SoftServe Becomes a Co-founder of Lviv Business School

Determined to combine the best world-class management curricula, unique business development products, common human values and cultural and spiritual component, Lviv Business School at the Ukrainian Catholic University was launched on February 8, 2008.

The School is founded by the Ukrainian Catholic University (Fr. Rector Borys Hudzyak), Vitaliy Antonov (Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Concern Galnaftogaz OJSC, Andriy Khudo, his representative in the Supervising Committee), Yaroslav Rushchyshyn (Director of Trottola OJSC), and SoftServe, Inc. (Oleh Denys, EVP, Administration). Sophia Opatska holds the position of the Director of the business school, formerly manager of MBA project at Kyiv-Mohylyanska Business School, and the director of Concern Galnaftogaz corporate University. The co-founders of Lviv Business School proved to be successful entrepreneurs, skilled managers and experts in different areas, contributing to the tremendous success of their organizations on national level.

Lviv Business School is to provide educational and consulting services within administrative development projects on diverse levels. The School offers short-term courses and MBA program which starts already in April, 2008, as well as complex programs of managerial development and training for company employees.

Oleh Denys, a member of the Supervising Committee of the Business School, EVP Administration, SoftServe Inc., said: "It is a great honor for us to witness the beginning and be a co-founder of the educational institution of such level which has a great potential at the territory of Western Ukraine. As graduates of MBA-program at Kyyevo-Mohylyanska Academy, we realize the importance of future business leaders' education meeting the international standards, granting them a possibility of getting practical knowledge and skills, vitally important for highly qualified experts and managers. And particularly important is the fact, that the above principles are based on the grounds of the Ukrainian Catholic University which will raise traditional values, public and ethical responsibility in carrying out business processes, which is extremely topical today".

Fr. Borys Hudzyak, rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University said: "Our post-totalitarian society has firmly rooted a sad tradition of distrust to everybody, in particular, ill-trust of elite, clergy to business representatives, and the other way round. This is not the way the society can exist. We have to give a hand to each other and establish new contacts and new realities raising higher and moving ahead".

Andriy Khudo, a member of Supervising Committee of Business School and a member of Concern Galnaftogaz Supervising Committee said: "It is a sign for us that our Business School opens at the Ukrainian Catholic University, the education institution which inherited traditions of the Greek-Catholic Theological Academy established in 1928 by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyy. Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyy keenly realized the connection between economy development and cultural and spiritual development of society. It is the grounds in which that we build our Business School. Or Ukraine it is a unique combination of spirituality, education, and business, and this is the point of differentiation of our school".

Yaroslav Rushchyshyn, a member of the Supervising Committee of the Business School, Director General of Trottola OJSC said: "It is significant that Business School is founded by companies experiencing demand for knowledge and business solutions. These are local companies which work far beyond local market. Therefore, I am confident that they have a better vision of the world entrepreneurship development dynamics and weaknesses of local market. This is a very important institution for changing the status of affairs in Lviv and the Western Ukraine, for bringing the city to the higher level of self-organization. Our business in Halychyna used to look quite well in Europe in the past. If functioning normally, the School will yield results not only in Economy, but also in many others important spheres of human life, including politics".