Prior to taking a sabbatical, I held the position of Head of Research (Chief Scientist) at Yandex, the major search engine and number one IT company in Russia. My major achievement was that I founded and built a research lab from the ground up, leading its growth over nearly 9 years and making it the most productive and impactful AI Lab in Russia and one of the best in Europe. Our collective efforts were focused on integrating research and innovation into Yandex's production ecosystem, while also presenting our findings at leading AI-related academic conferences. The lab's accomplishments were reflected in its exceptional publication records, global recognition including a few best paper awards, and significant impact on production within the company. Generally, I am an active member of the research community with 150+ papers at top AI conferences (H-index 37), 15+ patents, regularly serving as a track chair and senior/regular PC member at WWW (WebConf), KDD, SIGIR, WSDM, CIKM. I am also the co-author/supervisor of a few best paper awarded papers, including two best paper awards at SIGIR 2015 and 2016. I also served in various organizing roles at leading conferences in the field. A few years ago, I took a sabbatical to pursue my personal goal and study theater and cinema directing. Now, I am ready to get back on track in my primary field of expertise and career as a scientist and a research team lead. I have Israeli and Russian dual citizenship. Publications (H-Index 37) and patents: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ZpN_-0gAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate