To Russia, With Love And IT

Russian émigré Greg Shenkman, now CEO of San Francisco outsourcing firm Exigen Group Ltd., is taking the company back home, in a manner of speaking. Exigen signed an agreement with Russia's oldest institution of higher learning, Moscow State University, to create an IT research and development center and IT outsourcing group at the university, one of Russia's leading technology and engineering schools.

The deal was disclosed during last week's summit between Presidents Bush and Putin, during which Exigen executives took part in the first Russian-American IT Roundtable. Exigen will oversee the installation of the IT system, which must be able to handle up to 300,000 users. No decisions have been made on products, although the university wants platforms that are easy to manage and maintain on campus.