Our Team

Alexandra Johnson is a Managing Director of DFJ VTB Aurora. She is a Silicon Valley-based partner and focuses on early stage companies in communications, media, and technology industries headquartered both inside and outside of Russia and CIS.

Prior to joining DFJ VTB Aurora, Alexandra was a founder and managing director of Landbridge Capital LLC, an investment firm targeting US-based companies commercializing Russian technology. For the past decade, she has provided executive management, investment, and corporate strategy services to multi-national companies. Prior to forming Landbridge Capital, Ms. Johnson was CEO of Libritas, Inc. (acquired by Next Web), a venture-backed provider of IT products and managed telecom services for small, medium, and Fortune 500 corporations. Alexandra is also the President of the Global Technology Symposium held annually at Stanford University. The Symposium is the West Coast's premier investor conference on global emerging technologies.

Education: Alexandra received an M.A. with honors from the Far Eastern State University, Vladivostok and a Ph.D. from University of St. Petersburg. She also holds an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Andrey Morozov is a Managing Director of DFJ VTB Aurora. Based in Russia, Andrey focuses on early and late stage companies in industrial innovation and consumer goods industries.

Prior to joining DFJ VTB Aurora, Andrey was responsible for corporate venture investments for Cisco Systems within Russia/CIS. Before Cisco, Andrey was an investment professional with TL Ventures where he executed venture capital investments totaling USD 200 million and sat on four board seats. He was also amongst the founders of Amhurst Capital Partners (ACP) and initiated the expansion of ACP operations into the Russian market. Prior to that, Andrey worked for IBM, AT Kearney, Gartner Inc., and Fuji-Keizai in the US technology industry in diverse roles such as manager, consultant, investor, and market analyst.

Education: Andrey graduated from the Moscow Physics and Technology Institute and holds a Finance MBA degree from Wharton business school.

Sergey Romashov is a Managing Director of DFJ VTB Aurora based out of Moscow. Sergey focuses on early stage investments in the mass media, telecommunications, and information technology sectors.

Through his 13-year career, Sergey has attained extensive experience in preparing companies for private and public offerings as well as formation and management of equity based portfolios. During the two years that preceded Sergey's employment with VTB in 2006, he served as chairman of the board for Classica, a manager of high-tech projects in the IT/ telecommunications sector and provider of system integration solutions. Prior to Classica, Sergey worked as managing director for finances at Sputnik, a direct investment fund based in Moscow, which performed major direct investments in such sectors as insurance, mass media, telecommunications, and information technologies. From 2000, he headed a technology venture fund as part of the Sputnik group, funding several early stage technology companies. Between 1996-1999 Sergey was the Head of financial investment department at "Glencore International AG" with annual revenue in Russia totaling to US $5 billion.

Education: Sergey graduated from Moscow State University and holds a degree from the Australian National University, with a specialization in finance, investments, and technology.

Andrey Zyuzin is a Managing Director of DFJ VTB Aurora based in Moscow. His investments focus includes IT, media, telecommunications, and enterprise applications.

Andrey spent the last 11 years working as a manager and an investor in the technology industry. Prior to joining DFJ-VTB, Aurora Andrey was the first deputy general director of NVision Group. Between 2004 and 2005, Andrey served as a senior vice president of AMT Group. His responsibilities involved forming new business divisions to market new, innovative solutions and launch sales of new products and solutions by coordinating the efforts of numerous corporate divisions: marketing, sales, and technical and legal support. For eight years prior to AMT, Andrey served as deputy general director of the Russian branch of Cisco Systems. In this position, he was in charge of business development and sales for modern digital communication systems in the markets of Russia and the CIS. During his time at Cisco Systems, the company's sales in Russia and the CIS rose tenfold. Andrey has extensive experience developing technology business strategies, marketing, and personnel recruitment and training. Throughout his employment with Cisco Systems, Andrey acquired both unique experience of managing technology business in Russia and first-hand knowledge of the international practice of developing high-tech companies.

Education: Andrey holds an MBA from Duke University.

Alex Gurevich is a Principal at DFJ VTB Aurora based out of the Silicon Valley office. His areas of interest and expertise include online consumer media, telecommunications, consumer electronics, e-commerce, clean energy, and nanotechnology.

Prior to DFJ VTB Aurora, Alex was the first employee and Director of Business Development at ooma, a DFJ portfolio company in the VoIP (voice over IP) space, where he led his company's initial product roll out, customer acquisition and channel distribution strategy. Alex was also co-founder of Say-Hey-Hey.com, one of the web's first free video dating sites, where he was in charge of all product development, fundraising, and business development efforts and took the company from initial concept to revenue generation. He and his work have been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, ABC News and Forbes. Alex also serves as a key advisor to several Silicon Valley early stage start-ups, as well as the Global Technology Symposium - the premier investor conference on emerging markets.

Education: Alex holds a B.S. in Management Science and Engineering, and a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University, where he was also a Mayfield Fellow. He holds an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University as well. While at Stanford, Alex studied in Moscow and interned at the Russian Federation's Working Center for Economic Reform. He also led major technology centered research projects at General Motors and IBM for Stanford's Center for Work, Technology, and Organization.

Interface between DFJ VTB Aurora and the DFJ Network

As one of the largest members of the DFJ Network, DFJ VTB Aurora uses its relationship with the DFJ team in California to extract maximum value from the portfolio of funds that make up the network. One of the DFJ Managing directors Don Wood will sit on the investment committee.

Don Wood is a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, where he leads the global expansion of DFJ's Network Affiliate Funds into new geographic and sector markets. Most recently, Mr. Wood was a General Partner at Vanguard Ventures where he invested in information technology, Internet services, and energy technologies.

Prior to Vanguard Ventures, Mr. Wood was President of Metricom and a member of its Board of Directors, where he led the creation of the wireless Internet service known as Ricochet. Prior to Metricom, Mr. Wood was with Octel Communications, Inc., worldwide leader in voicemail systems, where he was responsible for marketing, product management and sales engineering. Mr. Wood also worked in the policy-planning department of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. Mr. Wood earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Stanford University and a MBA degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.