Full name: Lana Pozhidaeva

Date of birth: March 14th

Place of birth: Moscow

Place of residence: New York

Astrological sign: Pisces

Occupation: Russian Top model, Founder of WE Talks, Board Member Global Connections For Women, Entrepreneur.

Biography

Early life and education

Lana grew up in the 1990’s in Moscow, Russia in an entrepreneurs’ family. When The Soviet Union collapsed, Lana’s parents, former high-ranking state officials, had to start their careers from scratch, trying to embrace entrepreneurship – something that used to be condemned during the communist regime. Due to the political and economic uncertainty in Russia, at the age of 15, Lana passed high school graduation tests and then college entrance exams and got into Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations (MGIMO). MGIMO was dubbed the “Harvard of Russia” by Henry Kissinger, because it educates so many of Russia's political, economic, and intellectual elite. Currently, it has the lowest acceptance rate and the highest test scores of any university in the country. Lana came from the “normal” or middle class background that’s why unlike most of her peers she decided to focus on studies. In 2004, she got her Magna Cum Laude degree in Political science. She also studied in ICN Graduate Business School, France where she got a Master’s degree in International Management. She speaks English, Russian, French, Italian and some Spanish.

Career

After working for some time as a model in Europe for Fendi, Pucci, Diesel and many other high-end fashion brands, Lana decided to continue her modeling career in the USA where she has been featured many times in Vogue, Glamour, Maxim, JOY, Cosmopolitan, FHM, and recently appeared on the cover of L’Officiel. She is currently the face of an international skincare brand Skinceuticals and Fekkai Hair Products. After settling down in New York, Lana started to combine her professional modeling career with work in the field of social entrepreneurship. Passionate about philanthropy, she started to help allocate funding to ground breaking science and education projects in the U.S., Europe, and Africa. She also helped host fundraising events for non-profit foundations and organize humanitarian trips to areas affected by natural disasters.

In 2018, Lana launched a project called WE Talks: Women Empowerment to support women entrepreneurs and professionals. It is a monthly event series where every woman can speak freely, ask questions, get support, share experiences. In less than a year, WE Talks has grown tremendously, becoming NYC’s fastest growing professional community for women. At each talk the number of attendees doubled and at the most recent event it reached 300 people. Today, the WE Talks community in NYC has over a few thousand women.

Nine months after launching WE Talks, Lana was nominated by Global Connections for Women foundation as Entrepreneur of the Year and received her award at Harvard Club of NYC. Less than a year after starting WE Talks, Lana was interviewed by the US Forbes. Lana is currently building a tech enabled platform for millennial women.

Additionally, Lana serves on the Young Executive Board of Global Connections for Women Foundation (GC4W), an award-winning not-for-profit organization headquartered in New York City aimed at increasing gender equality through women empowerment.