When I originally came to Kyiv on Dec. 13, 2001, I had no idea it would be a journey that would mark the beginning of a new era in my life. Today it appears it might be the final era.
My life has always been one of accomplishment and adventure marked by more than one marriage, four children and four distinctive careers: racing cars with Alfa Romeo; advertising and marketing followed by a career in show business as an actor, producer and director on stage; television, and doing voice talent on radio; and then back to marketing again with a bit of photography thrown in with it.
All this happened during my more than 40 years in the warmth and enjoyment of San Diego, California from the days of my teens. Throughout those years I saw many adventures, including traveling to every state in the U.S. except Alaska and many trips into northern Mexico and up to Canada. I climbed southern California’s Mt. San Jacinto twice (4,050 meters high), learned to fly, and met and became friends with many famous people, actors and show business stars. It’s been an extraordinary, even surreal life.
Why should coming to Ukraine make that any different?
During the first years I came here, things were a bit different in terms of Ukrainians’ attitude toward foreigners, especially Americans. We were looked upon with great interest and intrigue as most common Ukrainians had never seen an American before.
Another American told me that he had felt like some kind of “rock star” while visiting here. I was once asked myself by three city workers to pose with them so they could take a picture with me at the big fountain on Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Khreshchatyk Street was different then, too, without so much of the high-end retail shops. That was then. Things aren’t the same now …and not as friendly as it was then. Many Ukrainians seem unhappy, if not a bit hostile. People are not as interested about my being here or showing what native English speakers call “wide-eyed curiosity.” Some do, but most don’t seem to care where I am from, much less ask for a picture with me as they once did…most just ask why I am staying here and don’t go home.
When I stepped off the plane from Los Angeles back in 2001 at Moscow’s scary old international Terminal 1 at Sheremetyevo Airport, it was a very cold -22C outside and snowing. It was an auspicious beginning for my first visit. Moscow was the transfer point for my flight to Kyiv, and I have to say that legendary old airport terminal was quite an interesting change from any I had ever been in back home.
Like a lot of my countrymen have, I came to meet a Ukrainian woman I had been talking to on the Internet, but that didn’t work out over time. However, I did fall in love with the rich history of the country and its people.
After my growing disillusionment with my country and its government, I came to live in Kyiv in 2007, accepting a position which ultimately became chief business development officer for a start-up software engineering and consulting firm owned by Ukrainian and Russian investors.
I left the company after one year and returned to teaching, primarily business English for corporate clients. Since I had liked being an associate professor of business, teaching evenings for the University of Phoenix, the profession seemed a natural way to go. I taught at several schools, and over the past five years, made good friends with many expat English speakers also teaching.
The largest commonality among them is this amazing penchant for success despite residing in a country which is infamous for being accused of having anti-foreigner policies and procedures. Let me introduce readers to some of them:
Hugo Canas
Hugo Canas is an entrepreneur who first came here in 2005. He was hired from the United Kingdom by a local training provider and remains because he has good business opportunities. Canas figured out how to succeed. His secret is that he’s good with people and willing to help. He is highly adaptable.
I met Canas five years ago when we were both working at a local company that was then offering business English to different corporate groups. I was a teacher there and Canas was the PR and marketing manager. He was heading up the new multimedia division he had just created, making this firm the first training company in the country offering services such as movies, online skills assessment, commercial clips and even viral games. Since those days, the company discontinued its business English activities, and Hugo has gone on to continue his colorful career. He acquired an engineering firm which renovated Kyiv’s Radisson hotel and carried out wind farm studies. You can meet this cheerful character around Kyiv at many networking events. Canas likes living in Kyiv, which he affectionately likens to “a big village” and he has many friends.
Daniel Aspleaf
One of Canas’ friends is Daniel Aspleaf. You’ll often see them together at bars and clubs, often concocting business deals, sometimes discussing ladies.
Aspleaf is an American from Iowa, also heading the representative office of a large engineering and environmental consultancy. He moved to Kyiv from Bulgaria in January 2010. He started off in Kyiv as a one-man company, but within two years his office grew to a staff of almost 40.
Aspleaf’s office works with both the public and private sectors, and with a number of development and investment banks, performing resource efficiency audits, environmental remediation, project management and infrastructure development in the water, energy and transport sectors. He doesn’t give much thought to terms like “ease of doing business.” His practical education is one of his secrets for succeeding in Ukraine. He enjoys Kyiv, his work and the opportunities that living here offers – both professionally and personally.
Philip Neil Larmett
Another successful expat from the United Kingdom is my friend, Philip Neil Larmett.
Like Canas, Larmett is also a top marketing and advertising professional, as well as a remarkably efficient English language teacher and linguistic specialist. As are many of my expat friends, Larmett is very well-educated and holds an executive MBA from the Stockholm School of Economics in Moscow. This easily likable man also speaks multiple European languages fluently. Larmett’s career has taken him all over Europe, Eastern Europe and Russia.
In November 2007, Larmett came to unpredictable Ukraine. But the global crisis of 2008 hurt Ukraine seriously and his contract was ended. After temporary assignments, Philip joined world advertising and marketing giant, BBDO Kyiv in 2009. However, once more the crisis continued and, losing his contract again, he found what he thought was a great opportunity and moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2011. But he told me he just couldn’t settle in. Today he is managing director and involved in a new venture, EMM, and happy to be back in Kyiv. He doesn’t plan to leave again…or at least anytime soon. For him, this is home.
Paul Victor Henry
Among my expatriate friends who share a love of the classical is Paul Victor Henry from Northern Ireland. Henry came to Kyiv many years ago and we met at the same school where Canas and I met as Henry was teaching there occasionally.
He is a native of Belfast and was born into a musical family. Soon after his arrival in Kyiv and in collaboration with Frank McGovern (a Scottish expat, Tarkovsky scholar and fluent Russian speaker) and MasterKlass Cultural Centre, COLLEGIUM KIEV was formed – an orchestra dedicated to the performance, in most cases the first performances of British music in Ukraine. So far the orchestra has premiered 28 works by British composers. Major works by Elgar and Purcell’s “Fairy Queen” are planned for 2013.
Tammy Swailes
It would be unfair to leave out any females in this expatriate parade, so I want to tell you about my American missionary friend, Tammy Swailes.
Swailes came to Ukraine in September 2000 to start a church-based, inter-denominational Bible Institute in the Russian language. She moved to Zhitomir in 2001 and resides in a small village. Swailes has always known success in her missionary work. Love, respect and dedication to her service to God are hallmarks of her career. She is multilingual, an avid cook and a capable amateur photography who simply loves to travel.
More than 1,600 students have studied in her program since 2000. I asked her to share a unique story about her life here and she told me: “Back in 2001, when driving from Hungary to Zhitomir and Lutsk and then back to Hungary, the police stopped me a total of 41 times!! That was a record for me! Back in those days there were many more places to pay ‘tolls’ along the way!”
Ron Schaefer
Finally, it would be an incomplete collection without at least a mention of my friend, Ron Schaefer.
Schaefer is an American, originally from Chicago, and “a man with a big heart.” He came here 11 years ago to work with orphan children as a missionary. Schaefer and his lovely Ukrainian wife, Galina, have conducted Christian summer camps and helped children who graduate from orphanages throughout Ukraine to find education or places to work. Like so many of my expatriate friends on parade here, their contributions to making this a better country for its citizens have been enormous.
No plans to leave
So, what am I still doing here?
Well, I met and married an absolutely wonderful, beautiful, talented Ukrainian woman, Tatiana, who is also a brilliant linguist and is fluent in English, French, Italian and Polish in addition to her native Ukrainian and Russian.
After almost four years of teaching English at Learning Systems of Ukraine, I was fortunate to obtain the position of Professor of Business at Kyiv’s International Institute of Business, an excellent MBA institute where I teach on the International MBA faculty. Not only that, I am also managing director and dean of IIB’s School of Business English, which serves individual students, students from the institute, as well as large corporations. (www.iib.com.ua)
Besides my teaching, I have gone back to doing two other things I love — acting and producing. My acting work now takes in films and I recently returned from being on location in Crimea for shooting my part in a new eight-part TV movie called, “The Bomb,” about the making of the atomic weapon. Last year, I was cast as one of the stars of a yet-to-be-released feature length science fiction movie entitled, “Overturn, The Awakening of the Warrier.” I am also one of the producers.
In the meantime, I am co-producing another classical music concert event, this time for Christmas. It will be held on Dec. 22 and is entitled “Christmas Gala.” This concert, like the previous one last August, “Gala Weekend,” will feature many of Ukraine’s most famous stars and talents in classical music, opera and traditional music.
There are a lot of other very successful expatriates living and working in Kyiv. It is a great pleasure and privilege to have so many of these friends around me. The daily challenges of life here are no more so than many of the ones in my life in the U.S.
I am happy to be able to be one of the foreigners who have made and who continue to make meaningful contributions to Ukraine … even if no one asks me to let them take a picture with me at the big fountain on Maidan anymore.
Eric Gilliatt is director and dean of the International Institute of Business School of Business English in Kyiv. He may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected]
