Keeping Kyivstar’s Star Shining Bright

By Jim Davis

Some people come to public relations through university studies and others through hard-won life experience. For Zhanna Renova, a city person with almost no rural experience in the beginning, the road to PR and more recently to a prestigious position as head of corporate affairs for the telecommunications giant, Kyivstar, first took her trooping through the rich farmland of Ukraine.

“When I took on the position of agricultural director of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, I had not heard of public relations. However, I soon found that developing a sixth sense about PR was the only way to create a positive public image of agriculture and agribusiness,” Renova said.

Public relations, agriculture and agribusiness were themes that dominated Revnova’s career development in the early stages as she steadily progressed into higher positions of responsibility. From the League, there was a natural progression into a somewhat similar position with the International Finance Corporation, the profit-making arm of the World Bank, where her efforts concentrated on development in Kherson region, one of the country’s richest agricultural zones.

When given Leonid Kozachenko, then-vice prime minister of Ukraine, invited her to head an agriculture/agribusiness group under the Cabinet of Ministers, she found the opportunity irresistible.

Later, she accepted an invitation to head media relations for Philip Morris Ukraine, where she spent two years dealing with the challenges of this international food and consumer goods giant.

After years of taking on new opportunities and challenges in relatively rapid succession, Revnova became head of media relations for Kyivstar, the county’s largest telecommunications operator. “I saw in Kyivstar an opportunity to work in a more structured environment. Also, Kyivstar provided me a chance to learn new methods and skills. It has been a great experience, one that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed since joining the company in 2004.”

From media relations, Renova’s responsibilities expanded to include overall corporate affairs, which she describes understanding the company’s reputation in the community and doing everything possible to maintain and improve that reputation.

“At Kyivstar, we work very actively with all the stakeholders in the community. We have a very large and very loyal subscriber base. We constantly work to understand the community’s expectations of the company and to fulfill those expectations. Maintaining the company’s reputation is an important tool in our business model,” Renova added.

Through a wide range of activities, we are in constant communication with our subscribers and the community as a whole, Revnova added. We have to understand society’s expectations, which is the first part of the equation, and then we have to work hard to meet them.

Our efforts have included such things as a partnership project for the Eurovision Song Contest held in Ukraine, and support for the national team at World Cup. There have been a number of quite large projects, but also many smaller projects as well.

“We try to implement innovations that impact people at all levels. For example, we are now developing and implementing research that will allow the sight impaired to have full access to the Internet via special telecommunications programs . We are very proud to be opening up the world to people who might be less mobile because of sight problems. This is just one of our many projects to make society a better place. Such activities are not only a part of our social responsibility, they also improve the morale of our employees, who are proud to work for such a company,” Revnova said.

Revnova admits to being a bit of a workaholic. “I rent a dacha, but have little time to spend there. Often it is 9:00 or 10:00pm before I manage to get away from the office,” said Revnova, who clearly enjoys her job and takes pride in the company’s accomplishments.