Name: Vladyslav Greziev
Age: 28
Education: economic theory at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Profession: CEO of Lobby X, head organizer of TEDxKyiv
Did you know? Greziev finished music school, specializing in piano. He spent eight years singing in the Revutsky Academic Male Capella choir.
Vladyslav Greziev should run a time-management course. He is adept at juggling multiple projects at the same time.
Greziev is not only the co-founder of recruiting agency Lobby X and election monitoring platform Opir.org — he is also the head of TEDxKyiv, organizes networking meetings for young professionals, and has more projects in the making.
“Now I take weekends off, but back when I started Lobby X, I didn’t have a day off for weeks,” says Greziev.
Greziev’s family moved to Kyiv in the early 2000s from Luhansk Oblast. He remembers that one of the reasons was his passion for music and the family’s desire to let him pursue it at a Kyiv music school.
Greziev gained a degree in economics from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Until the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014, he worked as an economist in a corporation, while also planning to open a taxi startup.
The revolution changed everything for him.
In February 2014, Greziev co-founded Opir.org, an election monitoring platform. “Opir.org becomes a full-time job at election time,” he says. The platform tracks campaign integrity and election transparency as it gears up for the presidential elections in March.
His most famous project to date, recruiting platform Lobby X, came soon after. “We saw active people, who had wonderful ideas, yet we couldn’t see who would implement those ideas,” says Greziev. The platform was started as a volunteer project for government institutions and NGOs, and attracted young and talented job seekers. Over the years, Lobby X had become a popular head-hunting platform for both social projects and businesses, who are charged a fee. In March 2017 the project started up in Warsaw.
Greziev has also been involved in TEDxKyiv, an independently organized Ted Talks event, since 2012. Since becoming the curator of the project in 2014, Greziev has organized 10 conferences and received a second-level license from TED.
Another initiative that Greziev is proud of is the Networking Change Makers project. “Last year we saw there was a need to create a space where people can share their ideas and receive support in their quest for change,” he said. The idea was to create a platform where proactive citizens could meet like-minded people. The project brings together in nearly-weekly meetings proactive government officials, activists and entrepreneurs who share common values. Networking Change Makers has held more than 60 meetings, with more and more people getting involved, Greziev said.
