On 12 November 2018, the Pillar Hall of Unions hosted the awards ceremony of the All-Russian Supreme Public Business Award – Economist of the Year, which is one of the top awards for the Russian Economic Community. The ceremony was timed to coincide with the Economist’s Day professional holiday.

Mikhail Alekseev, Chairman of the Management Board of UniCredit Bank, won Economist of the Year award for developing and implementing the loan scheme for real economy enterprises and agricultural producers, the mortgage lending programme, and for supporting social and cultural projects.

“This award attests to the fact that the business community highly appreciates the contribution in the national economy and in our country’s cultural and social life made by UniCredit Bank that I have been chairing for over 10 years now,” Mikhail Alekseev said. “I am grateful to the expert community, including my alma mater – the Financial University, our partners, and customers for appreciating our contribution. We are planning to continuously meet your high expectations in the future.”

The Economist of the Year award has been founded by the Free Economic Society of Russia, and alongside with Russia’s other prestigious professional awards (Lawyer of the Year and Teacher of the Year), it represents recognition of professional merits to the society and state. The first awarding ceremony took place in the Kremlin Palace on 11 November 2017.

The primary awarding criteria include the development and implementation of innovative socially important projects aimed at promoting national social and economic development and improving the living standards of the population. The members of the working bodies of the award (steering committee, jury, and expert panel) are well-known statesmen and public figures, scientists, educators, experts, and business leaders.

In 2018, 137 candidates competed for the award. The award candidates were nominated by university academic councils, research and educational institutions, public institutions, and business entities. Based on the expert examination, the expert panel approved a list of 17 nominees for the 2018 Economist of the Year award. At the expert panel’s recommendation, the jury headed by Sergey Kalashnikov, Chairman and Member of the Presidium of the Free Economic Society of Russia, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Economic Policy of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, considered and approved eight diplomates of the award and the winners were selected amongst them.