Max Minchenkov is an experienced serial entrepreneur who resides in Moscow and is co-founder and owner in a number of companies engaged mainly in the oil & gas, manufacturing and telecom industry.

After obtaining a Bachelor Degree in International Relations and Executive Program from INSEAD, he has started his career in Investment Banking with the World Bank, he shorty moved into the ‘real’ industry as a Vice-President of an oil-field service company — IDS Group, and later dived into his own projects as an entrepreneur.

His core oil & gas company — TSS Group — is one of the market leaders in design, manufacturing and supply of oil & gas equipment supplied to Russia’s all key oil majors — Lukoil, Rosneft, Gazprom and others. The company has shown a tremendous growth path from a start-up vehicle into one of the key players in its niche within 5-years time.

Max excels in networking and has more than a decade of sound experience in holding client relationships with the upper echelon of senior management in different industries in Russia as well as internationally.

On joining IOTA

Always fascinated and curious with the latest cutting-edge technologies either in oil & gas or IT, I got acquainted with the key IOTA developers and got excited by the fundamental advantages and huge potential of IOTA. I am highly convinced that IOTA with its high scalability, feeless and truly autonomous M2M system is a diamond in a crown of the challenging and rapidly emerging ecosystem of IoT. I am happy to be part of this fast-growing project and fabulous team and eager to bring all my competence, previous experience and networking opportunities for the sake of IOTA implementation.

Max joins the IOTA Foundation as a business developer and experienced organization builder. Given his strong background in the infrastructure industry he will add a lot of value to the Industry 4.0 ambition of the IOTA Foundation. In addition to his expertise and experience, he brings with him a vast international network and particularly close bonds with crucial ‘movers and shakers’ in Russia and its vicinity. He has known IOTA co-founder Sergey Ivancheglo for over a decade, and they have already sowed the first seeds in the Commonwealth of Independent States together. We are thrilled to open yet another geographic door for IOTA. Max represents the next steps in establishing IOTA as a truly international standard by raising the awareness and driving the adoption of IOTA in this region which has largely remained a virgin snow territory for IOTA and most of the Distributed Ledger space thus far. Give him a warm welcome!