20.10.2019
Natalya Ivanovna kasperskaya biography. Natalya Kasperskaya is one of the most influential women in the IT world. Kaspersky's wife has always been among the middle peasants
FULL NAME: Kasperskaya Natalya Ivanovna
Date of Birth: February 5, 1966, Moscow
Position held: Russian entrepreneur in the field of information technology, CEO of the InfoWatch group of companies, co-founder of Kaspersky Lab
"Biography"
Natalya Kasperskaya (nee Shtutser) was born in Moscow on February 5, 1966 in a family of engineers, employees of "closed" defense research institutes. She was elected a member of the council of the pioneer team of the school, later - a member of the regional pioneer headquarters. IN Komsomol years- Komsomol. In parallel with her main studies, she was involved in basketball for five years at a children's and youth sports school (DYuSSh). She seriously intended to become a veterinarian, but abandoned this dream due to problems with the study of chemistry. In the eighth grade, she was transferred by her parents from a regular general education school to a school with a physical and mathematical bias at the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI). Upon graduation, she passed the entrance exams to the Moscow State University(Moscow State University) named after M.V. Lomonosov, but did not enter, missing half a point in the competition. Later, with the same grades, she entered the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering (MIEM).Education
From 1984 to 1989 she was a student at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics at MIEM. The topic of her thesis is “ Mathematical model nuclear reactor cooling systems. In addition, he holds a bachelor's degree in business from the Open University in the UK.Career
According to the distribution after the institute, Natalya Kasperskaya worked for six months as a researcher at the Central Scientific Design Bureau (TsNKB) in Moscow and went on maternity leave to give birth to her second child. Natalya began to build her career in the field of information technology only at the age of 28, having settled down in January 1994 on a part-time basis with a salary of $ 50 per month as a seller of accessories and software to the newly opened store of the Scientific and Technical Center (NTC) of KAMI, a company created by a former teacher of her then husband Evgeny Kaspersky from high school KGB of the USSR.Kaspersky Lab.
Since September 1994, Natalia has headed the antivirus distribution department. AntiViral Toolkit Pro(AVP), on which Evgeny Kaspersky's development team has been working since 1991. In two or three years, she managed to establish the main product distribution channels, technical support, and enter foreign markets. The department's initial sales ($100–200 per month in 1994) began to grow rapidly. A year later, their volume exceeded $130 thousand, in 1996 it amounted to more than $600 thousand, a year later - more than $1 million. Income was divided between the team and the parent structure in half. By 1997, the future founders Kaspersky Lab.("Kaspersky Lab"), it became clear that it was necessary to stand out as a separate business.
Natalya Kasperskaya in June 1997 initiated the emergence Kaspersky Lab., insisted on such a name and worked as the CEO of this company for more than 10 years. The initial distribution of shares in Kaspersky Lab was as follows: 50% belonged to Evgeny, another 20% each belonged to two of his fellow programmers Alexei De-Monderik and Vadim Bogdanov, Natalya's share was 10%. Since 1997, Laboratoria's sales have doubled annually. In 2001, the company's turnover amounted to about $7 million, in 2006 - over $67 million.
In August 2007, due to an earlier divorce and a deepening ideological split with Evgeny Kaspersky, Natalya was dismissed by him from her post and removed from the main managerial functions, remaining chairman of the established board of directors of Kaspersky Lab. Her final parting with the once common business occurred in 2011. In 2007-2011, "Laboratory" fully bought out Natalya's share in this company (by 2007, it was about 30%).
Led by Natalia Kasperskaya Kaspersky Lab. has become one of the largest anti-virus corporations with a network of regional offices around the world. At the time of the change of leadership, in 2007, the revenue of the "Laboratory" was $ 126 million. Its capitalization in 2011, when Natalya left the co-owners and left the company, was estimated at more than $ 1.3 billion, and annual revenue - at $ 700 million. After the change of leadership, the growth rate of the latter decreased markedly: in 2009, global revenue Kaspersky Lab. increased by 40%, in 2011 - by 13.7%, in 2012 - by 3%, in 2013 - by 6%.
InfoWatch
After the purchase by Kaspersky Lab of the Antispam technology developed by Ashmanov and Partners, the head of this company, Igor Ashmanov, gave the buyers an idea: he suggested using the antispam engine in the opposite direction - to protect against leaks. In 2001-2002, Kaspersky Lab specialists developed a system that later became known under the brand InfoWatch Traffic Monitor Enterprise, - protection of corporate users from internal threats(DLP system). In December 2003, a subsidiary was founded to develop and distribute the new product InfoWatch. Since October 2007, Natalya Kasperskaya has been the CEO and majority shareholder InfoWatch. This company was part of her share in the division of business with her ex-husband. Natalya Kasperskaya directed her main investments to InfoWatch, in the Kribrum and Nanosemantics joint companies with Igor Ashmanov, as well as in the German anti-virus company G Data Software AG. For the rapidly growing Kaspersky Lab, a by-product InfoWatch with unclear (at the time of allocation) prospects was a burden. Technological solutions and product line of the new company, in contrast to "Laboratory", are initially focused on large and medium-sized corporations (from 300 workstations), and not on small businesses and retail. This required fundamentally different skills and approaches, where Natalya's previous managerial experience was not very applicable. However, already in 2012, the previously unprofitable company InfoWatch for the first time went into the "plus" and continued to grow rapidly, by 60-70% per year. According to Forbes, revenue InfoWatch in 2014 amounted to 831 million, independent experts interviewed by Kommersant in the spring of 2015 estimated this business at $40–50 million. InfoWatch has become a group of companies from several subsidiaries grouped in two directions - protecting corporations from internal threats and from targeted attacks from outside. It occupies about 50% of the Russian market of confidential data protection systems (DLP-systems). Among long-term clients are Russian government agencies, as well as Sberbank, Beeline, Lukoil, Tatneft, Surgutneftegaz, Sukhoi, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), etc., the company is actively promoting its business in Germany , in the Middle East, in the countries of South and South-East Asia. Current Shareholders InfoWatch- Natalia Kasperskaya and Deputy General Director of the enterprise Rustem Khairetdinov.personal fortune
The first to evaluate the personal fortune of Natalya Kasperskaya was the Finance magazine in 2010 - then, according to the editors of this business publication closed in July 2011, it was $ 450 million. The publication caused a public controversy: on the air of the Finam FM radio station, Kaspersky denied the data , describing them as highly overestimated, and questioned the adequacy of the calculation method. However, the following year, Finance revised its estimate, increasing it to $462 million.
According to business magazine Forbes, in March 2013, the state of Kaspersky was $ 220 million. In 2014, he also estimated it at $ 230 million, and in 2015 - at $ 270 million. ". In July 2015 the German magazine Der Spiegel published the result of his calculations - € 207 million. In August of the same year, the version of the women's magazine became known Cosmopolitan- $270 million
According to Spiegel, most of Natalya Kasperskaya's personal fortune is the proceeds from the sale of assets. Kaspersky herself in October 2015, in response to the question whether the results of Forbes calculations correspond to reality, indicated that the company she owns is non-public, with a priori unknown capitalization, but “if InfoWatch evaluate well, then normally counted.
views
About entrepreneurship Natalya Kasperskaya calls the paradox of entrepreneurship a situation in which investments are most difficult to attract at the very beginning of a business, when they are urgently needed. The more successfully the business develops, the more favorable investors become. Over time, they begin to run after the owners of such a business, but at this stage their money is no longer required - after all, in exchange, a potential investor will want a share in an established profitable business. With start-ups, the conversation is different: since the prospects are unclear, in exchange for funding, investors will demand control from their owners and begin to dictate what and how to do, which can ruin the business. Therefore, if a startup has a choice, Natalya believes, it is better for him not to attract external investments at all. She is sure:You can get money on good terms only if you prove that you do not need the money. The more money you need, the worse the conditions will be. Kaspersky, however, explains that for a pragmatic investor, when buying a startup, it is more logical to leave the team of its creators at the helm than to take additional risks by attracting third-party management at its discretion. And for this, the creators need a powerful incentive, the best of which is a share in their own company. Natalya Kasperskaya recalls that having bought out 100% of one of the startups at the stage of the conflict of shareholders, she later gave two of its top managers a package of shares back so that they would continue to grow their business.
Natalya Kasperskaya considers three main features of an entrepreneur: the ability to sacrifice something, to try new things only out of curiosity and at the same time have a penchant for making money - the latter distinguishes an entrepreneur from a stuntman. When investing, she advises paying attention not to current market trends with exponential growth, but to areas in which you are well versed. Without this, it is impossible to take into account the hidden circumstances that are discovered only from within a particular market and for which skills are needed. It takes 5-6 years of work to master these skills in any industry, therefore, according to Kaspersky, it is more profitable to stay in “your” depressive industry, rather than rush about, even during a recession. At the same time, however, you can miss the moment when the industry dies off for good. Natalya Kasperskaya assesses the role of the CEO as deliberately lonely: he has no one to consult with. Business partners do not always understand the specifics or may have their own interest, and the status does not allow discussing the strategy with subordinates. However, the Internet removes unnecessary barriers if you take the time to communicate with subordinates. As Natalya notes, not everyone dares to come to the head with their proposals in person, but it is much easier to do this on the Web, so there is more trust in the end.
This, according to Kaspersky, has a downside. If in the mid-2000s the personnel service was alarmed by the fact that the interviewee had his own blog or account in social networks, by the mid-2010s it would rather be alarmed by the statement of the job seeker that he had nothing of the kind. As Natalia notes, companies have begun to strive for comprehensive control over the actions of their personnel. About Internet Security Kaspersky believes that even though “black lists” and blocking of prohibited sites are half-measures that need to be improved, nothing better has yet been invented. Nevertheless, the filtering of Internet content should, in her opinion, be applied only in the fourth place after prevention - systemic explanatory work with parents, teaching children with disabilities. preschool age understanding of the main Internet threats, as well as legislative activity and punishment of violators. At the Internet 2015 forum held in Moscow in December 2015, Natalia Kasperskaya outlined key proposals for tightening Internet regulation to the President of Russia, who, on the other hand, noted that he shared this approach. According to Natalia, the use of personal data by any organization needs to be introduced into the legal field and streamlined. This has not yet been done, despite the explosive growth of opportunities for collecting such data about citizens on the Internet, especially in social networks, for various manipulations. Kaspersky is surprised that the use of big data is being lobbied in Internet marketing, but few people consider this topic from a security point of view. Meanwhile, collecting big data about users of various electronic devices and services is surveillance. In addition to automatically collecting, storing and analyzing arrays of data on the activity of citizens, their movements, preferences, relationships with each other, purchases, negotiations, public and non-public records, photos and videos, etc., there are ways to extract from total weight individual dossier, Natalya Kasperskaya points out. If the selected object is, for example, an official admitted to state secrets, there is a threat national security, since all of the listed data is at the disposal of American manufacturing companies and, as a result, the United States. But that's not the only risk, Kaspersky warns. Dominating the global computer technology market, the United States is able to impose an embargo on the use of any of its devices and software products - for example, it is technically possible to remotely turn off Windows in Russia on all computers at once, turn off all smartphones at once, stop technical support for any corporate systems, making it inaccessible updating and blocking them. Natalya recalls that there have already been similar cases - for example, when the embedded computer worm Stuxnet disabled Iran's nuclear industry.
According to Natalya Kasperskaya, malware can be located right in the processor. In a similar way, a foreign manufacturer is able to arrange infrastructure sabotage, targeted attacks, including those of a propaganda nature, which are weapons in the information war in which Russia is. As long as the United States remains a de facto monopoly in global sales of leading software and hardware, the rest of the world (and, in particular, Russia) will have to put up with the listed risks, which, according to Kaspersky, are becoming unacceptable. About IT import substitution Natalya Kasperskaya believes that Russia needs to develop a national technology strategy and IT platform, its own independent chain of full-cycle solutions in the field of information technology, from the processor to the software. It is necessary to prioritize and understand what to replace in the first place, what in the second, to define the very concept of cybersecurity. She states that in the field of software (software), Russia's positions are already quite strong today - there is a large number of products that can replace foreign ones. The volume of IT exports from Russia in 2015, according to the Ministry of Communications, amounted to $ 7 billion (for comparison: export Russian weapons for the same year - about $15 billion). Order 70 Russian companies work in the field of information security, that's enough. The main thing that the industry is sorely lacking, according to Natalya, is not subsidizing developers, but stimulating demand. The most obvious way to create it is to oblige state-owned companies or companies with state participation to buy domestic. Kaspersky is aware that, for example, it is unrealistic to replace Windows on mass computers in the coming years. However, if we consider specific areas - for example, a school tablet - this becomes possible. Already now there are both potential Russian developers of the corresponding software (for example, based on Linux systems) with support for most applications instead of Android from Google, and Chinese counterparts of adequate quality in terms of hardware. If there is a state order, additional funding will not be required here, Natalya believes. Natalya Kaperskaya does not share the idea of limiting IT import substitution to only software: the same mobile devices are, in fact, an inseparable symbiosis of hard & soft. In the field of hardware, Russia is still lagging behind (there is no element base, its own processor, the main functional units), but all this, except for the processor itself, has already been developed in China - and with software, according to Natalya Kasperskaya, it’s just worse there than in Russia. Synergy between the two powers would ensure digital sovereignty for both. The processor will have to make your own and share it with the Chinese. About Russia WITH pioneer years Kaspersky believed that her native country should be defended, she was initially patriotic and is now confident that she will remain so in the future. In 1991, Natalya, like those around her, wanted to change society and during the days of the August Putsch she herself went to the barricades, but now she is ashamed of this episode of her life: she realized that she was on the wrong side.
Kaspersky sees the 1990s in Russia as a window of opportunity, when “everything was easier,” including starting your own business. At the same time, the sharpness of the then changes, the general instability of the country and the dangers caused by this, up to the murders of entrepreneurs, led to the fact that people feared for the future and left Russia. For itself, Kaspersky emigration excludes: “Drop everything and run, hide in the bushes - where, in which country?”. She feels her roots in Russia - her parents and relatives, friends, business. Nevertheless, from the point of view of entrepreneurship, it is uncomfortable for Natalya Kasperskaya to close herself only in her own country. By organizing significant part business abroad, she compares Russia to a small pond, while the rest of the world is to the sea. Nevertheless, as of the mid-2010s, Kaspersky estimates the volume of the Russian market for corporate information leakage prevention systems (DLP systems) at $80 million, which is about a tenth of the global one. “Russia in this sense is a completely advanced power. In the field of DLP, we are absolutely ahead of the rest,” Natalya believes. For example, in terms of the severity of competition: if in the US the market is divided by only five DLP-suppliers, in Russia there are already seven of them.
Private life
HobbiesNatalya Kasperskaya liked social activity from school. She recalls how she sang in a children's choir, took part in school performances, concerts and pioneer propaganda teams, drew wall newspapers and composed poems for them. In addition, she went in for sports - basketball, skiing, swimming, and also collected postage stamps, badges and Soviet coins.
In her student years, Natalya became interested in the theatrical life of Moscow, knew the repertoires of the main youth theaters of that time: the name of the Moscow City Council, on Taganka, Sovremennik - and sometimes spent the night in lines for tickets to fashionable performances. In addition, the KSP movement influenced her, she herself often sang with the guitar in companies. Later came hobbies trampoline, skiing, traveling in the company of friends and children, reading professional literature. Natalya Kasperskaya calls Good to Great and Built to Last by American business consultant Jim Collins her favorite books that have influenced her worldview. She is fluent in English and German.
Kaspersky admits that she does not know how and does not like to cook, although she was forced to do this in maternity leave. She does not understand clothing brands, does not remember them and does not spend time shopping, including online shopping, but simply buys what she likes and fits well. Natalia has no reverence for brands, because she understands how these brands line up. Similarly, she has a negative attitude towards gadgets and social networks, because she understands that these are ways to spy on a person. But she is forced to use the donated Sony Xperia, and provides her presence in social networks through a PR service, she herself rarely goes there.
Family
Natalya met her first husband, Evgeny Kaspersky, in a rest home in January 1987, when she was 20 years old. Six months later, they got married. In 1989, while in her fifth year at the institute, Natalya Kasperskaya gave birth to her first child, Maxim, and in 1991, her second son, Ivan. The couple separated in 1997 and divorced in 1998 at the initiative of Eugene, however, due to the overall rapidly growing business, they were forced to hide the fact of divorce for a couple more years so as not to demotivate employees and the market. Igor Ashmanov, the future second husband, was introduced to Natalya in 1996 at the CeBIT IT exhibition in Hannover: the stands of their companies were next door. A year later, meeting again at the same exhibition, they resumed their initial acquaintance with a hat, starting to actively communicate on professional topics. As Kasperskaya recalls, two or three years later, after her divorce from Evgeny, they began dating, and in 2001 they got married. In 2005, Igor and Natalya had a daughter, Alexander, in 2009 - Maria, in 2012 - Varvara. The sons of Kaspersky graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University (MGU): Maxim - Faculty of Geography, Ivan - Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics. Ex-husband - Kaspersky Evgeny Valentinovich- Russian programmer, one of the world's leading experts in the field of information security. One of the founders, main owner and current head of AO Kaspersky Lab, an international IT security solutions company with more than 30 regional offices and leading sales in 200 countries. Laureate of the State Prize in the field of science and technology for 2008. In the press it is characterized as a "thunderstorm of computer crime""The driving force" of Russia according to the Financial Times
- (Blogger), - (Representative of Russia to NATO), Vladislav Surkov- (Acting head of the presidential administration of Russia), Anton Nosik- (Journalist / blogger), Oleg Kashin- (Journalist), Evgeniya Chirikova- (Leader of the movement "In Defense of the Khimki Forest"), Tatyana LokshinA- (Human rights activist), - ( socialite), Valeria Guy- (Film director), Alexey Popogrebsky- (Film director), Vasily Barkhatov- (Theater director), Marat Gelman- (gallery owner), Arkady Volozh- (general director of "Yandex"), Sergey Belousov- (CEO of Parallels), Yuri Solovyov- (Deputy Chairman of the Board of VTB Bank), Eugene and Natalya Kaspersky- (co-owner of Kaspersky Lab),"Companies"
InfoWatch, Kaspersky LabKasperskaya Natalya Ivanovna is mentioned in the press:
Kaspersky: In the Russian Federation it is impossible to speak about cybersecurity
The founder of Kaspersky Lab told what problems Russia has in the field of information security.
Natalya Kasperskaya will open a monitoring center for information attacks in Innopolis
InfoWatch CEO Natalia Kasperskaya announced the opening of a federal center for monitoring information attacks. It is expected that the organization will begin its activities in the next six months in Innopolis.
Elena Baturina retained her first place in the ranking of the richest women in Russia
The top ten also included the founder of the Wildberries online store Tatyana Bakalchuk ($500 million, third place), member of the board of directors of the Progress Capital investment company Olga Belyavtseva ($400 million, fourth position), and the owner of the Sodruzhestvo group of companies Natalya Lutsenko (325 million, fifth line), board member charitable foundation Andrey Guryev Evgeniya Guryev ($260 million, seventh), tennis player Maria Sharapova ($260 million, eighth), InfoWatch CEO Natalia Kasperskaya ($190 million, ninth), main owner of Sibir and Globus airlines Natalia Fileva ($190 million, 10th)
Natalya Kasperskaya spoke about the system for intercepting conversations in the office
InfoWatch CEO Natalya Kasperskaya spoke about the principles of the interception system telephone conversations in the office, Kommersant FM reports.
“What we are doing looks like this: these are some virtual cells that are placed inside, it intercepts calls coming through this virtual cell on the white list. This means that the list is predetermined by the employer. And only those phones that are included in this list will be analyzed accordingly,” she said.
Three IT-entrepreneurs entered the rating of the richest women in Russia
Natalya Kasperskaya: "Spring Law"? If there is, then everyone must comply with it.
Changes in legislation in live Pravda.Ru was commented by Natalya Kasperskaya, President of the InfoWatch group of companies, co-founder of Kaspersky Lab.
The company of Natalia Kaspersky bought the German manufacturer of anti-virus software cynapspro
InfoWatch Natalia Kasperskaya bought a controlling stake in the German developer of anti-virus software cynapspro. Now the companies intend to start expanding into European markets. In the near future, InfoWatch and cynapspro will create a new joint brand for services aimed at small and medium businesses.
Natalya Kasperskaya thanked the MUR and the FSB for saving her son
MOSCOW, April 25 RIA Novosti. Natalya Kasperskaya, the mother of Ivan Kaspersky, who was released from the hostages the day before, thanked the participants in the operation to free her son on her Facebook profile. “Murovtsy need to erect a monument! also helped a lot. Thank you to everyone who supported us during this difficult time!” she wrote.
Natalya Kasperskaya: “We did not spare money for the ransom of our son”
The kidnappers turned out to be an unemployed Saveliev family from Moscow and two friends of their son. The young man was kept for five days in a cold bath without windows, handcuffed. Due to the constant darkness, Ivan thought that he spent only two days in captivity, and not five, as it really was.
Natalya Kasperskaya: “We will still do a private placement as the first step towards an IPO”
Interview. One of the most successful Russian business women, who managed Kaspersky Lab until 2007, is now working on her own project. But the former employer does not leave without attention.
It is specified that Kaspersky withdrew from the board of directors as a result of the re-election of its members. In addition to Evgeny Kaspersky, the council still includes three representatives of the company: Buyakin, Steven Orenberg and Alexei de Monderik, as well as John Bernstein from the General Atlantic investment fund. It was this company that acquired shares from Natalia Kasperskaya in January.
Natalia Kasperskaya: women are better where there is communication
The proportion of women among chief accountants is 93%, HR directors 70% and financial directors 48%, the document says. However, in positions such as CEO, chairman of the board of directors and president, there are still very few women, company experts say. About the difficulties of doing business for women in Russia, BBC Russian Service correspondent Mikhail Ternovykh spoke with one of the most successful Russian business women, one of the founders of Kaspersky Lab, Natalia Kasperskaya.
Natalya Kasperskaya gave birth to her fourth child
Natalya Kasperskaya, one of the most famous and respected IT ladies on the Russian market, CEO of Infowatch and wife of Igor Ashmanov, gave birth fourth child. The girl was named Mary.
Natalya Kasperskaya: "An entrepreneur is a person with a high level of aggression"
Natalya Kasperskaya heads the board of directors of Kaspersky Lab, manages Nanosemantics and InfoWatch companies, and works as an investor with the Navystavka.ru startup. Working in the IT business for more than 10 years, she realized that the main thing is to establish contact between salespeople and programmers. “If the situation gets out of control, I always side with the programmers. The main work rests on them, they create the product,” she said at a meeting organized by the Club of Successful Businessmen
Natalya Kasperskaya: "InfoWatch technology is not exactly surveillance"
On last week It became known that the chairman of the board of directors of Kaspersky Lab, Natalya Kaspersky, headed InfoWatch, a subsidiary of LK, which produces software to protect against internal threats. At the same time, Kaspersky redeems 50% plus one share of InfoWatch, and a decision was made to issue an additional issue of the company's shares in order to attract new investments. Former CEO of Infowatch, Evgeny Preobrazhensky, was fired, along with several other employees of the LK.
Business lady Natalia Kasperskaya.
Perhaps Evgeny Kaspersky would have remained a talented, but little-known programmer, if not for his ex-wife Natalia. It was she who established the successful sale of her husband's IT developments. And if the business began to flourish, then the Kaspersky family broke up. But Natalya and Evgeny managed to maintain their relationship and are still co-owners of Kaspersky Lab.
Kasperskaya Natalya Ivanovna – CEO of the InfoWatch Group of Companies, co-founder of Kaspersky Lab
Biography
In 1997, together with ex-husband Evgeny Kaspersky Natalia Kasperskaya founded the Kaspersky Lab company and became its CEO. For 10 years, under the leadership of Natalia Kaspersky, Kaspersky Lab has gone from an unknown startup to one of the leaders in the international IT market with a turnover of half a billion (in dollar terms).
In 2003, Kaspersky Lab created a subsidiary company, InfoWatch, which was engaged in developments in the field of protecting enterprises from information leaks. In 2007, Natalya Kasperskaya took the post of CEO in this company. In the same year, at the initiative of Natalia, InfoWatch begins active expansion, first to the European, and then to the Middle East and Asian markets.
From 2009 to 2013 Natalya Kasperskaya headed working group in Information and Communication Technologies within the framework of the Federal Target Program "Research and Development in Priority Areas of Development of the Scientific and Technological Complex of Russia for 2007-2013" of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.
In 2010, at the initiative of Natalia, InfoWatch, together with Ashmanov & Partners, created a subsidiary, Kribrum, which develops a service for monitoring and analyzing the reputation of companies, brands, and persons in the media space.
In 2011, with the acquisition of the German company cynapspro GmbH, which develops products for protecting corporate network workstations, Natalia transformed InfoWatch into a holding company of the same name.
In early 2012, Natalia became a shareholder of the Canadian company Appercut, which became part of the InfoWatch holding. Appercut is developing a software product designed to automatically audit the source code of custom business applications for vulnerabilities and bookmarks.
In October 2012, Natalya Kasperskaya invested in shares and joined the board of directors of the German anti-virus company G Data Software AG.
In 2013, Natalya Kasperskaya invested in the Russian startup Taiga, which was part of the InfoWatch Group of Companies. Taiga develops an innovative protection system mobile devices from tracking and stealing information.
Led by Natalia Kaspersky InfoWatch became the recognized leader of the DLP market in Russia and CIS countries.
Family
Natalia is married for the second time. Her husband is a businessman Igor Ashmanov, a specialist in the field of artificial intelligence, software development, project management. Natalia Kasperskaya has five children, two sons from her first marriage and three daughters from her second.
Achievements, awards
Natalya Kasperskaya is a laureate of numerous prestigious international awards in the field of information technology:
Laureate of the prestigious international award "Russian Business Leader of the Year" for merits in the development of the Russian IT industry according to Horasis, the Global visions community.
Winner of the Women in Technology Awards EMEA 2014, in the nomination "Best Information Technology Entrepreneur".
Nominated by the British edition of BRIC Magazine for the title of the most influential person in Russia in the first quarter of 2015 for his contribution to the development of the IT industry.
Laureate of the "Information Security of the Bank" award 2015.
Natalia Kasperskaya actively invests in the development of high-tech companies, is a member of the advisory boards of:
- Russian Venture Company,
Department of Strategy, Analysis and Forecast of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.
Member of the board:
Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP),
Association of Software Developers (ARPP) "Domestic Soft".
Member of:
Expert Council on Russian Software under the Ministry of Communications and mass communications RF,
Working subgroup "Internet + society" under the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation,
Grant Committee of the Skolkovo Foundation,
Skoltech Board of Trustees,
Union of machine builders of Russia,
Information Protection Association (IPA),
Association of Information Security Experts BISA,
Board of Trustees of the Eurasian Cancer Foundation (EAFO).
Links
December 2015:
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August 2015:
She is not in a hurry - although the assistants plan her daily schedule literally by the minute. He answers all questions simply - although in life and in business he solves problems of almost prohibitive complexity. Tall, with a perfect posture, a calm smile and an even, deep voice, she involuntarily makes you want to imitate her - although you understand that copying here is most likely impossible.
Natalya Kasperskaya is the owner of the InfoWatch group of companies, co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, one of the richest women in Russia and the mother of five children. After college, still undecided on a career, she gave birth to two sons and went part-time as a software salesman. Having felt the taste of entrepreneurship, it was she who saw the commercial potential in the fact that her first husband Evgeny “sitting and coding”, and in 1997 she insisted on creating her own company. Thanks to this, literally on every computer today there is a famous antivirus. And his “godmother”, who turned a startup into an international corporation with space turnover in a decade, then managed to survive a dramatic divorce and a difficult division of shares in the business, resigned as CEO ... and started again from scratch. Or rather, from the development of a fundamentally different concept for her new company, InfoWatch, which, according to Kaspersky, “had only one name at the time of launch.”
M.C.: Natalia, today Marie Claire is celebrating its 20th anniversary in Russia – and you created the first big business, then changed course and built their own grand career. When you started, there was no such excitement around information technology as it is now, this industry has not yet been called a “dream job” and a “portal to the future”. How and when did you realize that you wanted to work in IT?
Natalia Kasperskaya: I think this happened two or three years after we founded Kaspersky Lab. That is, around the beginning of the 2000s, when it became clear that she had already survived both the first and second crises, and we were in the middle of the third. In general, difficulties of different levels and crises are normal at the beginning of a startup. Then I began to understand that I was here for a long time, that I would do this all my life. In fact, I remained in the field of information security - although I later left Kaspersky Lab.
Luck and perseverance
When they ask you about secrets successful business, you say that it is important to catch "subtle signals of luck" ...
I wouldn't say very thin. (Laughs) They are quite specific. Probably, in companies, as in people's lives, a lot also depends on luck. From the position of the stars, if you like. You can study some business methods for a long time, try to apply them, but if the “stars do not add up”, it is unlikely that everything will be easy.
You do not want to say that you read horoscopes at work, do you?
No, I don't read at all. (Laughs.) And I do not believe in horoscopes - I think that this is complete nonsense. But luck, of course, is, and it is predetermined by clear factors. For example, it is important at what point you enter the market. That's right - this is at the time of the initial growth of the market. Well, if the country has a very good situation with personnel. And there are opportunities that no one has yet discovered, and you have already found them. But the question is - how many people do we know who get to the right point? There are very few of them, enchanting career ups are a rarity. In the IT world, this is Bill Gates and his Microsoft, Steve Jobs and his Apple, Brin with Page and Google. Note that Gates and Jobs, peers, started at the same time and in a situation where there was already a need for computers for the population, but there were no normal means. Computers were at that time too complex, cumbersome, inconvenient to use. In fact, both, albeit in different ways, came to offer the public private computers for home use. And as a result, mega-corporations with multibillion-dollar turnovers were born. In another example, Dell figured out how to assemble efficiently and came up with a unique model for selling PCs directly, thereby drastically lowering the price of PCs and making them even more affordable. And she also found a place in the market - it turned out to take off. Google, which, by the way, was not the first in search engines (there were already four or five search engines), came up with an algorithm that was head and shoulders above everything else on the market. And because of this, they were able to fly.
In summary, we can say that the secret of a great business is when you do something very what people need which is currently being implemented either insufficiently well or not being implemented at all. I like this comparison: as if you were swimming along the river and fell into a rapid - you will be carried further without your will, and you just need to row so as not to be thrown out of the stream.
And if the flow does not carry?
Then you fight somewhere in the backwater, trying to pull out, and you are thrown back by a wave, and everything moves extremely complicated and slowly. Here, for example, InfoWatch is such a difficult child, we did not immediately manage to fit into the rapids. We had to wallow at the shore for a long time - then crises covered us, then the market stopped growing and we had to spend a lot of effort on its development, then suddenly new competitors appeared out of nowhere.
So it's not just luck?
Well, you have to be stubborn, of course.
Which of your accomplishments are you most proud of?
You know, InfoWatch has grown almost three and a half times over the past three years. And the project was really very difficult, a constant struggle, from the first day. I took it in 2007, practically from scratch I began to understand. A year later, I began to understand something in business - and then there was a crisis, sales fell by 60%. We release a new version - it does not work. You have to roll back to the old one and at the same time completely rebuild the entire development. And then everything in the same spirit! Pulled out one wheel - stuck others. The fact that the project is now moving and even flying is a colossal achievement.
Money and risk
I often communicate with Marie Claire readers - many of them have already succeeded in business, others dream of it. How do you know if it's "yours" or "not yours"?
And there is no need to understand. If a person has this tendency, it will definitely manifest itself. To do this, at least two qualities must converge - the love of money and the love of risk. If it is, most likely, the person has the makings of an entrepreneur. You can talk about other features, but these two are the main ones.
Well, everyone probably loves money, but most would like to protect themselves from risks ...
And entrepreneurship is generally a story about risk. First of all. You make something new, go to market with it, and the probability of a new product failure is over 90%. This must be understood. How, for example, does the venture capital market work? Companies create new products, go to venture capitalists and ask them for funding. Capitalists look at these companies very carefully, select business projects and invest in those that they consider the best. As a result, a good venture capitalist, on average, has the following ratio: only one company out of ten shoots, makes a breakthrough, really brings in big money. Three-four, depending on luck, go neither shaky nor rolls, and the rest simply disappear. That is, only half of the “live” companies remain in the portfolio, of which three or four have to be constantly supported, and only one takes off. But this one pays for the costs of all the others. And note that only a tenth of all applicants get into the portfolio of a venture capitalist - there is a very careful selection. And for risky investors (who invest according to the principle of three "F" - "family, friends, fools"), the success rate is even less - 1:15.
That is, first of all, you need a strong nervous system. And what else?
Those who are afraid of risk should not even try. And yet, if a person starts his own business, he must be well versed in it. Although history knows different cases. For example, when a person began to engage agriculture, being a candidate of physical and mathematical sciences. (Laughs.) He just became interested, he delved into all the processes, spent a lot of time on it, did not give in to difficulties - and he succeeded.
Strength and balance
Do you think there is such a thing as "women's business"?
I think so: women are more open to people than men, they are able to feel and hear them better, they are more relationship-oriented. Although this rule is not for everyone - and among women there are those who spoil everything in any relationship.
Does the focus on relationships help or hinder more?
It's not always the same. When you need to be tough, maybe it's harder for a woman. When you need to build relationships, it's easier. I think, as always, you need to strike a balance. If a woman knows that she has a soft character, it is better to have a partner who will take a hard line. Or find an assistant, for example, a strong head of security - the risks must be reduced. This rule works not only for women, but for any manager. You need to understand your weak sides and to select as assistants people who have these sides - strong.
Do you have effective communication techniques?
I am not sure. It seems to me that as a woman, first of all, I have the ability to listen. It is difficult when the points of view of subordinates differ greatly and it is necessary to bring them together somehow. Because I am categorically against violent measures. A person cannot be ordered to do something against his will. It will be inefficient and end badly. So, you need to convince. If this fails, I suggest: let's try your own way, and we'll see. Very often a person tries, then comes and admits: okay, let's do it your way. (Laughs.) However, I often turn out to be wrong. And this is also good - it gives me the opportunity to learn.
Threats and protection
How to keep up with new technologies today? How do you feel about new gadgets?
We are engaged in protection and in this sense we are in the rearguard of information technology. Protection always appears "after". Suppose a new gadget appears on the market. At first everyone is delighted, and then it turns out that the new super-technology has dual-use capabilities - for espionage, for stealing information, or new Trojans that are not recognized by current antiviruses work for them. Therefore, I do not like new gadgets - I think they are a priori unsafe, we just do not know these threats yet. So my husband and I were discussing whether to buy a new car. But I don’t want to - there is built-in Wi-Fi, the possibility of remote control, as in all modern cars. Now the car, like a computer, is susceptible to computer viruses. So I'll sit in my car until it breaks down (laughs).
Your business works to protect information, and today the trend is just the opposite: people tell everything about themselves, it’s as if there is no person if he doesn’t broadcast on social networks 24 hours a day...
Yes unfortunately. And such people then become victims of their talkativeness. Recently, a company announced that they allegedly released a tool that can determine a person's credit score by looking at a person's face. I don’t know how accurately this can be determined by the face, but from the posts in social network it is not difficult to establish the level of solvency of the subject. The task is purely technical, and the more he tells about himself, the more information for all the curious, including, of course, scammers. The less privacy, the more risk.
If I write on Facebook, then it passes the control of PR people. Our marketing service is in charge of posting, and I give content on a case-by-case basis. I see the social network as another communication channel - like your magazine, for example.
An article is circulating on the Internet that Silicon Valley gurus allegedly do not buy electronic gadgets for their children and generally give them to schools where they write with chalk on a blackboard. And how do you raise your children in this regard?
I think that this is very correct - I would also ban all electronics in schools, at least in the lower grades. For example, paper diaries were canceled for a daughter in the second grade, which means that someone writes assignments for her in in electronic format, the child gets used to the fact that he does not need to remember anything, does not rely on his memory. Modern children are already absent-minded, there are too many distractions. Our eldest daughter is 11 years old, she has a computer, tablet, smartphone. I would not buy this either, but here we have a discrepancy with my husband - he believes that a child should be brought up in the style of modern information technologies. Indeed, it is very difficult to limit this: if you do not buy anything, children will still find access to the Internet. Moreover, the forbidden fruit is sweet, and the child may think that it is there, under lock and key, that the magic door to the shining world, where there are no dangers.
And how are you doing?
It is wrong to completely ban gadgets. It is better to increase employment - for example, we have eldest daughter is engaged in dancing, music, English, drawing, modeling ... And of course, to explain: “You go online, they meet different people, including the bad ones. You don’t have to make contact, and you certainly shouldn’t let yourself be drawn into something.” In my opinion, information security should be taught from kindergarten, so that immunity has already developed by school. It's like knowing the rules of the road. It is possible to explain different levels: the tale of Little Red Riding Hood is also about the fact that you don’t have to get acquainted with just anyone.
Family and career
How do you manage to take care of children, business at the same time and at the same time follow new technologies, trends, etc.?
I do not study new items personally - there is a special analytical department for this. And then my task as a leader is to understand what is worth doing. We try quite a lot of different technologies, we study startups - we bought a couple of companies this way.
How is your day, week?
It's very simple: there is a secretary who does the planning, taking into account my requirements. For example, several complex meetings for one day should not be set, and if there are many, then it is advisable to schedule them in one place. Twice a week I set aside time for writing texts and reading mail. I read the mail every day even in the evening. Weekends I try to spend with children in the country - this is a must. If I am invited somewhere on business these days, as a rule, I refuse. Well, then how it goes. It is clear that I can not be in time everywhere.
You and your husband are in the same business. Do you manage to leave work problems outside the doorstep?
Not always - production meetings periodically occur at home. And it's good if everything ends without a fight! (Laughs.) But somehow Igor and I manage to keep a balance. This is part of life, your own enterprise - like another child. True, I have not one, but a group of companies. So there are still children to take care of.
And what, even for the sake of business, are you not ready to sacrifice?
Family, children are sacred. Although you don't realize it right away. I have two "lots" of children - two sons are already adults, and when they grew up, I took less care of them. I spent a lot of time on Kaspersky Lab. Now I regret that I did not give the children what I could.
Are you one of richest women Russia. Money for you - what is it?
A resource with which you can do many different useful things.
And for yourself personally?
Well, of course, I can’t say that I wear bast shoes. There are such businessmen, very greedy, who do not spend on themselves at all - I am not one of them. But I think that it is necessary to satisfy basic needs, provide a certain standard of living for yourself and your family, and spend everything else on business entertainment - new products, companies, technologies.
Let's say you have a favorite brand of clothing?
I have an interesting relationship with brands in general because I know how to build them. You can take some thing and make a brand out of it. Therefore, I do not remember them and do not tremble before them. I choose clothes from what I like. I can remember: here in this I was comfortable. But next time, maybe I'll buy something completely different.
What will you say today to girls who would like to repeat your success?
I am afraid to give abstract advice. This is a kind of craftiness, and quite harmful. Life is multifaceted, people are different, situations are different. Perhaps the only advice that I like to repeat is that modern women are often addicted to their careers and do not think about children, about family, they put it off “for later”. And this is a mistake. No matter how much you make your career, it will eventually end anyway. It is better to have relatives next to you. Joyful children's clatter outside the door when you come home from work - nothing can be better than this!
Natalya Kasperskaya: dossier
Natalia Kasperskaya
Age: 51 years old
Family: husband, two sons and three daughters
Education: Faculty of Applied Mathematics MIEM; UK Open University School of Business
Career: from a seller of accessories and software to CEO of Kaspersky Lab., then President of the InfoWatch group of companies
Hobby: guitar playing, amateur song
Sport: skiing, snowboard, fitness
Cloth: the one you like, regardless of the brand
Trips: regular business trips around the world
Natalia Kasperskaya photography
Graduated from the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering (MIEM) with a degree in Applied Mathematics. He holds a bachelor's degree in business from the Open University in the UK.
In 1994, she came to work at the STC "KAMI" as a software vendor, after some time she headed the "AVP" anti-virus project, with the development of which the history of "Kaspersky Lab" began. AVP's sales volume at the time was $200 a month.
In 1997, she became a co-founder of Kaspersky Lab. He has been the head of the company for more than 10 years. During this time, Kaspersky Lab has become the leader in the international computer security systems market with a turnover of several hundred million dollars.
In 2004, on the basis of Kaspersky Lab, she created new company, engaged in the development of means of protecting corporate confidential information from internal threats (DLP-systems). Solutions developed by InfoWatch are in demand in Russia and abroad.
In the summer of 2007, she was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kaspersky Lab.
Since 2007, she has been the CEO of InfoWatch. Currently, InfoWatch is the market leader in DLP systems in Russia and is actively expanding into the European, Asian and American markets.
In April 2008, she was elected a member of the board of the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce.
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She was born on February 5, 1966 in Moscow. As a child, Natalya favored animals and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, but categorically did not work out with chemistry at school. But with mathematics everything was in in perfect order, and parents - a mother, a design engineer, and a physico-mathematical father-candidate - prophesied a great future for Natalya on a technical path. Even before entering the institute, Natalia showed herself to be a leader - she was engaged in active pioneering and social activities.
After listening to her parents, Kaspersky entered the specialty "Applied Mathematics" of the Moscow Institute of Electronic Engineering. In 1989 she received her diploma. Subsequently, she received a bachelor's degree from the Open University in the UK, majoring in Business.
Before going into sales and management, Natalia worked for several years at the Central Scientific and Design Bureau of Moscow as an ordinary researcher. While still a student, she met the talented programmer Evgeny Kaspersky, and when in 1994 the opportunity arose to go to work at the Kami Science and Technology Center - the one where Evgeny began his career - Kaspersky seized the opportunity. In "Kami" she took up an unusual activity for herself. At first, Natalya worked as a sales manager in the computer equipment department, but soon she was transferred to manage the anti-virus development department, where Evgeny Kaspersky worked on AVP.
By 1997 - when Kaspersky's anti-virus product began to be sold, and things at the Kami Research and Development Center had completely deteriorated - Natalya raised the issue of separating and creating her own company. Eugene Kaspersky at first grumbled and did not want any changes - they say, they will only interfere with the work on the project. But Natalia still persuaded her husband.
In 1997, the Kaspersky Lab company appeared. Evgeniy acted according to the principle of "the idea ... of the initiator" - he threw all organizational responsibility on Kaspersky and returned to software development. At first, Natalya Kaspersky had a hard time. But she managed. And in 1998, hired technical, commercial and financial directors came to her aid.
In 1998, the family of Natalia and Evgeny fell apart under the pressure of everyday squabbles. For the company it visibly did not affect. Until 2007, the leadership and responsibility for the activity of Kaspersky Lab in the market lay mainly on the shoulders of CEO Natalya Kaspersky. In 2007, as a major shareholder, she was elected to the post of head of the board of directors, while Evgeny took the place of general director.
In 2004, in parallel with her work at the "Laboratory", Natalia began to develop another area of activity - the development of data protection systems in corporate intranet networks (DLP systems). After 3 years, Kaspersky took the post of CEO of the InfoWatch company she founded, a developer and distributor of such systems. Today, this company has a huge potential for expansion into Western markets. In Russia, InfoWatch became the first in its field.
In Russia, the successful work of Natalya Kaspersky was noted in 2008. She was ranked 4th in the top 10 most successful businesswomen in the country. By this time, Natalia already had many awards from foreign IT publications. In the same year, Kaspersky was elected a member of the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce. By the way, in 2010, Natalya Kasperskaya won the second place among the best top managers in the Russian IT industry.
In business, Natalia appreciates teamwork. As a leader, she knows how to listen to the opinions of specialists before committing rash acts. At the same time, she does not accept all kinds of team building and other “nonsense” inspired from abroad. Work with Russian programmers requires a completely different approach, and Kaspersky is aware of this. In the "Laboratory" developers were never chastised for being late, but they had to do their part on time.
Married to Evgeny Kaspersky, Natalya became the mother of two children. After the divorce, she began to live with a prominent IT figure Igor Ashmanov. By 2011, she became the mother of two more children. The last daughter Masha was born in March 2009. A month earlier, fans of Kaspersky Anti-Virus had presented Natalya with a comic list of possible names for the child, each of which somehow related to the anti-virus area.
Natalia Kasperskaya knows two well foreign languages- German and English. On vacation, he often goes to ski resorts, is fond of tourism and travel. Natalia plays the guitar well.
