White, Kendrick (English name: Kendrick D. White; full name Kendrick Davis White) — an American entrepreneur, venture investor, and technology commercialization specialist. From late 1992, he lived and worked in Nizhny Novgorod for nearly three decades; in 2013–2015 he served as Vice Rector for Innovation at Lobachevsky University.[1][2] Founder and CEO of the investment and consulting firm Marchmont Capital Partners, established in Nizhny Novgorod in 2005.[1][3] In the summer of 2015, White's dismissal from the position of Vice Rector following a critical segment on a federal television channel attracted widespread attention in Russian and international mass media.[4][5][6]

Early life and career in the United States

Kendrick Davis White was born on July 27, 1963, in Boston, Massachusetts; he spent his childhood and youth in Florida.[1] By his own account, his interest in Russia began in his youth: his mother was passionate about painting, studied under a Russian artist and maintained a friendship with her, and he read Dostoevsky, Berdyaev, and Solovyov, while devoting his university thesis to Karl Marx's economic theory.[7]

In 1985 he received a Bachelor's degree in international economics from Stetson University (Florida).[1][2][3] From 1985 to 1992 he worked in Chicago at ABN AMRO — LaSalle National Bank, holding management positions in the strategic planning and cash management departments.[1][3] In 1990 he earned an MBA in finance and international business from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (Illinois).[1][2]

Arrival in Nizhny Novgorod

In late 1992 White came to Nizhny Novgorod as part of a group of American economists invited to consult with the first Nizhny Novgorod governor, Boris Nemtsov.[7] As he recalls, the temperature was thirty degrees below zero and the city greeted its visitors with empty shops and a shortage of goods — a common sight at the time.[7] The assignment was planned for two years, but White met his future wife in Nizhny Novgorod and decided to stay.[7]

From late 1992 he worked in the Nizhny Novgorod city administration as an adviser on small and medium business support programs and established one of the first entrepreneurship training centers in Russia.[1][2] He lectured at universities and advised aspiring entrepreneurs; according to him, among his first attendees were Andrey Mladentsev, a future co-owner of the Nizhny Novgorod pharmaceutical company "Nizhfarm," and Albert Gusev, founder of the confectionery firm "Sladkaya Zhizn."[7]

In late 1994 – early 1995, White received an offer from PricewaterhouseCoopers and became Senior Manager of Corporate Finance and advisor to the head of the Volga-Vyatka Privatization Center; according to Kommersant, from 1995 to 1998 he led the company's corporate finance department.[1][7] As White later recounted, it was a time of restructuring for the region's major privatized enterprises — the automobile plant GAZ, PAZ, and ZMZ.[7]

EBRD Venture Fund (1998–2005)

In 1998, according to White, recruiters from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approached him in search of a venture fund manager in Nizhny Novgorod; he accepted the offer to manage the venture fund immediately, calling it his dream.[7] From 1998 to 2005 he headed the regional fund Quadriga Central Russia, with a volume of $50 million, operating under the auspices of the EBRD and the German state corporation KfW.[1][3] According to White, the fund carried out 14 investment projects;[7] among them were the Nizhny Novgorod pharmaceutical manufacturer Nizhfarm (later acquired by the German STADA Group), the food company Bridgetown Foods, and the flexible packaging producer Multiflex.[1][3]

Marchmont Capital Partners

In 2005, White founded an investment and consulting firm in Nizhny Novgorod, Marchmont Capital Partners, focused on identifying and developing high-technology investment projects.[1][2][3] He was a member of the Nizhny Novgorod business angels club "Startovye Investitsii" (seed investment club);[8] according to one of the club's founding members — Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur Eduard Fiyaksel, who later became a professor at the Higher School of Economics — it was White who "introduced him to the world of venture investment" and explained how angel clubs work.[9]

In 2006, White was invited to serve as an expert adviser to the Innovation and High-Technology Council (ICHT), a bilateral Russian–American council established at the initiative of Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush; in 2010, he joined its successor body, the Innovation Working Group (IWG) under the Russian–American Presidential Commission, as well as the expert council of the Russian Venture Company.[8] Between 2007 and 2008, the company published nine issues of a full-color magazine, the "Investment Guide to Russia," which was distributed to more than 20,000 investment professionals in Russia, the EU, and the United States; in 2008, it launched the websites marchmontnews.com and marchmont.ru covering news on innovation and technology commercialization in Russia's regions.[8]

Vice Rector for Innovation at Lobachevsky University

From 2012, White was involved in establishing a seed financing fund at Lobachevsky University in partnership with the Russian Venture Company.[7] By his own account, while evaluating research projects proposed by the university, he found that most were far from ready for real investment, and offered his assistance to the rector; at the time, the university was seeking inclusion in the government's "Project 5-100" — a program supporting Russian universities aiming to break into the world's top one hundred — and White took part in preparing the university's presentation for the ministry's expert council.[7]

On 2 September 2013, White was appointed Vice-Rector for Innovation at Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod[1][2] and that same year became head of the Technology Commercialization Center established at the university.[1] The Center assessed the commercial potential of student and university developments, trained aspiring entrepreneurs, and attracted investors; the university held a 34% stake in companies created with the Center's involvement.[10] According to White, between 2013 and 2015 the Center secured funding for 22 university projects, two of which received support from private investors; on Fridays he held open office hours for students, which drew long queues.[7] In late 2014 the Center launched the inter-university program "InnoFest,"[1] and the commercialization model developed at the university was subsequently adopted by Ural Federal University, Tomsk Polytechnic University, and ITMO.[10]

During these years White publicly argued that proof-of-concept centers needed to be incorporated into technology transfer programs at universities across the country; in 2013, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod became one of the founding members of the International Network of Proof-of-Concept and Commercialization Centers, alongside the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Skoltech, ITMO, and the Masdar Institute (UAE).[11] Speaking about the difficulties of commercialization in Russia, he observed that scientists raised in the Soviet system often lack the discipline required to adapt technology to business needs, whereas the younger generation is more results-oriented.[12]

Resignation from the post of Vice-Rector in 2015

On 28 June 2015, the federal television channel Rossiya 1 broadcast a segment on its program Vesti Nedeli about an alleged "patriotic stop list" of foreign nationals whose activities, in the program's phrasing, "harm" Russia; White was among those mentioned.[4][5][13] According to BuzzFeed News, the segment claimed that portraits of Russian scientists in his office had been replaced with portraits of entrepreneur Richard Branson and agricultural scientist George Washington Carver, and that White was linked to the departure of Russian specialists abroad.[5] White later stated that he had given the journalists an interview but that his words had been selectively edited.[14]

The order relieving White of his position as vice-rector was dated June 26, 2015 — before the segment aired — and was published on the university's website on the evening of June 30.[4] The order attributed the decision to "restructuring the management system for innovative activities at NNGU" and the need to "strengthen its scientific component"; the university's rector, Evgeniy Chuprunov, declined to comment in detail, limiting himself to the remark that "times are what they are."[4] At the time the order was published, White was on vacation with his family in Florida; as he told Kommersant, he was somewhere with barely any Wi-Fi when he managed to catch a signal for a few minutes and saw hundreds of emails and interview requests — that was how he learned of his dismissal.[15] He himself described what was happening as "a real shock," criticized the segment as one-sided, and emphasized that he had always opposed "brain drain" and had, on the contrary, worked to keep Russian scientists in the country.[16][10][7]

On July 6, 2015, the university administration offered White the opportunity to continue working as head of the Technology Commercialization Center — without the title of vice-rector, but with the same responsibilities for assessing the commercial potential of research projects.[16][17] On July 7, White told Kommersant that he would retain leadership of the center and intended to discuss the terms of further cooperation with the rector the following week.[15] Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov publicly took issue with the manner of the dismissal itself: according to Western press reports, he stated that it was wrong to dismiss an employee on the basis of a television segment, even one aired on a respected channel.[14][6]

However, as White himself announced on Facebook on July 22, 2015, he was soon relieved of his leadership of the center as well — despite, in his words, the efforts of colleagues and friends from NNGU and the support of both the Russian and international diaspora.[18][19] In its place he was offered the position of associate professor under the supervision of the vice-rector for research; White expressed hope of remaining in Russia and planned to meet with the rector in August to discuss further cooperation.[18][19]

After 2015

According to White, despite losing his leadership positions he continued to receive support from the business angels association, the Russian Venture Company, and a number of officials, while the Ministry of Education and Science invited him to summarize the experience of NNSU and prepare recommendations for other Russian universities on technology transfer and commercialization.[7] In autumn 2015 he continued mentoring young entrepreneurs under the Russian-American Innovation Corridor program, in particular helping the Nizhny Novgorod company WirelessInMotion enter the North American market.[20]

In April 2021, in an interview with the Nizhny Novgorod supplement of Kommersant, White called Nizhny Novgorod his "hometown": in his words, the city offered a quality of life comparable to Moscow's but at a lower cost of living, his family lived there, and he was glad to return after business trips.[7]

Relocation to Kazakhstan and work in Central Asia

According to White's own account, shortly thereafter he left Russia, and in 2022 settled in Almaty (Kazakhstan) after receiving an invitation to head a technology center being established at Almaty Management University (AlmaU). There he took the position of Vice-Rector for Commercialization and Director of the Technology Commercialization Center, building, by his own description, an analog of a Western technology transfer office in collaboration with 14 Kazakhstani universities and the National Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan.

In 2023, White and his team were invited to Tashkent to coordinate, under the World Bank-funded MUNIS project of the Uzbek Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, the implementation of two programs with a combined budget of $10 million — the Research Commercialization Program (supporting proof-of-concept stage projects) and Business Investments in R&D (grant support for R&D by small and medium-sized enterprises).[21] As of early 2025, White continued to hold the position of Vice-Rector for Commercialization at Almaty Management University.

Sources

  1. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Personal File: What Kendrick White Is Known For. No. 114, 01.07.2015, p. 5 (archive)
  2. akvobr.ru — Akkreditatsiya v obrazovanii — Kendrick D. White Appointed Vice-Rector for Innovation at Lobachevsky University (archive)
  3. nanoandgiga.com — Nano and Giga Solutions Inc. — Kendrick White — biography on the advisory board
  4. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Nizhny Novgorod University Dismissed American Employee After TV Report. 30.06.2015 (archive)
  5. buzzfeednews.com — American Professor Fired In Russia Amid New "Spy" Campaign (archive)
  6. insidehighered.com — In Russia, a Crackdown on Foreign Funding and Influence. 22.07.2015
  7. Kommersant (Volga Region) — "Nizhny Novgorod Is My Hometown." Interview, 30.04.2021 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — Marchmont Capital Partners (web archive) — Kendrick White — Advisory Board. Page snapshot dated September 21, 2021 (archive)
  9. rb.ru — Column by Eduard Fiyaksel, "Kafedra Venchur" (archive)
  10. rb.ru — Kendrick White: "I Want to Stay in Russia." Interview, 09.07.2015 (archive)
  11. web.archive.org — Lobachevsky University Technology Commercialization Center (web archive) — Kendrick White: "Proof-of-Concept Centers Must Be Included in Technology Transfer Programs at All Universities" (archive)
  12. web.archive.org — Lobachevsky University Technology Commercialization Center (web archive) — Kendrick White: "The End Use of a Technology Cannot Be Regulated by the State from First to Last Step" (archive)
  13. MK — Nizhny Novgorod — MK v Nizhnem Novgorode — Why Did Kendrick White Lose His Post as Vice-Rector? 07.07.2015 (archive)
  14. themoscowtimes.com — Russian Academia's Struggle to Attract Top Talent. 08.02.2016 (archive)
  15. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant-Nizhny Novgorod — Kendrick White to Continue Heading the Lobachevsky University Technology Commercialization Center. No. 118, 07.07.2015, p. 8 (archive)
  16. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Nizhny Novgorod University Offered Dismissed American a New Job. 06.07.2015 (archive)
  17. rbth.com — Russia Beyond (RBTH) — Nizhny Novgorod State University Offers New Job to Dismissed American. 08.07.2015 (archive)
  18. RIA Novosti — Former Lobachevsky University Vice-Rector from the US Says He Has Been Removed from Two More Positions. 22.07.2015 (archive)
  19. progorodnn.ru — Pro Gorod NN — American Specialist Kendrick White Ultimately Dismissed from Lobachevsky University. 22.07.2015
  20. rbth.com — Russia Beyond (RBTH) — Mentoring Next Generation of Entrepreneurs Is Not Without Risk. 05.10.2015
  21. europeanbusinessreview.com — The European Business Review — Kendrick White From US on Why He Came to Tashkent and How He Plans to Develop Technology Sector in Uzbekistan. 17.07.2023 (archive)