Oleksandr Kardakov

Alexander Kardakov (Ukrainian: Олександр Кардаков, born October 5, 1964, Svitlovodsk, Kirovohrad Oblast) is a Ukrainian IT businessman, cybersecurity expert, PhD in Economics, founder of more than a dozen projects in both commercial and public policy fields; is working on building cyber defense systems in Ukraine. Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Octava Capital LLC, which manages the assets of the businessman.

In 1987 Alexander graduated from the Faculty of Electronic Engineering at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, at an electronic equipment engineer qualification.

In 2002 he graduated MIM Kyiv Business School where he received a Master's degree in Business Administration.

In 2013 Kardakov received a Doctor of Business Administration degree (DBA) at the MIM Kyiv Business School.

In 2013-2016 Kardakov received a Master's degree in Financial Marketing at the Ukrainian Institute of Stock Market Development.

In 2016 he received a degree of a Candidate of Economic Sciences.

In 1987 Kardakov worked as an engineer-debugger of CSESS (Kyiv).

In 1990 he cofounded Information Computer Systems (ICS) where worked as CTO. The company develops software and automation hardware in the electronics industry. Kardakov subsequently became a CEO of ICS in 1996, and in 2019 he founded ICS-Megatrade and Best Power Ukraine.

In 2000-2003 Kardakov founded Datacom and Datasat. When the companies merged into DataGroup he became a president of the company. He has been the CEO of DataGroup since 2015. Kardakov retains a minority stake (Horizon Capital is the main investor). DataGroup is the leading national telecommunications operator which controls 85 percent of the telecommunications market in Ukraine.

Alexander Kardakov founded an asset management company, Octava Capital, in 2009. The assets of Octava Capital are primarily in firms such as: Megatrade, E-Trade, MegaPlant (distribution), Author (cryptography), Accord Group and Octava Cyber Security (services) and others.

In 2018, Octava Cyber Defense was founded by Kardakov. The company created the first commercial Security Operation Center in Ukraine.

In 2011 Alexander Kardakov created a foundation Osvitni Initiatyvy (Educational initiatives) specialized in information technology and innovation. The mission of the Foundation is to promote the development of young people, start-ups and young managers in Ukraine, thus a number of training programs for talented young people and IT-specialists is organized.

Since 2015 he hold a position of Head of the Public Initiative National Security Reform Council.

In 2017 Kardakov worked on elimination of the effects of the massive Petya virus attack.

In 2003 Alexander Kardakov received the Man of the Year award in the nomination "For the greatest contribution to the development of the market of system integration".

Since 2005 he has been among the ten most successful Ukrainian managers in various prestigious ratings.

In 2007 he received the award Person of the Year 2007 as the person who has most influenced the development of the Ukrainian IT market.