Two Decades in Business.
One Mission That Matters.

Valentin grew up in Yakutsk — one of the coldest cities on Earth, and one of the most remote. From childhood, he was struck by the environmental pollution around him: plastic bottles and trash floating in the small lakes inside the city. For most people, it was simply how things were. For him, it was always a quiet shock he could not explain away.

He went on to build a career that most people would call exceptional. Over 15 years, he navigated the highest levels of finance and business management — from senior positions in the military-government sector to building and scaling companies across Europe and Asia. He became a professional investor based in Switzerland, managing capital, leading teams, and operating with the discipline and precision that the financial world demands.

Around 2016, during a personal development workshop, he completed an exercise: write down your biggest long-term life goals. While others wrote about careers, houses, or cars, Valentin wrote something different. He wanted to earn enough money to build a waste-processing plant — a factory that would recycle trash and clean up the environment around his city. He folded the paper and put it in his pocket. For years, that dream stayed in a notebook, deferred until he would be "rich enough, successful enough, ready enough."

Then, through further work on meaning and values, the realisation arrived — uncomfortable and liberating at the same time.

"The planet doesn't have the luxury of waiting for my millions. And I don't know how much time I personally have. All I really have is now."

That shift led to the founding of Thriving Planet. Not a future project. Not a plan for when conditions are perfect. A decision made in the present, with the resources available now. He brings to this mission the same rigour he applied to building businesses: structured operations, financial discipline, and an uncompromising commitment to measurable results.

Mila spent over 15 years reaching the top of the corporate world — building brands, leading sales organisations, and developing the kind of strategic marketing intelligence that turns ideas into movements. She has stood on stages across EMEA, spoken to thousands, and built communities that last. She knows how to make people care about something. And she knows how to make that caring translate into action.

But the boardrooms and the stages were never the destination. They were the training ground.

"Becoming a parent fundamentally changes the timescale you think in. You stop looking only at your own lifetime and start seeing life as a chain — what you inherited from previous generations, and what you will pass on to the next ones."

When Valentin shared his idea — the desire to stop waiting for perfect conditions and start now — something clicked immediately. Thriving Planet was not just an environmental project. It was about legacy in the most intimate sense: what do we leave for our children? Mila did not hesitate.

She is the force behind the transparency principles that define how the organisation operates: every donation tied to a concrete goal, every cost openly itemised, every update honest rather than polished. She leads stakeholder engagement, drives the educational mission in schools, and brings to this work the same energy and conviction she has brought to every stage she has ever stood on.

As a member of Team Tony — working directly alongside Tony Robbins — she has been trained in the art of transformation at the highest level. She does not just communicate this mission. She embodies it.