Our Team

Sergey Zverev is one of the pioneers of the Russian PR market and, the founder and the President of the CROS communications group.

In 1990, he was a member of the group of the leading economists that designed the “500 Days” national development program. He is one of the founders of NTV, the leading TV company in Russia, Segodnya newspaper, and Itogi magazine. In 1998-99, Sergey Zverev was Vice Chairman for external and internal communications of RAO “Gazprom” Management Board, and supervised the creation of Gazprom Media Holding. In 1999, he worked as the Deputy Head of the Presidential Executive Office for Internal Policy.

Sergey Zverev is a member of a number of Russian and international associations, as well as advisory councils under government bodies, including the Expert Council under the Government of the Russian Federation, Public Councils of the Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) and the Finance Ministry of the Russian Federation.

He is also a member of the senior expert council under the Russian Public Relations Association (RASO), the supervisory board of the “Silver Archer” National Award for Public Relations, the Russian Academy of Public Relations (RAPR), the World Communication Forum Association (WCFA), the European association — Institute of Public Relations (IPR), the international IABC association and the international association of independent PR agencies PRGN. Since the beginning of 2016, Sergey Zverev has been the chairman of the Association of Consultancies in the Field of Public Relations (AKOS).

Since 2010, Sergey Zverev has been heading the School of Integrated Communications at the Higher School of Economics — National Research University. Many graduates of the school made a successful career in different companies of the CROS Group. This cooperation with the country’s top tier university was recognized by international experts: the “Golden Reserve” (Zolotoy Reserve) project received IPRA Golden World Awards 2014 in two nominations.

Sergey Zverev holds numerous industry awards, including the Best Media Manager of Russia in the nomination for the contribution to the industry’s development; the Silver Archer National Award for Public Relations in the nomination “Master”; the Communication for Future Davos Award (C4F) in the nomination “Titan of the Future” for outstanding professional performance; the Order of Friendship for professional achievements, long-term dedicated work and public activities; the Кotler Awards in the nomination “Public Relations and Affairs”; the PRO.PR Awards; as well as other decorations, diplomas and letters of acknowledgement for implementation of large-scale national projects.

Dmitry Kantor has been working in public relations since 1998. He joined CROS in 2010 and is now in charge of business development, as well as the supervision of key accounts.

A graduate of the Russian State University of Cinematography, he worked as a journalist at various news agencies, as well as a television editor. Dmitry was awarded the “Defender of Free Russia” medal for the coverage of August 1991 events. He has held executive positions in a number of the leading Russian and international communications agencies: “Mikhailov & Partners”, PROPAGANDA, and Imageland Edelman Public Relations. He played an active role in one of the largest M&A deals on the Russian communications market — Imageland’s acquisition by the leading global communications marketing firm Edelman.

Dmitry Kantor is a member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) and the Russian Association of Public Relations (RASO). He holds a RASO certificate and won the Best Media Manager of Russia Award.

Irina Romashkina has been working at CROS since the company’s foundation and secures the efficient performance of the financial unit of the group.

She holds a number of government awards, including a Letter of Acknowledgement from the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin for significant contribution to the development of the Russian democracy, creative and proactive participation in the preparation and execution of the 1996 Russian Presidential Election Campaign; the Russian Defense Ministry’s Medal “For Strengthening Military Cooperation”; the Federal Statistic Service’s Medal “For Contribution in Organizing the National Census.”

Ksenia Trifonova joined CROS in 2016 and is now responsible for the company’s development, implementing the program of changes, internal communications, positioning and promotion of the CROS brand. She has been working in communications since 2003 and has been employed by Russian and international communications agencies.

As a Vice-President of RASO, she is also in charge of educational initiatives: trainings for press offices, and e-learning projects. She is also a member of the expert council of the Silver Archer National Award for Public Relations and PROBA ICCO Global PR AWARDS.

Ksenia Trifonova graduated with honors from the Department of History, Political Science and Law of the Russian State University for the Humanities. She has also completed the strategic leadership program at the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo and a program on branding at The Higher School of Marketing and Business Development of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

Leonid Burmistrov has been working in public relations since 1994. At CROS, he is charge of the Public Affairs and Government Relations.

He started his professional career in the information and analytical, and PR and media relations departments of Most Group and Media-Most. He joined CROS in 2000 and was involved in the company’s first large-scale project — the National Census 2002.

In 2003, he became the first deputy of the editor-in-chief at the international news agency RIA Novosti responsible for projects with the government agencies and public organizations. He was involved in the a number of large-scale national and international events, including the G8 and the G20 Summits (2006, 2013) in Saint Petersburg, the APEC Summit in Vladivostok (2012), the Year of Russia in China (2006), the International Arctic Forum, the Valdai Discussion Club, the 60th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the “St. George Ribbon” Campaign, the Forum of European and Asian Media (FEAM), Sochi 2014 media center for non-accredited journalists, the Year of Russia in China (2000). Leonid Burmistrov was behind the establishment of the Russian Agency of Legal and Judicial Information (RAPSI), The Moscow News daily, RIA Novosti Innovative Media Laboratory, “Russia in the World” monitoring and analysis system, RIA Novosti information system and the agency’s Middle Eastern news hub in Dubai.

He was involved in design, launch and management of the official websites of the Russian Government, the Prime Minister, and the Mayor of Moscow. Leonid Burmistrov also developed the media support for the judicial reform in Russia, as well as the special campaign aimed at increasing Russia’s investment attractiveness.

Maxim Kvasha has long-term experience in analytics, journalism, consulting and management. He joined the CROS team in 2017.

His career includes positions in The Working Center for Economic Reforms under the Government of the Russian Federation, as well as dozens of research, consulting, media and communications projects for the government bodies, Russian and international companies, research institutions and private companies.

Maxim Kvasha has long been working for Kommersant Publishing House and was an economics editor of the Money magazine. His columns were published in The Moscow Times, Vedomosti, Kommersant, online media Slon.ru, Forbes.ru, Gzt.ru and other. He was heavily involved in the financial literacy projects, including Finprosto.ru and Вашифинансы.рф.

Maxim Kvasha is a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He also attended the Harvard University and the Joint Vienna Institute.

Olga Peskova joined the CROS team in 2005. She is in charge of projects for clients from the public and private sectors, focusing on country branding, reputation management and crisis communications. She also gives media trainings and trainings on personal branding.

Olga Peskova has extensive experience in the editorial offices of the leading social and political media, as well as in public relations departments of a number of Russian and international companies.

She is the author of the “Crisis Communications” and “Internal communications” special courses at the Higher School of Economics — National Research University.

Ekaterina Movsesian has been working in communications for more than 14 years. She joined CROS in 2011 and is now in charge of communications with government agencies and NGOs, including the Moscow Department of Transport, the Russian Union of Insurers and others.

Prior to joining CROS, she worked in the leading communications agencies and was involved in projects for Russian and international companies, including Motorolla, HSBC Bank, Ferrero, Citi Bank, AIG, Rolf Group.

Since 2015, Ekaterina Movsesian has been a member of the Russian Association of Public Relations.

She is a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Economics, Management and Law, and the European School of Brussels. She also took more than 10 different training courses.

Natalia Lindigreen joined the CROS team in 2017 and is managing the company's business in the social and political sectors.

She has a broad experience of holding positions in the public service and journalism. For the previous five years she was the Minister of Media and Communications of the Saratov region and was in charge of increasing transparency of the region’s executive government. She supervised the largest media forums and was the first to launch social media communications of the Saratov government. She strengthened positions of the public media outlets and organized further trainings for local journalists. With Natalia in office, the Saratov region joined the top ten Russian regions with the most developed digital broadcasting, and the brand of the Saratov international book fair “The Volga Wave” was introduced.

Before that, she was twice elected to the regional parliament and was the head of the Committee on Culture, Public Relations and Information Policy. Natalia was also in charge of the ideology at the regional branch of the United Russia political party. She has been involved in numerous election campaigns of the regional and federal levels managing information and analytical support for candidates from the party lists and individual candidates, developing engagement and activism campaigns, and managing media relations. Natalia was also creating efficient image building strategy for the party during the periods between the elections.

She has degrees in philology, and in economics and company management.

Peter Kirian has been working in journalism and communications for some 20 years. He joined CROS in 2016 and is now in charge of managing public interest projects.

Before CROS, he was the editor-in-chief of The RBC Daily business newspaper. Before that he was a correspondent, a political editor, and the first deputy editor-in-chief of The RBC Daily, a correspondent of the international department of the Expert Magazine and worked in various projects of the News Media publishing house. He has also founded his own business.

Peter is a graduate of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the People's Friendship University of Russia and holds a PhD degree in political science.

Alexey Kalenov has 15-years experience in communications for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. At CROS, he is providing strategic and media consulting for the healthcare sector, implementing projects for a number of clients, including Gedeon Richter and Eli Lilly.

Before joining CROS, he worked as the Head of Healthcare Practice at SPN Communications and Edelman Imageland where he was managing projects for GE Healthcare, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Abbott, Takeda, Merz, Pfizer, AIPM, and UNICEF. Prior to Edelman, Alexey Kalenov worked in the Russian agency PRESSTO, focusing on the pharmaceutical market. He has implemented a series of corporate communications projects, CSR projects, publicity and public affairs campaigns for Eli Lilly, Nycomed, Roche, Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, and Johnson & Johnson.

Konstantin Panarin has been working in communications for over 10 years. He joined CROS in 2012 and has been working on corporate and brand communications projects for KIA, Lifan Motors, Volvo, Lexus, AVILON, BEKO, RusHydro, Roselectronika, Rusenergosbyt, RDI group, Nagatino I-land and others. At CROS, he has implemented a number of comprehensive and integrated projects.

Before joining CROS, he worked at different PR positions in the leading automotive companies where he had developed and successfully implemented communications strategies.

Konstantin Panarin graduated from the Department of Economics, Moscow State University of Mechanical Engineering (MAMI) with a specialization in Marketing.

Olga Bezgodova has been working in communications for over 15 years. She joined CROS in 2015 and is now working on corporate and public communications.

Prior to joining CROS, she worked in the leading communications agencies and headed public relations departments in companies from the real estate development, financial and IT industries. She was designing and implementing PR strategies for the leading Russian and international companies, including Autodesk, GE, Russian Copper Company, TechnoNICOL, the National Payment Card System, UralSib Insurance Group, Bank Saint-Petersburg, INSIGMA Group, and others. Olga has also chaired the working group on development and implementation of the Russian Finance Ministry’s information campaign on the promotion of financial literacy and financial education in the Russian Federation.

She has an extensive expertise in strategic corporate and public communications, including crisis communications and media support of M&A deals.

Olga Bezgodova graduated from the Volgograd State University and completed postgraduate studies at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in Political Science. She is a PhD in Political Science.

Konstantin Shimbirev has been working in the communications industry for over 15 years. He joined the CROS team in 2018 and is working on strengthening the agency’s expertise in new business development with clients from the public sector.

His career took him from a junior manager to the head of a representative office of a large PR agency. Constantine specializes in working with clients from the public sector, starting with federal ministries and state-owned corporations and finishing with natural monopolies and universities.

He is a graduate of the History Faculty of the Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Sergey Zaves has been working in the communications industry for over 20 years. He joined the CROS team in 2018 and is now managing projects for a number of large clients.

Before CROS, he was working as an advisor to the Healthcare Minister of the Russian Federation and was the head of the Healthcare Ministry’s Project Office for the development of the incoming health tourism. Earlier, for over 10 years he held different key roles in the Gazprom group and was a board member of Gazprom-Media Digital.

He has been working closely with the Presidential Executive Office, the Russian government, ministries and government bodies, Russian embassies in the EU, Russian and international companies of the energy sector.

Sergey has an extensive experience in the oil and gas, nuclear energy, metallurgy, healthcare and sports sectors, both in the digital and traditional media.

He is a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Lomonosov Moscow State University with a degree in political science and political science lecturer.

He is currently receiving his second higher education at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in public administration.

Olga Sivkova is the head of the CrosDigital agency, specializing in managing communications and promoting products and services to customers in the online environment.

Prior to joining CrosDigital, she headed the Special Projects team at Argumenty i Fakty publishing house and in three years implemented over 50 national and regional projects in almost every market and business segment. While working at AiF, Olga Sivkova was also engaged in training specialists from regional divisions.

For five years, she supervised implementation of marketing and advertising projects for Contact-Expert consulting company. She was the head of the education unit of the “Leader of the Year. Small and Medium Enterprise” project that allowed owners and managers of regional companies to have special trainings in marketing, finance and HR management.

Olga Sivkova is a teaching professor, holding seminars in advanced training programs at the Institute of Business and Business Administration, as well as occupational guidance for prospective and first-year students, and special seminars for Bachelor students at the Higher School of Economics — National Research University.

Natalia Zhivaya has over 10 years of experience in the communications industry. She joined CROS in 2011. As the CEO of CROS.Marketing, she is in charge of marketing communications, design and implementation of creative concepts, and integrated campaigns for B2C and B2B industries.

The portfolio of her clients includes Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, Rosneft, M.Video and many others. Her projects were acknowledged by more than 20 prestigious Russian and international awards, including the Silver Archer, Effie Awards Russia 2015, the Silver Mercury, PRGN Best Practice Award, Gold Quill Awards, SABRE Awards, IPRA Golden World Awards.