Prior to his election as the President of FISU Oleg Matytsin was one of the initiators of the XXVII Summer Universiade 2013 in Kazan, the XXIX Winter Universiade 2019 in Krasnoyarsk and the FISU International Education Centre in Kazan. He was actively involved in organizing a number of international university sports and educational events, including World and European university championships.
Oleg Matytsin actively supported and encouraged the FISU further development as the leading university sports organization with new activities leading to the growing recognition of its role and the importance of university sports from the global sports as well as university communities.
A special focus is put on strategic partnership with International Federations and international sports organizations such as IOC and SportAccord. Special priority is given to FISU educational activities with the aim of integrating sports, education and culture of member federations.

Lilia is Education and Development Director in FISU working with 174 Member Associations providing platform for development education to students and officials as well as to FISU events organisers, she was project leader for FISU Global Strategy 2027 development in 2016-2017. Holding Executive Master in Sport Organisation Management (MEMOS) and law degree, Lilia has been working in sports for the past 15 years. Before joining great FISU team 6 years ago as knowledge management manager, she was head of volunteers and knowledge management for Summer Universiade in Kazan in 2013 and also worked with future Olympic and Paralympic Games organisers at Sochi Games in 2014, was head of the FISU International Educational Centre.

After completing a BSc in Sport Business Management at Sheffield Hallam University, she was elected to represent 33,000 students as Hallam's Sport and Physical Activity Officer. During this time, Ellis was also a BUCS regional chairperson, representing all students across Yorkshire and took part in the 2019 FVLA.
From this, Ellis is now the Vice Chair of the BUCS student advisory group, and is the Events and Competitions Coordinator for English Universities Sport. She has recently taken up a position as Sport Development Coordinator at The University of Huddersfield.

Tony is a Senior Manager in WADA's Education Department with responsibility for Research and Policy and has been with WADA for 7 years. He was the WADA lead in the development of the International Standard for Education, a policy that sets requirements for anti-doping organizations to deliver education initiatives to athletes and their support personnel. Although a keen all round sport enthusiast, Tony's background is in Gaelic Football, an indigenous Irish amateur sport (loosely described as a mix between soccer and rugby). Tony holds an M.Sc in Applied Social Science Research and an Executive Masters in Sport Organization Management (MEMOS).

Irina Eddaira is a Country Managing Director at EF English First, Russia. Prior to relocating to Moscow, Irina was based at EF's HQ in Switzerland and worked with Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland and Czech Republic. Passionate for international education and language learning with focus on sales, business growth and entrepreneurial development, Irina worked across several continents throughout her professional career. She ran her own business and held senior positions at IT companies in the USA and Ireland as well as at an educational company in Thailand.



Irina has a Bachelor's Degree in Management and Finance from George Mason University, USA and an MBA Degree from University College Dublin, Ireland. Irina is a passionate world traveler, mountain climber, Iron Man triathlon participant and a foodie, who believes that you should try and learn at least one new thing per day.



EF Education First is the world leader in international education that specializes in language training, educational travel, academic degree programs, and cultural exchange. Founded in 1965 by Bertil Hult, EF is privately held by Hult family and currently employs over 54,000 employees across 116 countries.

Adelia has got a Master's degree in PR and journalism and branding. With more than 12 years of experience in the sportsfield, she was involved in the main world sports events all around the world like Universiades, Olympic Games, and different World Championships.
Adelia is an expert on branding and promotion strategies. And she was one of the team members who worked on developing new FISU identity and Brandbook.

Tony was born by the sea & youngest in the family. He tells that he could almost swim before be able to walk walk! His father was a fisherman. He taught young Tony a lot about being hopeful, feeling loved, feeling you matter, being optimistic & resilient. These have been his personal building blocks for the leadership work throughout Tony's life. He struggled at school & was asked to leave university, first time around, because he made an administrative error. But these weren't setbacks. They helped Tony to develop other skills like listening well, asking good questions and having conversations with those who could help him. He trained to be a school teacher & become a school leader. Then he re-trained to become a psychologist, got a PhD & then a Professor in his field of wellbeing, leading others to become the best they could be. He has led 5 NGO's with livelihood development as their mission, in 3 continents. He has led multidisciplinary teams in India and East Africa on human rights, leadership development and wellbeing issues. He has led research teams in Scandinavian High Arctic with issues of wellbeing, distance-spanning healthcare, strength-based leadership & community action. "You are never 'a leader', but always a 'learning leader'," says Tony. He played professional cricket for a short time and always dreamed of bowling out India's Sashan Tendulkar, one of the greatest batsmen of all time. "It's still a dream!" shares with us our speaker.

Svetlana Ivchenko is a Director of Social Policy Department in Norilsk Nickel – Russia's leading metals and mining company and the world's largest high-grade nickel and palladium producer. Svetlana has been working with Norilsk Nickel since 2013. She is in charge of sustainable development reporting, corporate philanthropy, social benefits. For twenty years, she has been working in such fields as Sustainable Development, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Community Development.

In 2016-2019 ranks among Top-5 Russian managers in Corporate Social Responsibility by Association of Russian Managers. Svetlana is a member of the Steering Committee of Global Compact Network Russia.

Svetlana holds a Master of Management from the Novosibirsk State Technical University (Russia) and Master of Public Administration from the Valdosta state University (USA).

Tarmo has a recreation and Sports Management degree of Tallinn University (EST). After university studies, he started with sports volunteering and got involved with University Sport at the Estonian Academic Sports Federation as Development Manager and later as a Secretary General. He was a member of FISU International Control Committee (CIC) for 7 years (2011 – 2018). In 2016 Tarmo was elected as a board member of CUSF (EUSA) until he joined FISU as a staff member in 2018. Over the years he has been involved with number of international and national events, such as World University Championships (2008 in Orienteering, 2016 in Beach Volleyball & 2018 in Ski Orienteering), SELL Student Games 2010 & 2014 (regional university games between Finland, Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania), Estonian Students Summer & Winter Games and in multiple educational and cultural events, such as International Day of University Sport which he has stayed in a close "relations" until now.

Olivia joined FISU in 2018 and is currently Education and Development Assistant in charge of the coordination of the FVLA and FISU Student Ambassadors programme from FISU side. After completing the Master's Degree Programme "«Olympic Studies, Olympic Education, Organisation and Management of Olympic Events» at the International Olympic Academy in Olympia (GRE) in 2013, she was working in various major sports events (Olympic and Paralympic Games, Football Euro Cups, World Cups, etc.) for 4 years. Olivia was also head of a Rhythmic Gymnastics club in France for more than 10 years and used to compete at National Level for nearly 20 years.

Ani has recently joint WADA as Policy and Research Coordinator in the Education Department. She co-leads WADA's Social Science Strategy development and implementation. Ani holds a M. Ed in International Education Policy from Harvard University and has demonstrated work experience in education and social policy and research. Ani was a keen chess competitor in her native Armenia before moving to North America.

Meet Joshua Miethke, who is a graduate student in economics at the University of Potsdam. Since March 2020 he is a member of FISU Student Committee. Starting his studies at Germanys former capital Bonn, he came into university sport as Head of Sports Department of the respective Student Union. His tasks included organizing the sports programme on campus for around 30.000 students, National University Championships and other tournaments on regional levels. Furthermore he represented the students in several committees on regional and national level ending as speaker for students of North Rhine-Westphalia in the advisory committee of adh. As a result of his work in adh projects he was appointed as German delegate for the FVLA 2018 and came back in 2019. Following his work and engagement in the FISU Student Ambassadors Programme afterwards his federation put him forwards for the FISU Student Committee to which he was appointed earlier this year. In his work on national and international level he focuses on student participation, good governance but also the improvement of (major) sport events.

Tatiana is intuitive, resourceful, skillful Sport Management Consultant, possessing a significant background in organizing volunteers for major sport events such as Kazan 2013 Universiade, Sochi 2014 Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup Russia 2018. In her current position she is involved in organising Moscow Marathon and works as a consultant with FISU. Her wide experience in international volunteering in London 2012, Innsbruck 2012, Rio 2016, Lillehammer 2016 and number of the Summer and Winter Universiades helped her to understand different volunteering cultures and create effective programs. In her academic background is Executive Master's degree in Sport Management MEMOS (Executive Master in Sport Organizations Management) - co-organized by the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Solidarity.

Portuguese, Graduated in Physical Education and Sport, with several post-graduate and 2 master's degrees in the area of Sport Management (MEMOS IOC) and Physical Activity and Recreation, he also developed his activity as a Trainer, University Teacher, Consultant and Sports Director. University Sports is his professional field, where he has been active for over 30 years, as Director of Sports Services at the University of Minho (Best University of the last decade for EUSA 2009-2019), and as Volunteer Board Member, since the level of Student Association of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education of UPorto (1989-1993), Academic Federation of Porto (1993-1994), the Portuguese University Sports Federation FADU (1993-1995), the European University Sports Association ( 2012-2016), and the International University Sports Federation (2015-2019). In 2017 he was considered the Sports Manager of the Year by the Portuguese Sports Management Association. Since 2015 he has been Vice President of Sporting Clube de Braga (to end the term in May 2021). He currently lives in Lausanne, where he is Director of Healthy Campus and Universities Relations at the International University Sports Federation.

Adam Pratchett is an International Sport Consultant and Vice Chair of FISU's Gender Equality Committee. Following studying an MSci in International Relations and Global Issues at the University of Nottingham, Adam was elected as Sports Officer for the University of Nottingham Students' Union and as a National Student Officer for British Universities and Colleges Sport. As a result of his international background, Adam was appointed by BUCS as the UK Delegate for the FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy 2018, where he was ranked in the Top 3 Participants and was subsequently invited to work for FISU at both the Winter and Summer World University Games in Krasnoyarsk and Naples respectively. In 2019 he moved to Finland, where he worked for the Finnish Paralympic Committee organising the European Paralympic Youth Games and supported the Finnish Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee with the delivery of the IOC New Leaders Forum. Alongside his work as an International Sport Consultant, Adam has supported FISU with the development of the FVLA and Ambassador programmes and was recently was recently appointed as the Vice Chair of FISU's Gender Equality Committee.

Dmitry Pristanskov – Russian public official. State Secretary - Vice President for Government Relations PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel.

In 1999, Mr Pristanskov graduated with honours from the St Petersburg State University with a degree in Law. He also completed a professional development programme in Finance and Credit at the International Banking Institute. PhD in law. Author of over 10 research papers and articles.

Mr Pristanskov has a wide experience of work as Assistant Prosecutor for civil court hearings, Assistant to the Head of the Federal Agency for State Property Management, the Head of the Department for Property Management in Research Organisations at Federal property management Agency; Director of Federal and Regional Programmes at MMC Norilsk Nickel; Member of the State Commission for Arctic Development; Member of the Board of Trustees at the Cinema Foundation under the Russian Government (2017–2018) and many others.

From April 2016, he worked as Deputy Russian Minister of Economic Development and Head of the Federal Agency for State Property Management. From March 2019 he serves as State Secretary – Vice President for Government Relations PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel.

For his outstanding work Dmitry Pristanskov was presented with a lot of awards, as: Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" 2^nd Class (2019), Order of Honour (2019); Themis Higher Legal Award (2017); Winner of the 10th Director of the Year National Award in the Professional Director of Public Company category (2015).

Albina worked on the strategic direction and development of the FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy since its inception in 2017 as its Project Coordinator. She graduated as MSci in Chemical Engineering in Russia and carried out her undergraduate research projects in the USA. She started being a volunteer in 2008 and was awarded a Volunteer of the Year status in 2010 in Kazan. She was the Head of Communications and Database at the Volunteer Department during the Universiade 2013. She pioneered and implemented a course and a book titled "English 4U" aimed at teaching and preparing volunteers from 20 cities of Russia for the 2013 World University Games. Not only is she a manager, coordinator and leader in her own right. She herself, underwent extensive volunteering. For example, the World University Games in Belgrade 2009, Erzurum 2011, Shenzhen 2011, Kazan 2013, Naples 2019, Youth Olympic Games 2010 in Singapore and Innsbruck 2012. The London Olympics 2012, EuroSkills 2016 in Gothenburg, World Skills 2017 in AbuDhabi, FIFA World Cup 2018 and countless events in Kazan, all share her great expertise in common. She is a mother of 2 little kids and also a mother of 2 dragons with the names of "FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy" and "FISU Student Ambassadors Programme". She truly believes that both projects have a strong potential with Student Ambassadors in more than 100 countries working for the benefits of the University sport. Albina is proud of her young team of the local organising committee that are so much devoted to FVLA that call it the "FAMILY" project.

Ranko Tepavcevic – Deputy Director General of ANO "Directorate for Sports and Social Projects"; Head of the FINA Development Centre Kazan; Stadium Manager of the Kazan Arena Stadium in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ host city; General Secretary of the 2015 FINA World Championships; Venue Director and chief consultant of the 27th World Summer Universiade Kazan 2013; Mayor of the Universiade Village at the 25th World Summer Universiade Belgrade 2009; Executive Director of the 2007 European Youth Olympic Festival.

Tina Sharma is a former award-winning sports journalist, news anchor and television producer, who is currently Head of Communication & PR at the International University Sports Federation (FISU). After more than 15 years covering most major sporting events as a journalist – including the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Cricket World Cups and Grand Slam tennis tournaments – she moved from New Delhi, India, to Lausanne, Switzerland in 2017 to pursue a career transition into sports administration. At FISU, her role requires her to oversee news and content from multiple sports and educational events every year, as well as from more than 170 National University Sports Federations around the world. She says her 15+ years in journalism were the best possible training she could have had, for her role today. Moreover, her background has also given her a deep understanding of the global media landscape, which has proved to be a real asset in her key function of media relations. Having grown up in Hong Kong, and lived in India and the Netherlands before Switzerland, Tina considers herself a true world citizen and counts travel as one of her top passions. She is also a bestselling author and finds great joy in writing, something she is delighted to be able to continue doing as part of her daily tasks. She is a mum to two young boys and enjoys playing sport with them, in addition to writing, painting and travelling.

As a Vietnam-born, Chinese-American who grew up in Los Angeles, Dr. Tran's career has been as international as his background. After graduating from Yale University with a BA in Psychology, Dr. Tran started his career as a 5th grade math and science teacher at a high-performing charter school in Los Angeles. He then moved to Hong Kong in 2011 to serve as a Yale-China Teaching Fellow at the Chinese University Hong Kong, where he taught English literature, writing, and public speaking. Dr. Tran then served for 7 years as the Executive Director of Academic Affairs at EF Education First, the world's largest private education company. Dr. Tran led EF's language research portfolio, including research partnerships with world-renowned scholars at Harvard University, Cambridge University, Peking University, and Tokyo University. He also traveled to more than 20 countries to speak at conferences about research and innovation at EF. Currently as the Executive Director at Bloom Academy, Hong Kong's newest and most innovative primary and secondary school, Dr. Tran heads the marketing and admissions functions, as well as online learning, teacher recruitment, and professional development.