Panel Discussion and Book Launch: Hammer & Silicon –
Soviet Diaspora in the U.S. Innovation Economy

Saturday, November 17, 2:00pm

Free with Admission

Scholars Sheila M. Puffer (Northeastern University), Daniel J. McCarthy (Northeastern University), and Daniel M. Satinsky (Independent Schlar) come together for a moderated discussion of their latest book, Hammer and Silicon: The Soviet Diaspora in the U.S. Innovation Economy – Immigration, Innovation, Institutions, Imprinting, and Identity. The book details the untold story of emigration of Soviet-trained technical intelligentsia to the U.S. and their contributions in software, biotech, social media and medicine. Based on in-depth interviews, the book provides unique insight into the impact of immigration on US economic development in innovation and high technology sectors. The discussion, moderated by Anna Winestein, Executive Director, Ballets Russes Arts Initiative, is a reflection on the many interviews the scholars conducted that highlight the impact of immigration on U.S. economic development. A light reception will follow the discussion.

Sheila M. Puffer is University Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University, Boston, USA, where she is a professor of international business at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business. She is also an Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, and has served as program director of the Gorbachev Foundation of North America. In 2015 she was a visiting research professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University where she studied entrepreneurs and other technical professionals from the former Soviet Union. Her coauthored book, Hammer & Silicon: The Soviet Diaspora in the US Innovation Economy, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. Dr. Puffer has been recognized as the #1 scholar internationally in business and management in Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe according to a 2005 Journal of International Business Studies article analyzing 13 leading academic journals from 1986-2003. She also ranks as the #1 most published author (tied with coauthor D. McCarthy) in the Journal of World Business from 1993-2003. She has been ranked in the top 5 percent of authors worldwide who published in the leading international business journals from 1996-2005, according to a Michigan State University study. She was also ranked among the top 100 authors who published in Administrative Science Quarterly from 1981-2001. Dr. Puffer has more than 160 publications, including over 80 refereed articles and 11 books. She served as the editor of The Academy of Management Executive as well as a member of the Academy’s Board of Governors from 1999-2002. She worked for six years as an administrator in the Government of Canada and has consulted for a number of private and nonprofit organizations. Dr. Puffer earned a diploma from the executive management program at the Plekhanov Institute of the National Economy in Moscow, and holds BA (Slavic Studies) and MBA degrees from the University of Ottawa, Canada, and a PhD in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley. Contact s.puffer@northeastern.edu.

Daniel J. McCarthy is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus and the Alan S. McKim and Richard A. D’Amore Distinguished Professor of Global Management and Innovation at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston USA, and is also an Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. He is cofounder, codirector and Chair of the strategy advisory council of Northeastern’s Center for Entrepreneurship Education. Additionally, he is cofounder of the Northeastern University Venture Mentoring Network and a member of the Steering committee, as well as a Board member for IDEA, the Northeastern University Venture Accelerator. Dr. McCarthy has more than 110 publications, including four editions of Business Policy and Strategy, as well as Business and Management in Russia, The Russian Capitalist Experiment, and Corporate Governance in Russia, and the 2018 co-authored book, Hammer & Silicon: The Soviet Diaspora in the US Innovation Economy. His articles have appeared in Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Perspectives, Journal of World Business, and Management International Review, among other leading journals. He served until 2016 as the lead director of Clean Harbors, Inc., a multi-billion dollar NYSE-listed company, and has consulted in North America and Europe for more than 40 companies. Early in his career, he was cofounder and president of a public company, Computer Environments Corporation, and served as a director on its board and also on the board of its sister public company, Time Share Corporation, as well as on a number of private company and nonprofit boards. Dr. McCarthy ranks as the #1 most published author (tied with coauthor S. Puffer) in the Journal of World Business from 1993-2003, and has been ranked in the top 5 percent of all authors worldwide who published in the leading international business journals from 1996 to 2005, according to a Michigan State University study. He is also one of the top three scholars internationally in business and management in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, based on a Journal of International Business Studies article analyzing publications in 13 leading journals from 1986-2003. Professor McCarthy holds AB and MBA degrees from Dartmouth College and the Tuck School of Business, and a DBA from Harvard University. Contact da.mccarthy@neu.edu.

Daniel Satinsky is a Business Development Consultant and Independent Scholar. For more than 20 years, Daniel has been engaged in technology-related international business projects and building practical business networks, with a concentration on Russia-related projects.

In addition to co-authoring Hammer and Silicon – The Soviet Diaspora in the U.S. Innovation Economy –Immigration, Innovation, Institutions, Imprinting and Identity with Sheila Puffer and Daniel McCarthy, he collaborated with the same authors on the journal article, “Emerging Innovation in an Emerging Economy: Can Institutional Reforms Help Russia Break through Historical Barriers.” Other past publications include:  co-author of Yaroslavl Roadmap 10-15-20, a New York Academy of Sciences study of worldwide innovation best practices, author of Buyer’s Guide to the Russian IT Outsourcing Industry; co-author of Perm Innovation Roadmap and author of Industrial Giants, Entrepreneurs and Regional Government-The Changing Business Environment in the Yaroslavl’ Oblast 1991-98.

He was President of the Board of the U.S.-Russia Chamber of Commerce of New England for more than 15 years and is an Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies of Harvard University. He holds a Master of Law and Diplomacy degree from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, a Juris Doctor degree from Northeastern University Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from James Madison College of Michigan State University.

Anna Winestein is an historian of Russian art and theater, independent curator, and cultural entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Boston-area arts non-profit Ballets Russes Arts Initiative. She has curated numerous exhibitions, including Danser Vers La Gloire: L’Age d’Or des Ballets Russes, for Sotheby’s Galerie Charpentier in Paris, and The Magical Reality of Alexandre Benois at the Boston Public Library, and most recently, Migration + Memory: Jewish Artists of the Russian and Soviet Empires at the Museum of Russian Icons. Ms. Winestein has been a Cultural Envoy to Kazakhstan for the US State Department, served as a consultant on film and other programming to the exhibition Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929: When Art Danced with Music at the National Gallery in Washington, and contributed essays to numerous exhibition catalogue, including Dance and Fashion at the Museum of Fashion Institute of Technology, and The Big Change: Revolutions in Russian Painting at the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht. She is co-editor and co-author of The Ballets Russes and the Art of Design, translator of Alexander Tcherepnin: Saga of an Emigre Composer and author of scholarly articles published in peer-reviewed and lay journals. A former Fulbright Scholar, Ms. Winestein holds separate degrees in art history, painting, economics and modern history, including an advanced research degree (M. Litt) from Oxford University for which she wrote a dissertation about Russian artists in Pairs 1870-1917 that she is currently adapting into a book. She is a research affiliate of the Center for the Study of Europe at Boston University and the Davis Center for Russian and East European Studies at Harvard University.