Leaving Home for the Unknown

I was eleven years old when my parents and I left Moscow. It was 1989, near the end of the old Soviet regime, and life was becoming unpredictable. My parents wanted freedom and a better future for me, so we made the difficult decision to leave everything behind. We didn’t know exactly where we would end up. All we knew was that we had to go.

We traveled through Austria, Germany, and Italy, living with other refugee families who were also waiting for the chance to start over. It was a long six months filled with uncertainty, language barriers, and the constant question of what would come next. Eventually, we received an invitation from my uncle in San Jose, California, who had emigrated years earlier. That letter meant everything. It was our ticket to a new life.

When we finally landed in the United States, I remember stepping out into the California sun and feeling both excitement and fear. Everything was foreign. The signs, the sounds, even the smell of the air. We had escaped the old world, but we were stepping into one we didn’t yet understand.

Starting Over in America

My parents were highly educated in Russia. My mother was a piano teacher, and my father was an electrical engineer. But in America, those credentials didn’t mean much. My mom began cleaning houses and working at McDonald’s, while my dad found a job at ADT Security installing alarm systems. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was honest work, and they did it with pride.

For me, school was the biggest challenge. I started fifth grade without knowing a single word of English. I sat in class listening to words that sounded like noise and spent months trying to make sense of them. Kids would laugh when I mispronounced things, and I often went home frustrated. But I was determined. I carried a small dictionary everywhere I went, translating words one by one.

Within a year, I could speak English fluently. That experience taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my life: persistence pays off. No matter how impossible something feels at first, consistency and effort always move you forward.

Finding My Passions

Growing up in San Jose, I became fascinated with two things, cars and computers. I loved taking things apart just to see how they worked. My first real project was fixing an old computer my dad brought home from work. It took me weeks, but when I finally got it running, I felt unstoppable.

Around the same time, I fell in love with cars. I saved up from part-time jobs to buy my first one, and then I couldn’t stop tinkering. I changed parts, modified engines, and learned the mechanical side of things through trial and error. That curiosity would eventually become a bridge between my personal interests and my professional path.

While I once dreamed of owning my own auto shop, my attention gradually shifted toward technology. The same problem-solving mindset that helped me rebuild cars helped me understand how computer systems fit together. What started as a hobby became a calling.

Building a Career in Technology

When I began my career in IT, I thought it was all about technical skills. I spent my early years learning everything I could about systems, networks, and infrastructure. But over time, I realized that the most important part of the job wasn’t just the technology, it was the people behind it.

I eventually moved into leadership roles, overseeing global IT support and digital workplace teams across the U.S. and Europe. I worked in industries where precision and compliance mattered deeply, especially healthcare and med-tech. My teams supported thousands of employees who depended on us to make their work easier, faster, and safer.

One of the proudest moments of my career came when I led a large M&A integration. Bringing together two different IT environments, cultures, and people was challenging, but it taught me that successful transformation depends more on empathy than on code. When you prioritize people, listening to their ideas, fears, and frustrations, you create an environment where innovation naturally thrives.

I started defining success not just by uptime or response time but by employee satisfaction and engagement. When people feel supported, they perform better. That’s as true in technology as it is in life.

Lessons in Resilience

Looking back, I can see how much of my leadership philosophy comes from my early experiences as an immigrant. Moving across continents at eleven years old forced me to adapt quickly. I learned how to stay calm when things felt uncertain, how to find common ground with people from different backgrounds, and how to keep moving forward even when I was scared.

Those lessons have carried me through every stage of my life. When systems go down or projects get delayed, I remind myself that challenges are temporary. What matters is how you respond. Resilience isn’t about being unshakable; it’s about bending without breaking and always finding a way to rebuild stronger.

I’ve also learned that reinvention never stops. The world of technology evolves every year, and so do we. I encourage my teams to keep learning, experimenting, and growing. Whether it’s mastering a new framework or developing leadership skills, growth keeps us adaptable and relevant.

Gratitude for the Journey

When I think about that young boy sitting in a fifth-grade classroom unable to understand a word of English, I feel proud of how far that kid has come. I owe so much to my parents, who sacrificed everything to give me the chance to build this life. Their resilience became my foundation.

Today, I still love cars and computers, and I still spend weekends in the garage or testing new tech gadgets. But more than that, I love helping people succeed. Whether it’s mentoring a young engineer or guiding a team through a complex project, my greatest satisfaction comes from seeing others grow.

America gave me the opportunity to reinvent myself. Technology gave me the tools to build something meaningful. And the journey from Moscow to Silicon Valley taught me that resilience and curiosity can take you anywhere.

Every system I help design, every process I improve, and every team I lead is a small reflection of that journey, a reminder that behind every piece of technology, there’s a human story worth telling.