Payportal will Open New Horizons for People, Irina Travina

What is your background briefly?

I was born in 1963 in Krasnodar, Russia. When I was 15, I received a scholarship at the Physics and Mathematics High School in Novosibirsk Academgorodok (Siberian scientist center). In 1985 I successfully graduated from Novosibirsk State University, with a diploma in Mechanics and Mathematics.

In 1985 I started my working career as an engineer in Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering (IPMCE) and 4 years later I joined the Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IA&E SB RAS), Computer visualization systems laboratory.

In 1991 in cooperation with my colleges we founded the “Soft Lab LTD” and after a few years I was elected to the post of General Director of this company. Now it is the internationally known developer of computer games and simulators. Computer games Hard Truck, Hard Truck 2 and Hard Truck 3 according to the Next Generation web portal rating in 2006 become the first Russian project in the top 100 best selling games of the 21st century. The company develops and produces own solutions for the automation of TV, cable and internet broadcasting. More than 2,500 TV studios and internet providers from Russia and abroad have selected the solutions for Digital TV.

Since 2006 I am the Chairwoman of the Association SibAcademSoft of Russian software developers. There are more than 55 big IT companies as members and 8,000 specialists in the IT field. Within more than 12 years the Association has managed a lot of IT initiatives, regional IT programs and projects.  

Then we turned the focus to an idea of creation of the Technopark of Novosibirsk Academgorodok. Academpark’s mission is to create the best possible environment for ongoing generation of new innovative businesses and the development of existing ones. Academpark is an integrated technology park with unique business and technological infrastructure providing ideal conditions for generation and development of innovative companies as well as successful development of existing innovative productions; it is a place where research turns into industrial technologies.

Now I am a member of Supervisory and Expert Council of Technopark of Novosibirsk Academgorodok, a member  of the Supervisory Board of Novosibirsk State University Community, a member of strategic planning group of the Novosibirsk State University, a member of the Board of Trustees of Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Without any doubts. Since the foundation of Soft Lab-NSK we have followed the innovation trends merging IT and science. This allows us to develop complicated projects and successfully penetrate the market. For example:

• Digital TV project (70% of market in Russia).
• Simulator of docking spaceship “Soyuz” with International space station (MKS) for Astronaut Training Center.
• Simulators for Russian Railways.
• Computer games Hard Truck, Hard Truck 2 and Hard Truck 3.

Technopark of Novosibirsk Academgorodok became the next big and ambitious project that attracted more than 8,800 talented scientists and IT specialists.  The Technopark helps innovation companies solve technical problems related to the development and manufacturing of innovative products from prototyping to mass production (up to several thousand items per year). The project attracted more than 700 million rubles of investments (at that time the equivalent was more than $24 million).

Blockchain technology is based on mathematics and security philosophy and stays on the edge of innovations. In addition, cryptocurrency issuing and managing require a good knowledge in economics and management, that I’ve inherited working with University of Economics and Management. So Payportal Project is a logical consequence of my business strategy and my contribution to innovation support concept. 

One min pitch for what you are doing now?

For today I have two major deals:

• First, contribution to Payportal ICO preparing in according to my role in the project.
• Second, I am a chairman of the organizing Committee of IT Forum, that imposes appropriate obligations

Why did you get involved with this ICO?

Regular payments are a big issue in any big country, including Russia. Therefore I am more or less acquainted with the challenges people have and would like to contribute to the project and learn from it too.

Why do you think it is such a powerful idea?

Blockchain technologies open new horizons for many projects and I believe the Payportal bill payments and money transfers project could be gradually improved.

Sometimes there is no need to look for something new, but improve existing vital services for the public, make them comfortable to use and widely accessible.

A car, when it was invented by Henry Ford also had four wheels to drive, but today you will never use that car as many things have been improved even though the basic concept remained the same.

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