Mihail Rizhakov

Mihail started off his carreer in Marketing Research in Latvia, which allowed him to develop the necessary skills to be part of a product research and sourcing team for a trading company in China during his MBA studies.

After graduating from his MBA, Mihail started working at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Brazil-China in Shanghai and was quickly promoted to be the General Manager of the headquarters of the Chamber in China, in charge of a team doing product sourcing, M&A and joint-ventures between Brazilian and Chinese companies, as well as market entry for Chinese companies into the Brazilian market. Later, Mihail moved to Brazil, where he continued his work in international trade and consulting for Brazilian and Chinese companies, first as a part of the offices of the Chamber in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte and later through his own consulting company. The work resulted in one of the first ever succesful major tender won by a big Chinese electric equipment manufacturer at the biggest Brazilian state-owned utility CEMIG, as well as many private deals.

Mihail believes in connecting the demand with supply and has been heading several annual delegations of major Brazilian manufacturers, distributors, end-users and goverment officials to match up with the right manufacturers and trade partners in China since 2010. Mihail has also assisted in entering the market and is currently representing several major Chinese, Russian and US companies in the Brazilian market in the fields of heavy machinery, equipment, energy, metals, construction and automotive and is particulary involved  with the Brazilian energy market and it's purchasing cycle - state-owned and private utilities, as well as EPC's.

Mihail 's education has been focused on gaining an insight into the working of the biggest driver of global growth of the 21st century - China, first through a BA in Chinese studies (Sinology) from the University of Latvia and later earning an MBA from one of the best universities in China - Wuhan University of Technology and has been awarded 3 scholarship grants from the Chinese government to further his studies in Wuhan and Taiwan.

As a lecturer, Mihail has taught courses of Marketing Management and Business Strategy at the Guangdong Baiyun Institute in English and Chinese, while writing his master thesis, as well as conducting numerous lectures on Doing Business in China at major universities and trade organizations in Brazil.

Mihail is fluent in Mandarin, Russian, Portuguese, English and Latvian, and Spanish

Mihail is passionate about languages, engineering and generally understading the modus-operandi of people. On the sports side, he loves running, cycling and pushing his own limits.