Sergey Matsotsky — A biography: from a software engineer to an IT – entrepreneur
Sergey Matsotsky: Life and career milestones:
- 1968-1978 — student of the Moscow High School No. 444
- 1978-1982 — student of the Moscow Institute of Petrochemical and Gas Industry
- 1982-1990 — employed at the Minneftegazprom (the Oil and Gas Industry Ministry) of the USSR
- 1990-1992 — employed at the Intermikro JV
- 1992-2020 — employed at the IBS holding company
- 2020 on — managing the GS Invest Holding
Education
Sergey Savelyevich Matsotsky was born in Moscow on February 25, 1962. He began to master the trade of a software engineer at the Moscow school No. 444, which was the first in the USSR ever to teach information technology to the students. The school was equipped with the most advanced equipment for the time, including computers.
Sergey Matsotsky went on to get technical education at the Moscow Institute of Petrochemical and Gas Industry. It was one of the most sophisticated universities in the country in the field of applied mathematics. It was exactly this specialization that Matsotsky chose. The title of his graduation thesis was “A three-dimensional model of two-phase filtration in a three-row system for developing an oil field.”
He was actually engaged in the trade, which was later called “information technology”, from his childhood. This is the key to the success of many people: to try and “find yourself” in youth so that one could devote your life to your favorite cause.
Sergei Matsotsky in the 80s
The education received and Matsotsky’s personal passion for IT led him to getting an interesting and an impressive job position right after the university. He became a system software engineer and a Unit Head at the Central Geophysical Expedition (TsGEM) of the USSR Minneftegazprom (the Oil and Gas Industry Ministry). In fact, it was the largest computing center entity in the country.
There were many interesting and challenging projects in that job, including international ones. In the early 80s, technologies for the oil and gas industry were actively developed. However, with the beginning of Perestroika, the pace of development began to decline, there were no more interesting projects, and the institution started to degrade.
Matsotsky and IBS
In 1990, Sergey Matsotsky moved on to join the Intermikro joint venture in the position of the Head of the commercial department. Thus his career in business started. In 1992, he and his former job colleagues set up the IBS, a company of their own, and he took the position of the Executive Director. Even then, early on, the company took up the process automation business, which soon turned out to be in high demand with the young Russian businesses.
“It was very thrilling in the 90s: any new story of technology was eagerly and avidly perceived by the businesses and the whole country. There were no politics there, but an area of free creativity,” recalls Matsotsky.
The growth of IBS’s business and the plans for its further expansion have attracted large investments. Citicorp and AIG bought a 29% stake in IBS for million in 1997, an astounding amount in those years. Sergey Matsotsky became the CEO and Chairman of the Board of the IBS holding company. An IPO was arranged in 2005, bringing a total of 3 million for a 33% stake in the IBS.
In 2012, Sergey Matsotsky took over the Strategic Development of IBS, transferring the powers of the CEO.
Business projects of Sergey Matsotsky in IBS
In the early 90s, the demand for personal computers in Russia was booming, so back in 1994, a company called Deline was set up within the structure of IBS, and the unit became a distributor of Dell computers and peripherals. Later on, Deline was renamed DEPO Computers. In 2002, the company launched the production of computers and servers in the cities of Moscow and Novosibirsk. By 2007, DEPO Computers accounted for about 60% of IBS’s turnover. In 2009, DEPO Computers was sold to top management of the same company.
At the turn of the millennium, the demand for offshore programming began to grow, so back in 2000, the IBS Holding under the management of Sergei Matsotsky entered this market under the Luxoft brand. The company successfully competed with the Indian and the Chinese developers by taking on and implementing projects that were more sophisticated. Clients at the time included Boeing, IBM, Deutsche Bank, the US Department of Energy. In 2013, Luxoft raised $555 million in an IPO, and in 2019, it was sold to DXC Technology, an American company, for $2 billion.
Medialogy, an influential media monitoring and rating system, was also created by the IBS Holding, which was managed by Sergei Matsotsky (Wikipedia). Initially, it was used to monitor the media as part of contributing to reaching IBS’s own objectives, but then the service was separated into a separate area division.
As of May 2024, Medialogy tracked 77,000 media outlets and more than 2.37 billion social media accounts. At the beginning of 2019, IBS sold its stake in Medialogy, while Matsotsky retained the 21% interest.
Sergey Matsotsky and the GS-Invest
In 2020, Matsotsky decided to leave the business and the management of the IBS Holding, dividing parts of the assets with his partners. A new company, GS-Invest, was created to manage those as well as the newly created projects.
“The model of a large multifunctional company is outdated today. We need to create something more mobile and flexible. Really, it is very important that the management are the shareholders, too. This will keep the spirit of creation, creativity, and responsibility – and then the company will develop. You know, even if the best hired managers with a great MBA run the company, then nothing will work out. This was the idea behind the creation of GS-Invest,” says Sergey Matsotsky.
Hobbies
The main hobby of the whole of Sergey Matsotsky’s life, apart from the IT business, is traveling. He has visited 91 countries over the past 20 years. His personal ranking of the most impressive countries in the world includes Bhutan, Myanmar, Indonesia (but not Bali), Iceland, Namibia. The American Canyons and the town of Page are “fantastic” places in the US, according to Matsotsky.
Business books seem boring to Matsotsky: as a rule, the main idea of the author is clear from the first chapters. The book that made the biggest impression on him was Good to Great by Jim Collins. “Good thing I read it when I was young. The book gave me a lot,” says the entrepreneur.
Rhydian Choi