U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) online webinar "Moving Ukraine’s Economy Forward” with Ihor Petrashko, new Minister of Economic Development, Trade, and Agriculture of Ukraine, that will be held on Thursday, May 14, 4:30 pm Kyiv Time, (9:30 am, EST). This meeting will be held online via Zoom online conference service.

U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) has been working closely with Mr. Petrashko for several years. On March 17, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, appointed Ihor Petrashko as new Minister for Economic Development, Trade, and Agriculture of Ukraine.

This will be the first USUBC meeting with Ihor after his appointment to discuss the current economic situation in Ukraine, unprecedented challenges caused by COVID-19 pandemic, and the Ministry’s action plan for moving Ukraine’s economy forward.

Mr. Petrashko’s presentation will be following by analysis and commentary from Alexa Chopivsky, Advisor to Minister Petrashko, Kyiv; Van Yeutter, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Cargill, Washington, D.C., Andrew Kalinovsky, Senior Vice President, GlobalLogic, San Jose, CA. and Dr. Kris Singh, President and CEO, Holtec International, Camden, NJ.  Van Yeutter and Andrew Kalinovsky are members of the USUBC Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, www.USUBC.org. 

The link to join the online meeting will be sent to you in the confirmation e-mail after you register. If you are not able to use Zoom via download, additional options will be provided in the confirmation e-mail. The additional options are also listed below.

WEBINAR BROADCAST: The webinar meeting will also be broadcast on two additional platforms: (1) USUBC YouTube channel and (2) USUBC Facebook page.  If you have any questions about connecting to the USUBC webinar please contact Denys Jatsyshyn, USUBC Director, Corporate Relations in Kyiv at DJatsyshyn@usubc.org. 

NOTE: Please submit your questions to USUBC President Morgan Williams to mwilliams@USUBC.org, at least one hour prior to the event

BIO's:
(1) Ihor Petrashko – Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine

On 17 March 2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appointed Ihor Petrashko as the Minister for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine. From 2013 to early 2020, he worked as Deputy General Director at UkrLandFarming, an agricultural holding company. Ihor Petrashko worked as a manager and partner at Ernst & Young in 2004-2007.

Between 2007 and 2012, he worked as the head of investment and banking section and corporate accounts department at various banking institutions. Has over 20 years of experience in the field of economics, management and administration. Since 1996, has been working at major Ukrainian and international companies providing consulting and investment services.

He received an Honors Bachelor of Management degree at Lviv Polytechnic National University in 1996, and graduated from that university in 1997 with an Economist Engineer’s degree. Studied in the United Kingdom under an exchange program, and underwent an internship at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. In 2001, received an MBA degree at Vanderbilt University Business School, United States. In 2002, received a second university degree in law at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

(2) Alexa Chopivsky, Adviser to the Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine

For the last 3 years Alexa Chopivsky served as Executive Director of Ukraine House Davos. She is also Director, Program on the World Economy, The Aspen Institute, and Founder/CEO, Transnational Education Group. For seven years, she was a journalist with NBC News where she covered world events from the New York, Washington, and London bureaus. After a period as Associate Director at an international communication consultancy in London, she moved to Kyiv.

There she worked as a freelance journalist, traveling across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, and as a consultant. A Ukrainian-American, Ms. Chopivsky received a BA from Yale University with distinction in Political Science and Russian & East European Studies, an MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and an MIPP from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. She is a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member and member of the Women Forward International Advisory Committee.

(3) Van Yeutter, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Cargill, Washington, D.C

Van Yeutter joined Cargill’s Washington D.C. office in June 1999 as International Business Development Director and was also named head of Cargill’s Washington Operations in 2002.  From 1991 to 1995, Mr. Yeutter worked in Cargill’s Strategy and Business Development Group in business and corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions capacities. 

Based in Melbourne, Australia from 1995 through 1999, Mr. Yeutter initially served as commercial manager and then became executive director of Cargill Australia and managing director of Cargill’s Oilseed Processing Division. Van Yeutter graduated Magna Cum Laude from Vanderbilt University in 1987 and earned a master’s degree in business and international relations from the University of Chicago in 1990.  Mr. Yeutter is married with three children and resides in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Van is a member of the USUBC Executive Committee.

(4) Andrew Kalinovsky, Senior Vice President Operations, GlobalLogic, San Jose, CA

Andrew has held a variety of leadership positions at GlobalLogic since 2008, including business development, corporate strategy and M&A. Currently in charge of global operations, Andrew is responsible for reliable operation and growth of company facilities worldwide. Prior to joining GlobalLogic, Andrew ran his own software engineering business for 15 years, after co-founding it back in 1992. As one of the pioneers of the IT outsourcing industry in Ukraine, he is intimately familiar with all aspects of running a technology services business.

Mr. Kalinovsky holds a masters degree in Computer Science, and started his career as a software engineer in Ukraine. After transitioning to business management and leadership roles, Andrew has moved to United States in 1998. For over 20 years, he has been honing his business management acumen, working with innovative startups and technology leaders of the major tech hubs of Seattle and Silicon Valley. Currently residing in California, Andrew is a frequent world traveler, with first hand experience of doing business in US, Europe, India, and Latin America. Andrew is a member of the USUBC Executive Committee.

(5) Dr. Kris Singh, President and CEO, Holtec International, Camden, NJ

Dr. Kris Singh is the Founder, President and CEO of Holtec International which he established in 1986 and nurtured its steady rise into a multi-national company with its business footprint in 18 countries on five continents. An intrepid entrepreneur and a socially conscious industrialist, Dr. Singh has built a $310 million Technology Campus on the Delaware River in Camden, NJ to create much needed employment in one of America’s poorest cities. Thanks to the steady stream of design innovations, Holtec is widely held to be pre-eminent in management of used nuclear fuel.

A widely-published author in scientific journals (some 70 technical papers, one textbook and numerous symposia volumes) and a prolific inventor (121 patents granted, many pending), Dr. Singh has led Holtec International since the company’s inception, building it into a technological powerhouse respected for its engineered goods and services around the world with nine major operations centers in three countries.

Over 120 nuclear plants around the world employ Holtec’s systems and equipment many based on Dr. Singh’s patents. In recent years, Dr. Singh has been leading Holtec in the global race to develop a “walk away safe” small modular reactor to make nuclear energy an economical green power alternative.

In his early career, Dr. Singh taught numerous graduate level and continuing education courses, published 70 technical papers, authored numerous books and monographs, and contributed to the creation of several national codes and standards for equipment and system design.

He is currently an Emeritus member of the University of Pennsylvania’s board of Trustees, where he served from 2009-2017, and a member of the University’s Board of Overseers for the School of Engineering and Applied Science (2005-present). In addition, he serves on the Board of the Nuclear Energy Institute (1998-present), and the Cooper Health System (2013-present). He is also a Director of the Washington, DC- based Atlantic Council and a member of the “National Investment Council” that advises the President of Ukraine.

He chairs the KPS Foundation (2001-present), a charitable Singh family foundation whose signature contribution to the advancement of science is the completion of the “Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology” at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 2013. The KPS Foundation is also active in improving child literacy and public sanitation in India.

Dr. Singh received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1972), a M.S. in Engineering Mechanics also from Penn (1969), and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from BIT Sindri (Ranchi University), India (1967). Dr. Singh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2013 for his seminal impact in the energy sector of mechanical engineering. He received Edison Foundation’s “Thomas Alva Edison Award” in 2015 for his ecologically and environmentally impactful inventions.

Rutgers University named him “South Jerseyan of the year – 2016” for his significant beneficial impact on the South Jersey region. In 2017, the National Academy of Inventers elected him a Fellow and the University City Science Center (Philadelphia) inducted him to its “Walk of Fame.” Dr. Singh was named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1987 for his numerous contributions to heat exchange technologies. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania (since 1974) and Michigan (since 1982) and a member of the American Nuclear Society (1979-present).