Education Minister

NAME: ANDREI ALEXANDROVICH FURSENKO

BORN: July 17, 1949 in Leningrad

EDUCATION: *Mr. Fursenko holds both a Master’s Degree and a Doctorate from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.  *He also has a Doctorate in Physics and Mathematics from Leningrad State Technical University.

CAREER: *Mr Fursenko was a Senior Research Assistant and Deputy Director of Science at the USSR Academy of Sciences’ Physical-Technological Institute (FTI) 1971 to 1991.  *From 1991 to 1992, he was the vice-president of research and development company Advanced Technology Center (TsPTR) which was then headed by Yury Kovalchuk.  *Fursenko held the position of director general of the St. Peterburg Regional Foundation for Scientific and Technnological Development (RFNTR) attached to the Svetlana electronic company from 1992 to November 2001.  *From May 1994 to September 1995 Fursenko was CEO of Russian-German Joint venture Investment Consulting Company St. Petersburg (ICC).  *In March 2000 Fursenko was appointed director general of Venture Innovative Foundation (VIF), established by the Russian government and the Office of the Mayor of St. Petersburg to examine and develop future business projects.  *In October 2000 he was co-founder and made Chairman of the Academic Council of the foundation Center for Strategic Research North-West.  *Mr Fursenko Deputy Minister of Manufacturing, Science, and Technology from December 2001-June 2002.  *He was promoted to 1st Deputy Minister in June 2002.  *In December 2003, Fursenko was made acting minister of Manufacturing, Science, and Techology.   *He was appointed Minister of Education and Science on 9 March, 2004.

MISCELLANEOUS: *Mr Fursenko worked with Yury Kovalchyuk and Russian Railways Chief Vladimir Yakunin at FTI.  *Mr Fursenko worked with Kovalchyuk on the Scientific Council of the North-West Centre for Strategic Development in the 1990s.  *Dacha neighbours with Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Yakunin, his brother Sergei Fursenko, Yury Kovalchuk, Viktor Myachin, Vladimir Smirnov and Nikolai Shamalov in Petersburg.  *Co-founder with Putin, and Yakunin of Ozero Dacha Group (November 1996).  *Fursenko is a member of the Council for Implementation of the National Priority Projects attached to the President of the Russian Federation.  *He is head of the Obrazovanie interdepartmental working group for national projects.  *Mr. Fursenko is also Head of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Strategic Research North West.  *He is the author of more than a hundred scientific works. Parts of them are dedicated to innovational technological activities and financing of the scientific sphere.  *Fursenko is married, has one son named Alexander.  *Fursenko’s father Alexander Fursenko (1927 – 2008) was a renowned historian, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  *His brother Sergei Fursenko (b. 1954) is a technician, businessman, TV producer and the president of the football club Zenit St. Petersburg.