The evening began with a reception for guests in the Romanesque living room, organized with the support of the event's partners – Russian Caviar House and LUDING. Guests then moved to the Egyptian Hall, where the official opening of the evening took place.
The key event of the business part was a panel discussion on the topic "The Leader of a New Era: People, Speed, or Result?". The moderator was Dmitry Ozman, Development Director of Forbes Russia, President of Forbes Club. Experts agreed that a successful manager today is someone whose decisions and approaches lead not only to business results but also to an improvement in people's quality of life. According to project leader Yulia Malysheva, it is precisely such leaders that the "Business Leaders" award recognizes.
The culmination of the evening was the awards ceremony. Among the winners were: VTB Bank (PAO), RTK-TsOD Group of Companies, Siberian Wellness, Severstal – TsES, Plati po Miru, Laboratoriya Chislitel, PAO MTS. Laureates also included Ekaterina Burchina, Vice President and Sales Director of the commercial IT cluster of PAO Rostelecom, Valery Baulin, CEO of F6, Albina Dontsova, MD, founder and owner of Inwhite Medical and Inwhite Medical Kids clinics, Egor Sorokin, CEO of Online School No. 1, and others.
Winning the award was a recognition not only of professional achievements but also of the high technological sophistication of products and the quality of management models. "We are delighted with our victory in the specialized nomination of the award. Our digital security services are highly valued by both subscribers and market experts. The jury specifically noted the level of technological sophistication of the products: the company's modern AI-based models detect fraudulent and spam calls with an accuracy of over 90%, which is a high indicator for the market," said Andrey Biichuk, Director of the MTS Telecom Technology Products Center.
Another important topic is the transformation of approaches to management and leadership. In conditions of high uncertainty, horizontal connections and the team's ability to make independent decisions come to the forefront. Pavel Belov, Development Director of the fintech solution "Plati po Miru", stated: "The main skill of a leader in 2026 is not to inspire, but to assemble autonomous people. When the fintech market changes every quarter, it's not the founder's charisma that wins, but the team's ability to make decisions without him. Hierarchy loses to horizontality in terms of speed."
"AI is transforming the market, organizations, and changing the role of humans in work processes. In our HR team, AI allows recruiters to save up to 20% of their working time on a number of tasks, and 25% of new program code in the company as a whole is already being written with the help of copilots. The key task for businesses in 2026 is to chart a development vector towards an agent economy and determine what human work will entail in tandem with AI," shared Liya Koroleva, Board Member, HR Director of MTS Web Services.
An important aspect of modern business remains the improvement of financial literacy. Thus, one of the award laureates emphasizes systematic and regular customer education. "The development of financial culture is a gradual process that requires regularity. Therefore, we use different formats: from micro-learning in digital channels and workplace lectures to full-fledged educational programs. Our task is to help clients and their loved ones understand the mechanics of social engineering, recognize manipulations and suspicious scenarios," said Anna Kravets, Managing Director of VTB Education, VTB Bank (PAO).
For many, the award became a symbol of the team's internal energy and readiness for development. Denis Golovanov, CEO of MANGO OFFICE, stated: "This award belongs to the entire team of employees! I am grateful to each of my colleagues. During the company's transformation, I saw an important thing: the team itself wants to move forward. There is energy, ambition, and a readiness to grow within the company."
The serious challenges facing the data center industry today were also in the focus of the ceremony participants. David Martirosov, CEO of GK RTK-TsOD, Senior Vice President for Commercial IT Products of PAO Rostelecom, CEO of Basis company, outlined a systemic problem: "Today, our industry is facing a difficult situation. Due to high CAPEX, energy shortages in a number of regions, and other factors, the commissioning of new data center capacities is decreasing year by year. At the same time, demand from the state and businesses remains consistently high, including due to the growing need for cloud B2B services and AI platforms. To resolve this situation, a systemic approach is needed, and therefore industry representatives are already working on possible options together with relevant ministries."
Long-term sustainable development is impossible without investments in own raw materials, innovations, and people. Tatyana Gorokhovskaya, President of Siberian Wellness, spoke about this: "We operate on a decades-long scale – we look at the results over a 30-year period, and we define a strategy for another 10. Our own raw materials are our near future, vertical integration is in focus. Cluster development of production continues constantly. And, of course, we will continue to invest in innovations, people, and ecology."
The ceremony continued with TED speakers presenting on "Leadership as an Engine for Service Development" and "Leadership in Uncertainty: How to Build Fintech When Major Players Said 'No'."
Support for the event was also provided by: Forbes Business Club, Legend of Baikal, Drinksome, and the flower boutique TSVETOCHKI.