Yulia N. Aray, Senior Lecturer, Department of Strategic and International Management, Researcher at PwC Center for Corporate Social Responsibility, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University, was appointed Regional Representative of the Foundation of Regional Social Programs “Our Future”.

 

Yulia will be in charge of the programs of the Foundation, as well as contribute to the development and promotion of social entrepreneurship in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. Such close cooperation between the Graduate School of Management at St. Petersburg State University and Foundation ”Our Future” will further strengthen collaboration between organizations that have cooperated for many years in the field of promoting the theory and practice of social entrepreneurship in Russia and the world.

 

In the new position, Yulia Aray made a presentation “Social Entrepreneurship: Actual Trends and Development Directions in Russia and the World” at the plenary session of Meeting of Social Entrepreneurs, organized by the Center for Development of Non-Profit Organizations. As Yulia notes: “To ensure the development of social entrepreneurship in Russia, it is necessary to promote various forms of cross-sectors collaboration, including social investments, and secondly, to enhance the legitimacy of the phenomena in society by increasing the transparency of social entrepreneurial organizations”.

 

The Foundation "Our Future" was founded in 2007 on the personal initiative of Russian businessman VagitY. Alekperov (president of OJSC “Lukoil Oil Company”) to promote social entrepreneurship in Russia. The mission of the Foundation "Our Future" is to be a catalyst for positive social change in Russian society, by contributing to the development of social entrepreneurship giving support and financing to companies which are working on solving social problems.