MS. IRENA VANENKOVA was the First Executive Director of the International Mediation Institute (IMI), The Hague.

Irena is a CEDR-Accredited mediator (1998) as well as holder of the MATA advanced mediation certificate. Irena holds the English Tutor Diploma of The Linguistic University in Moscow (1983), a Bachelor of Economics at the Moscow Institute of Business Studies (1997), and a Diploma in Public Relations Management at the Moscow State University (2001).

Irena’s prior career included positions as Commercial Projects Manager – Russia of International Distillers & Vintners Limited (1992-97), Deputy Chief Representative – Russia of CDR International (1997-98), and Public Relations Manager of IKEA Russia (1999-2006). Irena is a Russian citizen.