Medvedev Needs Role Models to Spur Innovation, CMEA Capital Says

Russia needs role models of successful entrepreneurs if President Dmitry Medvedev is to succeed in recreating Silicon Valley in Russia, said Faysal Sohail, a venture capitalist who accompanied California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to Moscow this week.

“You need some role models, people who are self-created, who’ve made something from scratch,” Sohail, a managing director at CMEA Capital in San Francisco, said in an interview. “Often soft investments are missed by countries that want to become innovation economies. That was my central message to the president.”