We are a consulting group of engineers…
with strong business, technology, leadership, organizational change, and finance backgrounds, focused on digital transformation and disruptive tech. This is a platform for us to engage in highly selective freelancing assignments on advanced, tech-related projects and create game-changing solutions through intelligent application of business strategy and cutting-edge technology
Meet Our Leadership Team
Ilya Filinykh
Founder, CEO
Ilya Filinykh
Founder, CEO
Born in 1984 during the late Soviet era with all its limitations and flaws, I was one of the rare children in the Soviet Union who was lucky enough to have access to a computer at that time; it was an IBM PC-086.
Fascinated by the Internet when it first arrived in Russia, I became a high-school Internet entrepreneur, selling in-game services in the first multiplayer games. The dial-up Internet connection was horrendously slow, but I was making significant money for a teenager in late-90s Russia!
I attended the Russian Technological University, earning an undergraduate degree in Engineering, and then attended the Russian Institute of Communicative Technologies, where I graduated in IT and Economy.
After college, I became an IT manager for a Swiss company, Sventa AG, that supplied Russia with machines and industrial equipment for different industries, including power plants and oil and gas.
I moved into managing the IT for a successful Russian franchise of a popular US restaurant chain. Based on that experience, a partner and I created and launched our successful restaurant chain in Moscow with a partner.
Since growing up in a historic time of change in Russia, there has always been something inside of me that sees change as good, and propels me towards the new: exploring, learning, starting new ventures.
That’s why I’m so excited to work with BrainyS. AI is going to be one of the most dramatic shifts in the history of business and culture–and I’m proud to work with some of the smartest minds in this field, forging ahead with modern AI technologies.
In 2016, I decided to move to Australia to live in a different country with a different culture. I feel great being able to straddle two far-away continents, working to connect people and businesses in Australia with the brightest minds in Eastern Europe.
Dmitry Fotiyev
Senior Advisor
Dmitry Fotiyev
Senior Advisor
I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC in a family of first-generation immigrants who came to the United States as refugees. Both of my parents were scientists building new careers and new lives in a foreign culture, while I was just a kid passionate about technology and business in a country seemingly full of opportunities, embarking on an exhilarating life journey.
I attended the University of Maryland, double majoring in electrical engineering and economics. During the time I was studying, neural networks were just gaining traction, and while in school I designed a microchip with my classmates that utilized a neural network circuit to optimize the performance of car engines, which was produced in our university’s fabrication lab.
Also while at Maryland, I held summer positions for three years at the Signal Processing and Instrumentation Section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), helping create custom biomedical hardware and software systems for the needs of medical research needs of the other institutes (including Dr. Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases).
After graduating with a B.S. in 2007, I went to work for Accenture at the juncture of IT and management consulting. At that time I first learned how to manage teams of junior and senior talent across various time zones and cultures.
Following Accenture, I was recruited to work at the Carlyle Group, which was then the world’s second largest private equity firm. Soon after, at 25, I was promoted to Associate Vice President, becoming the youngest-ever AVP at that time, managing the firm’s post-IPO strategic initiatives.
While at Carlyle, I completed the Global Executive MBA Program jointly run by Columbia Business School and London Business School. This involved flying for class back-and-forth between New York and London, with additional four weeks of electives in Hong Kong and Dubai – a truly “global” academic experience!
As I was flying around the world and contemplating where to take my career and my life next, there were several moments that I remember vividly as imprinting an impact in my conscience. Among them, one afternoon, through the windows of a conference room facing Pennsylvania Ave. in our DC office, our team at Carlyle saw a large demonstration in front of the White House, protesting economic inequality. People in front of our building were shouting “We are the 99%!” just as we were preparing to start a meeting. A few coworkers snickered dismissively about the protesters’ socioeconomic disposition, but I realized they were indeed the 1%! (I was not there just yet, but on my way, and certainly rubbing elbows with them.)
After several more years of corporate life, I made a decision that I wanted to have a stronger alignment between my work and my values, and focus my career on delivering meaningful and measurable impact that improves the state of humanity.
Starting in the mid 2000’s, when I had the first chance to visit many of the countries in the “Global South,” I had always felt passionate about emerging and frontier markets, in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
I moved to Dakar, Senegal, and co-founded a venture fund devoted to impact investing, combining the goals of achieving social benefits with generating financial returns.
Contrary to stereotypes, Africa is home to a burgeoning advanced tech sector, which is currently the fastest-growing in the world in terms of both the number of new internet users, as well as individuals learning software development. I have witnessed firsthand the tremendous local tech talent, working in robotics, building 3D printers, developing neural networks, and being at the forefront of innovative technology.
I joined BrainyS as a Senior Advisor to focus on connecting clients in developed economies to the world’s top AI talent at reasonable rates. Not only does this help top companies source affordable talent in a competitive market for top AI skills – it also gives aspiring young individuals in developing countries and more experienced senior professionals new economic global career opportunities in the world’s top markets.
Andrey Kirsanov
CTO
Andrey Kirsanov
CTO
Attending the technical university in Russia, Moscow Polytechnic University, I majored in electrical engineering, with a focus on automation and control. During my studies, I also gained my first experience in AI, mechatronics, virtual reality, and computer graphics. This experience led me to part-time work in a film studio during my study in University, creating CGI for movies.
I then received a scholarship to study at the University of Ulsan in South Korea, where I received my Master’s in mechanical engineering. During my internship in Ulsan University I had the opportunity working for Hyundai Automobile Company. I also was involved in development of computer vision for the R&D project in automation driving.
In 2010 I moved back to Moscow, where I worked as an engineer in R&D at United Aircraft Corporation, a Russian aerospace and aerospace company. I helped build full-motion flight simulators/trainers, working on a mix of hardware, software, and computer graphics that fully mimicked real cockpit experiences.
In 2012, I won a Ph.D. scholarship to the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia to study aerospace engineering. From 2012 to 2015, I was working on my Ph.D. project in close collaboration with Defence Science Technology Group in the development of the AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle). During my study in UNSW Canberra I founded Defence 3D, which created computer graphics for training simulators, including for all manner of planes, tanks, ships, and submarines.
I then joined Thales, one of the biggest defence contractor in Australia, where I was in charge of building helicopter training simulators for the Royal Australian Air Force.
In January 2018, I became a Head of Civil Aviation Engineering program at the Russian Helicopters Holding in Moscow and I was subsequently nominated a R&D project manager in Artificial Intelligence program on October 2019. Since then, I have been the head of the Department of AI for Russian Helicopters, creating neural-network-based computer vision software for the safety and control of new generation helicopters.
My desire as CTO in BrainyS is to involve our team and clients in growth by both developing international footprint of the company and business in Artificial Intelligence.
Pavel Entin
President
Pavel Entin
President
Born in Moscow in 1976, by my teenage years I was living in the chaotic wild west of post-Soviet Russia, where everything old was dead, everything new was being created from scratch, and it was a goldmine for people with a bit of hustle. In 1989, within an exchange program for high school students between USSR and US, I went to New York and studied in Staten Island Technical High. It was a new era for me, an era of a strong belief that the old dark times are over and that all of the people in the world can be friends.
I studied in one of the top schools in the USSR, which became part of an IBM educational pilot. Thus, thanks to IBM I was fortunate to obtain access to the latest computer technologies and studied the Fortran computer language. My motivation was not to become a programmer, but rather I strongly believed that it was the only way to become an integral part of a new world that was being created by a wave of digital transformation.
As an undergrad, I studied economics at the Russian University of Cooperation, and while my professors still preached Soviet economics, I decided to dive into the practical side of the capitalism burgeoning all around me. I started working as a sophomore student, first as an economist, then as a tax consultant. Companies at the time were growing at a breakneck pace. During my senior year in the Forbes equivalent of Russia, I read about the under-30 oligarch Alexander Mineev, then almost a billionaire as the #1 importer of consumer electronics into Russia. I got an interview with him for a CFO role in one of his companies.
At the interview, Mineev asked me, pointing to the floor, “what would you say if I told you to get down on the floor and start scrubbing”?
Despite my great desire to work for him, I took grave offense at this, and said, “I have a degree in economics with honors. I am not scrubbing your #$&! floor!” and stormed out.
One of his associates ran after me. “Do you want the job?” he asked?
“Scrubbing floors, or being the CFO?”
“Being the CFO! Alexander was very impressed. No one ever swore at him like that. He wanted to see if you were a pushover, and you passed the test.”
With Mineev, I went on to become CFO of his whole consumer electronics group. It gave me a wealth of experience and propelled my career forward. After 3 years with Mineev, I moved into a Senior VP position at Aquarius, one of the largest IT companies in Russia, assembling and selling Compaq and HP computers. In that capacity, I helped grow revenues from $10M to $600M in 3 years.
I went on to earn my Ph.D. in International Economics at the Russian University of Cooperation and while continuing on with my corporate career. After the Ph.D., I became the CFO of a $5B Russian state monopoly for spirits production, RosSpirtProm, managing the finances of over 200 factories. I was also in charge of auditing the companies and rooting out the self-dealing and other corruption.
Meanwhile, I wanted to get a US MBA. At that time, Cal State Hayward (now Cal State East Bay) had the only US MBA extension program in Russia. Cal State was no Harvard, but as the only American business school in town, it was where all the action was, with major international business leaders speaking and recruiting at our campus.
Through that program, I became acquainted with the multibillionaire Sergey Solonin, founder of QIWI, the Russian equivalent of PayPal. Together, we created an Investment Banking group which became well-known in Russia for working extensively with the IT sector.
After the 2008 financial crisis, as Putin tightened his hold on power and the economy, I felt that I had to get out of Russia. I moved to Switzerland, and founded a multi-million asset management company and private equity fund called Lakeshore International Management, helping institutions from around the world to invest in various assets; the fund grew to $100 million under management. Subsequently, I moved to China to head one of first Chinese fintech companies called E-Pay. This company, along with other investments I was coordinating in Asia, brought me years of experience in how to build successful technology ventures from scratch.
Notwithstanding Russia’s enormous oil and gas reserves, I believe the country’s best “raw material” has always been (and always will be) the people, who have received some of the finest advanced mathematics and science training in the world. (Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard about Russian hackers…ha haha…) I’ve decided to dedicate my career to helping these young hotshots, people who are just like me back in the day.
That’s exactly what we are doing at BrainyS, based in Australia, where we allow ambitious companies to access some of the finest AI talent in the world remotely (at labor rates they could never find at home). I am positive that the era of AI does not devalue the power of the human brain, as some doomsayers would like us to believe. On the contrary, the role of educated and gifted individuals today becomes ever more important and value-creating than ever before.
Tatiana Stack
COO

Tatiana Stack
COO
I grew up in Moscow during the years of Soviet Union collapse and complete and utter deregulation and chaos. With my Dad being a successful entrepreneur who could not leave the house without a bodyguard, I was looking for ways to escape the unfavourable commercial reality.
And escape I did: first by way of a transfer from a public school to a selective IT, maths and physics class in a top Moscow school, then to Moscow State Linguistic University, faculty of applied linguistics. Interestingly, it was at that time that I was first introduced to an AI type of program of native speech recognition that the University was developing at the time. After completing 2 years of the applied linguistics degree, at the age of 19 I moved to Australia and enrolled in a finance and law bachelor degree with the University of New South Wales.
After graduation, I worked in mid tier and top firms worldwide, including Clifford Chance with their M&A term, qualified for a UK practicing certificate, did a Masters of Commercial Law (HD Average) at Macquarie University, was awarded a scholarship for a PhD in M&A but went to the NSW Bar instead. After a few years at the Bar, I opened my own law practice. As part of the growth of the practice, I acquired and sold parts of the practice. The practice I am running now is a fast pace, rapidly growing law firm with offices in NSW and QLD and outlook to open an office in New York. Over the years I have also taken part in business ventures that have been of interest to me, including financial services.
Today I am an entrepreneur and a legal expert and with over 20 years of experience across M&A, commercial and corporate law, joint ventures and private equity, with an LLM in Commercial Law and NSW and UK practicing certificates.
I am excited to be part of BrainyS because of its extraordinary team, its values and unlimited brain power. This almost makes it a full circle, back to IT and AI but on a whole new level!
Tamara Entin, CPA
Head of Partnerships
Tamara Entin
Head of Partnerships, CPA
Often referred to as a prodigy, I finished school at the age of 14 and by 18 graduated with Honours from the University of Nottingham UK, majoring in Finance, Accounting and Management.
Coming from a family of a professor and a theatrical producer, my childhood can be best described as nomadic: I was constantly changing countries, languages and cultural environments and living in a continuous flux of unexpected encounters. The dynamism of my upbringing has instilled in me an endless curiosity and a desire to learn which has in turn inspired me to work across the globe in different industries from banking and engineering to immersive technology and interdisciplinary research.
Over the decade of my corporate career, I have lived and worked in a plethora of exciting locations from Switzerland and the UK to Malaysia, Singapore, China, Russia and Australia. With this background, I have developed a strong belief in the intrinsically good nature of humanity and our diverse potential for the future.
Passionate about tech for good, I constantly carry out research on the possibilities and challenges that AI presents to us as a species and strongly believe that Artificial Intelligence holds the key to enabling solutions to many of society’s humanitarian issues and to creating a more sustainable and accessible world for generations ahead.
At BrainyS, we also believe that the ability to find these solutions relies on the expertise of people around the world and we do our best to empower those AI initiatives that address societal challenges. When humans collaborate with artificial intelligence, solutions that otherwise wouldn’t have been thought of can be developed and vetted at a pace that wouldn’t be possible if only humans were tasked with the assignment. The gratification of overcoming such societal obstacles has always been my greatest motivator and this is precisely what makes my work at BrainyS worthwhile and exciting.
We know how to:
Analyze your business
Analyze large and complex data
- Understand your markets
- Model and optimize business processes
- Architect creative and efficient solutions
- Develop MVP
- Develop materials and secure funding
- Communicate effectively
- Deploy, user-test
- Manage organizational change
We Understand
AI & Machine Learning
Data Analysis and Visualization
Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics
RPA
BPO
Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Decentralized Applications
SaaS and Cloud solutions
Agile
OOD, BDD, TDD
Project Management under various models (SCRUM, RUP, Spiral, Waterfall, etc)
Cross-functional team performance and productivity
Schedules, budgets, project performance and turn-around
Quality Assurance & Quality Improvement Programs
Algorithms
Performance
Databases
Full Stack Development
UI/UX
DevOps
Integration with legacy systems or legacy systems re-engineering
White Box and Black Box testing at various stages and levels

We are a highly experienced team who listens, understands, and delivers results
We are a consulting group of engineers with strong business, technology, leadership, organizational change, and finance backgrounds, focused on digital transformation and disruptive tech
WE AIM FOR IMPACT
Some of our Case Studies
Documents Classification
Classification and Analysis of Medical Data
Contact Center Dialogues Tagging
Conversion Rate, Marketing Campaign
Documents Classification
Classification and Analysis of Medical Data
Contact Center Dialogues Tagging
Conversion Rate, Marketing Campaign