Elena Bunina

Elena Igorevna Bunina (; born 12 May 1976) is a Russian and Israeli mathematician and businesswoman. She was the CEO of Yandex from 2017 to 2022. She resigned her position two weeks early. Following her resignation, she immigrated to Israel following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Early life and education Elena Igorevna Bunina was born May 12, 1976, in Moscow, Soviet Russia, and is of Jewish background. Her father was a historian.

Bunina finished Moscow State School 57, where she later taught mathematical analysis.

Scientific career At the Department of Higher Algebra at Moscow State University, under the guidance of Professor Alexander Vasilyevich Mikhalev, she defended her PhD thesis for the degree of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences on the topic "Elementary equivalence of linear and algebraic groups".

In 2001 she began teaching programming at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, since 2005 she has worked at the Department of Higher Algebra of Moscow State University, where she taught algebra until 2022.

After the school was founded, Bunina headed the Computer Science department at YSDA and continued working at Yandex. From 2008 to 2011, she led the company’s Academic Programs Department, and starting in 2011, she headed the Organizational Development and Human Resources Department as HR Director. She consistently ranked among the top HR executives in Russia according to ratings compiled by Kommersant Publishing House and the Russian Managers Association, appearing on the list in 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016.

On December 1, 2017, Elena Bunina was appointed CEO of Yandex Russia, succeeding Alexander Shulgin in that role.

On March 15, 2022, she was replaced as CEO by Tigran Khudaverdyan, who took on the role while also serving as Managing Director of the entire Yandex Group. Bunina remained with the company as HR Director. However, on March 16, she was reinstated as CEO following Khudaverdyan’s resignation after he was placed under international sanctions.

On April 2, 2022, Bunina resigned as CEO of Yandex and left for Israel from Cyprus, where she had been vacationing. She explained her decision by saying she “could not live in a country that is at war with its neighbors”.

Since 2022, Elena Bunina has been serving as Scientific Director of Y-Data.