Olga Kandinskaia is MSc Business Management Programme Director and Assistant Professor of Finance at UoL. She has PhD in Economics (1995) from the MGIMO-University, one of the most reputable schools in Moscow. This university is described by www.topuniversities.com as “Russia’s most prestigious and most advanced place for understanding international affairs.” Ranked among the top 5 Russian universities according to the QS World University Ranking (QS WUR), MGIMO-University is often referred to as “the Harvard of Russia” http://english.mgimo.ru/about-mgimo.

Dr Kandinskaia joined CIIM on a full-time basis in 2011. She had been a visiting lecturer at CIIM since 2002. She has 20+ years of experience in teaching undergraduate, graduate (MBA) and executive courses at different universities and colleges in Cyprus, UK and Russia.

Olga’s PhD research (1995) was in the area of financial derivatives as risk management tools. At that time, she also had practical experience of working as a futures/derivatives broker. Her current expertise is in the areas of Financial Management, Business Planning, Strategic Investment Decisions, Corporate Finance, and Business Valuation.  Her focus is on interactive, customized and practically relevant learning where theory is applied to real-life cases. In Cyprus, Dr Kandinskaia has recently trained professionals from organisations including Barclays Bank, CYTA, MTN, Confisio Managed Services, C Zackheos Property Valuations Ltd, Resolute Asset Management, Shamrock Shipping & Trading, PHC Franchised Restaurants, Hellenic Bank, Four Seasons Hotel and PricewaterhouseCoopers (Cyprus). She has substantial consulting experience in business, and has written and published several case studies. As Director of the MSc in Business Management, Dr Kandinskaia organizes yearly a Corporate Live Case Project, which is a business consultancy project completed by the groups of graduate students for a specific company.