In both lecture format and conversation with Sloan Senior Lecturer Noubar Afeyan, RUSNANO CEO Anatoly Chubais presents an ambitious plan to create Russia’s Nanotechnology Center—a $10 billion, entrepreneurial ecosystem that incorporates education, research and business incubation. Noting that a plan of this depth also requires the deep engagement with an academic institution Chubais discusses the launch of SKOLKOVO, the Moscow School of Management, where MIT Sloan has been involved in a major collaboration.  From MIT Sloan School of Management Newsroom RUSNANO, part economic development entity, part venture capital firm, recently turned to MIT Sloan to devise a custom Executive Education program to help it cultivate an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Russia. The effort is part of the government’s plan to diversify their natural-resource-based economy. “We’re creating an innovation economy,” said Anatoly Chubais, CEO of RUSNANO, and a leading architect of Russia’s post-Soviet privatization. “We are to be entrepreneurial not just at a company level, but at a country level.” With a budget of up to $10 billion (USD) in government funds, RUSNANO co-invests in nanotechnology projects in areas such as solar energy, composite materials, nano-biotechnology, and mechanical engineering that have high potential for commercial or social benefit. RUSNANO stipulates that all companies that win funding must operate in Russia. Its goal is to ensure the production of the value of Russia’s nanotechnology industry reaches $30 billion by 2015. MIT Sloan’s custom program featured sessions on leadership, organizational change, innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship. But what most interested the nine RUSNANO executives who attended the course was how MIT has so successfully commercialized its innovation. “MIT research and its entrepreneurial spinoffs have had a huge impact on the local economy, the U.S. economy, and global economies,” says Steven Eppinger, Professor of Manag...