrative decision-making for the benefit of business and infrastructure projects.
Andrey was one of the 13 members of the first graduating class of ICEF, which originally comprised 38 students. Among them was his sister, Elena Stolyarova (Schefer). Elena, who currently lives and works in Germany, referred to ICEF in her interview as her “good old golden springboard that sent me right to my high-flying career in business and spared me the drudgery of entry-level roles.”
Prior to his appointment as interim head of Sirius, Andrey Stolyarov held the position of Director General at Sirius Innovation and Technology Center, to which he was assigned by order of the Chairman of the Russian Government, Dmitry Medvedev, on 16 November 2019. In that capacity, Stolyarov was supervising the research and training agendas in the field of production technologies, robotic systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence, genetics and biomedicine, among others. (source)
Incorporated as a federal territory in 2020, Sirius is a science and technology locality near Sochi. Its core lies in the eponymous research and education center, which has since 2015 been dealing also with gifted children and advanced training for professionals from backgrounds as diverse as natural sciences and sports.
Andrey Stolyarov, ICEF Bachelor's degree holder, Interim Head of Sirius Federal Territory:
"It took me quite a while to figure out where to start. In a territory that is yet to make its local laws and shape executive framework, I am currently the only legitimate body. I decided it would be wise to start by talking to people, so I turned to Instagram. Why? Because now, in my first days in this job, this seems to be the fastest way I can the people’s feedback. And I must say it wasn’t a bad choice.
There is a statutory period of five years for this territory to acquire the status of a federal territory. At this preparatory stage, the idea is to have the local administrative staff machinery, including for vital services, minimized to the smallest possible size. This territory offers a good potential for making its administrative procedures simple and more transparent, and we will certainly be working to achieve its full potential.
This new federal territory should yield practices to be good examples to all. This is exactly what we will be working to. Our goal is for Sirius to demonstrate how legislative changes, when applied to one particular territory, can lead to a noticeable positive impact." (source)