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Wall Street Journal
Eugene Buyakin, chief operating officer of computer security specialist Kaspersky Labs, joined the Moscow-based company in 1999, just two years after it was founded. The struggling start-up then just had a handful of staff, mostly scientists, notably, the founders Eugene Kaspersky and his then-wife Natalya.
Mr Buyakin, an economics graduate from the Moscow State University, brought much-needed financial skills to the organization. He'd already proved himself in the often-chaotic world of business which followed the collapse of communism and the break-up of the Soviet Union. At Russia's MKT Bank he'd been employed as a manager in the marketing department, but he rose quickly to become deputy of the board. He left to become finance director of the Rossiski Kredit Group.
When he joined Kaspersky Labs it was at the start of phenomenal growth for the company. This was made more challenging by the way it was following an almost untrodden path in the newly capitalist country. There was then no tradition of turning start-ups into global players.
