Joint Technical Secretariat Branch Offices in Russia are operational

Two more Branch Offices (BO) of the Joint Technical Secretariat (JTS) are operational in Russia since March. The newly opened Branch Offices are located in St. Petersburg and Pskov.

Three Information Managers, partly with Project Managers duties, will be working in the newly established JTS Branch Offices in Russia providing support to the project applicants, beneficiaries and project partners. In the St. Petersburg BO Mr. Sergey Balanev will be responsible for St. Petersburg, Mr. Vladimir Skorokhodov - for Leningrad Region, but Ms. Ekaterina Moskaleva will work in BO in Pskov.

Sergey Balanev has graduated the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, Faculty of Electronics and Lovanium International School of Management, St. Petersburg, branch of Katholieke University, Leuven, Belgium. Sergey is an experienced consultant for public and private sector, more than working as a General Director of the St. Petersburg Foundation for SMEs development. He has initiated and successfully implemented a number of international projects including Tacis CBC SPF in cooperation with partners from Finland, Sweden, Germany and Denmark. As RCBI EU Project long term expert was involved in training and consultancy to regional and federal authorities in Programming process of ENPI 2007-2013 for Russia as well as in project idea identification, partner search and project proposals development.

Vladimir Skorokhodov has graduated the Leningrad State University, Faculty of Physics and got PhD degree in Chemical Physics. He worked as a visiting scientist in the Netherlands, France and Japan. Since 1998 he was involved in administrative teams of the Tacis Cross Border Cooperation Programme. As a Long term expert he was involved in information and training support activities for Tacis projects and programmes. In particular, he has experience in project identification, design and implementation as well as general and financial evaluation of projects financed by the European Commission.

Ekaterina Moskaleva has graduated from Pskov Teachers' Training Institute, the Faculty of Foreign Languages. Ekaterina has worked as a teacher, afterwards as an assistant deputy in State Council of Russian Federation. Since 2003 Ekateina has become a member of Rotary Club "Pskov" and has been involved in the Rotary Club activities related to collaboration with foreign Rotary Clubs, development and implementation of international joint projects.

The Information Managers will provide assistance and guidance to the potential grant applicants, beneficiaries and project partners on development and implementation of the projects. They will organize and participate in various Programme and project information activities, maintain contacts with mass media and will supervise how the visibility requirements are observed by the projects implemented.