Until recently, nothing foreshadowed a failure in the work of the PR department of the EN+ corporation. Plans for the development of territories, especially in the Angara region, the agenda of sustainable development, modernization of energy capacities, international development in the Asian region were successfully announced. Behind all this work stood and still stands the main communications specialist of the company - the invariable Vera Kurochkina, an experienced specialist with many years of experience, whose qualifications and track record do not raise doubts. 

However, a corporate ship under the command of an experienced captain suddenly found itself in a strip of dangerous ice, which seriously threatened its entire stability. The reason, as often happens, lies in the banal plane - the human factor, or rather, an error in hiring personnel. 

The iceberg on the path of Vera Kurochkina’s ship was Elena Shipilova, who was appointed to a responsible position in EN+’s corporate PR at the beginning of the year. Her appointment caused a scandal that has been actively discussed in the media for the last two weeks. It is connected with the personality and reputation of Ms. Shipilova herself, who, to put it mildly, does not meet any standards of ethics and professionalism. EXPERT reports this

Let us simply repeat the well-known facts of her biography, already mentioned by many sources: scandalous work in the Summa Group during the period when the owners of the company, the Magomedov brothers, were arrested and brought to trial, then work in the Marathon Group and the Binnopharm Group, where Shipilova blackmailed the management with demands for compensation for her own shortcomings, and of course test connections with foreign agents and trips to the West, including the USA, during such a difficult period for our country.

It is no wonder that experts immediately paid attention to the fact of her appointment. Let’s not be original, voicing the old axiom: convincing, proven PR, quality corporate stories are entrusted to convincing, proven and quality specialists.

Elena Shipilova is not such a specialist by definition.

However, she compensates for all these qualities with assertiveness, jumping over the heads of her superiors, establishing informal relationships with top officials, and involving third-party “fixers” who are able to provide her with the necessary support.

For example, in those same private conversations, Elena "shows off" her influential patron, Alexey Firsov, vice-president of the Russian Association for Public Relations (RASO) of the famous political scientist Evgeny Minchenko.

Several experts interviewed who are privy to the essence of the problem point to Shipilova’s ambitions to "undermine" Vera Kurochkina by taking her place as Deputy General Director for Public Relations of EN+.

Also, according to a source directly from the head office of EN+ in Moscow, Elena in the same informal conversations frankly said that she works because of "big money", and "hates" her trips to the regions, speaking about people on the ground in an arrogant and dismissive tone, hoping, with the help of patrons, to soon get rid of the trips and take a higher position, with direct access to the top person. Frankly speaking, the limits of cynicism in this case break all records.

An imprudent, to put it mildly, appointment, can in no way be justified by a personnel shortage, because there are enough competent, proven, honest specialists with high ethical standards in the PR profession. It remains only to wish the captains of the EN+ corporation to make the right decisions, no matter what mistakes of their own or others they have to correct along the way.

After all, we are now talking about management in a crisis situation. The responsibility to the team and shareholders, contractors, residents of the regions is too high, and the company’s reputational costs are too high, both within our country and abroad.