Igor Yurgens is Chairman of the Institute for Contemporary Development a Moscow based think tank dedicated to a modern Russia.

He is also the Renaissance Capital Chairman,and the Vice-President of the  Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Employers).

He graduated from Moscow State University with a Ph.D. in Economics. He is also a Professor of Moscow State University – Higher School of Economics. 

For more than two decades Mr. Yurgens worked in the trade union movement of the USSR – Russian Federation; he served five years in UNESCO. He was also the President of Russian Insurance Association until 2001 and the Executive secretary of the Russian Union of Industrialists until 2005.