Natalya Kaspersky facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Natalya Kaspersky
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Natalya Kasperskaya, March 2016
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Natalya Ivanovna Stutser
February 5, 1966 |
| Citizenship |  Soviet Union → Russia |
| Alma mater | Moscow Institute of Electronic Machine Building (MIEM) |
| Occupation | IT business executive |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Known for | President of InfoWatch, Founder of Kaspersky Lab |
| Spouse(s) | • Eugene Kaspersky (1986—1998) • Igor Ashmanov (from 2001) |
| Children | Maxim (b. 1989) Ivan (b. 1991) Alexandra (b. 2005) Maria (b. 2009) Varvara (b. 2012) |
Natalya Ivanovna Kasperskaya (Russian: Наталья Ивановна Касперская) was born on February 5, 1966, in Moscow, Soviet Union. In the Western world, she is known by the name Natalya Kaspersky. She is a Russian expert in IT and a successful businesswoman. She is the President of the InfoWatch Group of companies. She also helped start and used to be the CEO of Kaspersky Lab, a company famous for its antivirus programs. Natalya is one of the richest women in Russia and a very important person in the Russian IT world.
Contents
About Natalya Kasperskaya
Early Life and School
Natalya Kasperskaya, whose maiden name was Stutser, was born in Moscow. Her parents were engineers who worked in Soviet defense research.
When she was young, Natalya was very active. She was part of her school's pioneer council and later joined the district pioneer headquarters. She was also a member of the Komsomol, a youth organization. Besides her studies, Natalya played basketball. For a while, she wanted to become a veterinarian, but she found chemistry too difficult.
In her eighth year of school, Natalya moved to a special physics and mathematics school. This school was connected to the Moscow Aviation Institute.
Education and First Marriage
After finishing school, Natalya tried to get into Moscow State University but missed by a small amount. However, her good results allowed her to join the Moscow Institute of Electronic Machine Building (MIEM). There, she studied applied mathematics from 1984 to 1989. Her final project was about a mathematical model for a nuclear reactor cooling system.
Later, she earned another degree from the Open University in the UK. While studying at MIEM, she met Eugene Kaspersky. They got married in 1986.
Building a Tech Career
After graduating, Natalya worked as a research scientist for six months. Then, she took time off for maternity leave. She started her career in IT at age 28, in January 1994. Her first job was selling computer accessories and software. She earned $50 a month. This job was at a new store within the KAMI Information Technologies Center.
Natalya believes that all personal data, like search history, location, and photos, should belong to the government.
Starting Kaspersky Lab
In September 1994, Natalya became the head of distribution for AntiViral Toolkit Pro (AVP). Eugene Kaspersky's team had been developing this software since 1991. Over the next few years, Natalya built strong ways to sell and support the product. She also helped the company enter international markets.
Sales grew very quickly. They went from $100–200 per month in 1994 to over $130,000 in just one year. By 1996, sales were over $600,000, and by 1997, they passed $1 million. In 1997, the team decided to start their own company.
Natalya helped create Kaspersky Lab in June 1997 and was important in choosing its name. She worked as the CEO for more than 10 years. The company's sales doubled every year. By 2001, turnover reached about $7 million, and by 2006, it was over $67 million.
In August 2007, Eugene Kaspersky removed Natalya from her main management roles. This happened because of their divorce and different ideas about the company. Natalya agreed to stay as Chairperson of the new board. She finally left Kaspersky Lab completely in 2011. The company bought her shares in 2007 and 2011.
Under Natalya's leadership, Kaspersky Lab became a top antivirus company with offices around the world. When she left in 2007, annual sales were $126 million.
Leading InfoWatch
Kaspersky Lab bought technology from 'Ashmanov and Partners' that protected against spam. The head of that company, Igor Ashmanov, suggested using the technology to prevent data leaks. From 2001 to 2002, Kaspersky Lab programmers created a solution for this. It became known as InfoWatch Traffic Monitor Enterprise. This system helps protect companies from threats that come from inside their own networks. In December 2003, a separate company called 'InfoWatch' was created to develop this software.
Natalya Kasperskaya has been the CEO and main owner of 'InfoWatch' since October 2007. Her ownership was part of the agreement when she separated her business from her ex-husband. Natalya invested mostly in 'InfoWatch', 'Kribrum', 'Nanosemantics' (which she co-owns with Igor Ashmanov), and 'G Data Software' AG.
When 'InfoWatch' first started as a separate company, its future was not clear. Unlike Kaspersky Lab, InfoWatch's products were for large and medium-sized businesses, not small ones or individual users. This required a very different approach. Even so, in 2012, InfoWatch started making a profit. It then grew by 60-70% each year.
Today, InfoWatch is a group of companies. They focus on protecting businesses from internal threats and outside attacks. The company holds almost half of the Russian market for protecting confidential data. Their clients include Russian government groups, and large companies like 'Sberbank' and 'Lukoil'. InfoWatch is also growing in Germany, the Middle East, and South-East Asia.
Achievements and Recognition
Personal Wealth
According to Forbes magazine, Natalya Kasperskaya's wealth was about $220 million in March 2013. This estimate grew to $230 million in 2014 and $270 million in 2015. Other magazines and news sites have also reported similar high estimates of her fortune.
Natalya has said that her company is not public, so it does not need to share its exact value. However, she is happy that people see the value in 'InfoWatch'.
Awards and Rankings
Natalya Kasperskaya has received many awards and high rankings for her work.
- Top management rating (IT category), by 'Kommersant' newspaper and Association of Russian Managers:
* #3 (2009) * #2 (2010) * #4 (2011) * #1 (2013) * #1 (2014) * #4 (2015)
- 100 most influential women in Russia, by 'Echo of Moscow' radio:
* #66 (2012) * #74 (2013) * #81 (2014) * #62 (2015)
- Top 50 influential business women in Russia, by 'Kompaniya' magazine:
* #3 (2010) * #1 (2011) * #25 (2012) * #2 (2013) * #15 (2014) * #26 (2015)
- Richest woman in Russia, by 'Forbes Woman' magazine:
* #5 (2013) * #8 (2014) * #7 (2015)
Other notable awards include:
- Russian Business Leader of the Year 2012 from 'Horasis' (Switzerland) – 2013.
- Women in Technology Awards for Middle East and Africa 2014, as Best entrepreneur in IT – 2014.
- Top 20 Women in Business in Northern Europe, by 'Nordic Business Forum' – ranked #1 (2015).
- Person of the Year 2016 in IT/telecom by 'Best in Russia' award - April 2017.
Public Service
Natalya Kasperskaya is involved in many public organizations. She is a member of the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. She also belongs to the Association of Software Developers 'Domestic Software'.
She is part of the Expert Russian Software Council, which works with the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia. She is also on the Grant Committee of Skolkovo Foundation and the supervisory board of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech). Additionally, Natalya is a member of the Russian Mechanical Engineering Union.
From 2008 to 2012, Natalya was on the board of the Russian-German chamber of commerce. She also led a working group on information and computer technologies for the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia from 2009 to 2011.
Personal Life
Hobbies and Interests
Natalya Kasperskaya has always enjoyed being involved in social activities. In school, she sang in a choir and took part in plays and concerts. She even led a team of student activists. She also created her own school newspaper, where she wrote poems. She was interested in sports like basketball, skiing, and swimming. She also collected medals, stamps, and Soviet coins.
As a student, Natalya loved Moscow theater. She knew the plays at popular youth theaters and sometimes waited all night to buy tickets. She also enjoyed playing the guitar and writing poetry, often performing at parties.
Later in life, Natalya became interested in trekking, skiing, and traveling with friends and family. She also enjoys reading professional books. She says that Good to Great and Built to Last by Jim Collins are her favorite books. She speaks English and German very well.
Natalya admits she doesn't enjoy cooking much, though she had to cook for her family during maternity leave. She also doesn't spend a lot of time on fashion or shopping. She prefers to buy clothes that suit her style rather than focusing on designer brands.
Natalya views gadgets and social networks with some caution. She understands that they can be used for increased surveillance. While she uses her work phone regularly, her PR team usually manages her social media presence. She uses social media very rarely herself.
Family Life
Natalya met her first husband, Eugene Kaspersky, in January 1987. They married six months later. Their first son, Maxim, was born in 1989, and their second son, Ivan, was born in 1991. The couple separated in 1997 and divorced in 1998. Because their business was growing so fast, they kept the divorce quiet for a few years to avoid upsetting employees or the market.
Natalya met her second husband, Igor Ashmanov, in 1996 at a computer expo in Germany. They were working at nearby booths. A year later, they reconnected and started talking regularly about work. Natalya remembers they started dating two or three years later, after her divorce from Eugene. They decided to marry in 2001.
In 2005, Igor and Natalya had a daughter named Alexandra. Their second daughter, Maria, was born in 2009, and their third daughter, Varvara, in 2012. Natalya's sons from her first marriage both studied at Moscow State University.
In April 2011, Natalya's son Ivan, who was 20 years old, was taken by some people in Moscow. They held him in a village nearby and asked for a large sum of money from his parents. However, five days later, Ivan was safely freed thanks to the actions of the Russian intelligence services. The people who took him were later sentenced to prison.
Images for kids
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Natalya Kasperskaya (2016)
