Litsa (the Litsa magazine, enclosure for awards of the year, Moscow) May 12, 2004

IN MOTION // Litsa (the Litsa magazine, enclosure for awards of the year, Moscow) - May 12, 2004, pages 8 to 9. When Yury Rovensky was 8 or 9 years old, he wanted to play the grand piano. He can play one now. He also wanted to drive a car. He drives one now. He wanted to enter Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics and to carry out scientific work. He entered, graduated and defended a PhD thesis and at the age of 27 a doctorate thesis. Whatever the goal, the young, 34-year-old, ambitious RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) General Director Yury Rovensky has ever set, he has always achieved it and he can say that he is a happy person.

"I am a happy person," the RBC head says about himself: "First of all, I have been always able to formulate a goal, which many people cannot do, and secondly, I have been able to achieve it. Goals were different at different stages of my life: funny in childhood and then ambitious".

My question about his defeats surprised Rovensky. He never suffers defeats because he always shows sound judgment of his strong points and capabilities. When the stars do not favor him, he corrects his goals.

"I have been fortunate in my life and in my teachers in particular," Yury Rovensky says. "That is why I have achieved a lot in my life. But probably I was a quick learner:" Rovensky's family, parents, aunt, grandmother, who was a doctor, grandfather, who was a service man, took care of him, pampered him and brought him up.

"I was the object of strong love. My parents devoted a lot of time to me. They still adore me," he smiles. "One should love his/her children a lot because this feeling materializes. Look at me. When I was a young boy, I was implanted with the love of self-education and education in general and I still love it. That is why I teach at the Academy despite a heavy workload at RBC. I normally would not try to learn the precise details of foreign economic activities or changes in legislation, but I do it before lectures because I cannot appear in front of students not knowing the subject well:"

RBC's General Director is a typical workaholic. "Emotional stress is extremely big during the day", he says. Rovensky's business day starts in his mobile office: his BMW is full of computer equipment. Yury Rovensky works even in theaters, setting business meetings between acts. Nobody makes him live this way. He set this pace for himself.

- How do you relax? Don't say you never get tired.

"By changing activities. I am not a sports man, I do not go to fitness clubs, although I always say to myself that I will start going on Monday. Well, actually I like working at my summer house (dacha). For example, I paint the fence and see the results of my work immediately. It is impossible to see the results of one's work in economy and business that fast. I like walking about market places and buying flowers. I like landscape gardening: fountains, rock plants, flower arrangements. Natural flowers are a very apt instrument for creating comfort. I am on good terms with flora, but I face problems with fauna. Once I bought a new fish for my aquarium. It looked so beautiful amid the other fish in the aquarium, but later I discovered that it ate almost all of them. I consoled myself with the thought that it was an example of the process evolution in an aquarium. I like shopping but I hate sitting in an armchair and I have never been able to understand those who lie around all day long. I have never had such rest. I cannot stand idleness." Rovensky's life is motion. Yury used to spend most of his time on business trips. He has visited more than one hundred countries. Once he happened to be in Nigeria when an armed rebellion began.

"That was long time ago, in Soviet times. The rebellion started suddenly. We had to make our way to the airport through a great human throng in order to fly out of there. Those people did not have to have weapons with them; they could simply crush you to death. It was scary".

Every time Rovensky travels to another country he expects something unpredictable, some exquisite impressions. He loves Asia for this, whereas Europe seems tedious to him. But no matter how many times he leaves Moscow, he always comes back, although he had proposals to stay and work abroad.

"I love Moscow and feel comfortable in this city. I have never wanted to leave it. I remember when I used to come back from abroad in Soviet times, it seemed to me that my color television had become black-and-white. Everything has changed now. Moreover, my parents live here. I have a very close relationship with them, even unusually close. We often spend time together and always celebrate holidays together. And there is one more reason why I stay here: first generation emigrants have never been able to integrate themselves into a new society. People who arrive in a different country are, at the foundation, social outcasts; they remain foreigners. I tried it myself and understood that I did not like to live this way."

A new stage of Yury Rovensky's life is associated with Moscow. He arrived here from the small city of Armavir in the south of Russia almost 20 years ago in order to 'conquer' the capital. His first car, a popular Russian model at that time, which his grandmother gave him for his 18th birthday, was left there. Now he is a public person. He heads a well-known company. He is on friendly terms with famous politicians and businessmen. He drives a Lexus. Women can relax - there is no place for them left in Yury Rovensky's bachelor life.

- You are considered to be a good catch. Would you agree with this?

"Basically, yes, I suppose it is true. But my way of life leaves few chances for women to catch me. I am not a party-goer and moreover, I am always in a hurry."