Max Sorokin '02 Joins Eli Lilly's Moscow Office
by Howard W. Hewitt
Max Sorokin ‘02 speaks nearly perfect English, albeit with a very slight Russian accent. After a high school exchange year in California he was back home in his native Russia with two years of college education on a path to becoming an English teacher.  He soon realized he wasn’t cut out for such a field but was interested in business. He talked to friends and spent a lot of time on the Internet learning about a small liberal arts college in Crawfordsville, Indiana, USA.
"What surprised me is that I actually had met several people in Rian (Russia) who knew about Wabash," Sorokin said. "Some of them were Peace Corps volunteers or other visiting Americans. But I was surprised a lot of people knew about Wabash." That connection, along with a substantial scholarship package, brought the affable Russian to Crawfordsville. His Wabash education landed him a job as a financial analyst at Eli Lilly, Indianapolis. The combination of Wabash and Lilly has now taken Sorokin full circle. He returned to Russia earlier this year to become one of three finance officers in Lilly’s Moscow office. "I benefited from my liberal arts education but also from the Lilly environment, where you are given a lot of responsibilities and a lot of chances to work with problems on your own," Sorokin said. "I was given the opportunity to make decisions. I was able to look at problems from different angles and that was very beneficial. That’s something that being at Wabash really helped me with. "You really learn to think through and solve problems on your own (at Wabash)." Max’s interests weren’t limited to his economics degree. He was interested in everything he could experience while in college. "I found Max to be an excellent student in economics, but what has always impressed me is his well-roundedness," said economics Professor Kay Widdows. "He excelled in technical matters, but he also read widely and patronized the arts. He was active in the international student community and was an effective organizer and liaison. "And to top if off, he’s just a charming man – soft spoken, self-deprecating, but with a sparkling sense of humor." Sorokin smiles frequently. He is fully engaged in dinner conversation or conversation of a more serious nature. It’s to some degree those skills, as well as his Russian heritage, that Lilly will capitalize on by having Max in the Russian affiliate.  "It’s a small staff (finance office) with only three people," Sorokin explained, while noting nearly 200 people are employed in the Moscow operation. "The chief financial officer is not Russian so he has limited abilities to understand local business. His expectation of me is to entirely understand the market … all the dynamics of the pharmaceutical market and the overall cultural development of the market and economy."
Sorokin credits his ability to function as an analyst and cultural liaison to his Lilly experience in Indianapolis and his Wabash College professors. "It’s a liberal arts education with econ classes," he said. "But what I think helped me the most is that Wabash professors did not just teach me formulas and the technical side of economics, they taught me to think in economic terms. That was more important to me because I came from the former Soviet Union and there was nothing in the way of life there that actually helped me understand what the laws of economics and market economy are all about." The lean Russian, who ran a marathon in the fall of 2004, will put his skills to use all across the former Soviet Union. The Moscow office serves the same geographic area that comprised the former Communist nation. "I’ll travel around the region and learn how business is run in different areas and hopefully be able to influence it," Sorokin said. His Lilly work experience and Wabash education has given him delight to know he can use his life to make a significant difference for others. "It’s a feeling of great satisfaction to know the kind of impact I can have there (Russia) versus working here," Sorokin said over dinner, only four days before flying to Russia. "Here, I’m just another financial guy in a big corporation and overall I’m not making a huge difference here, other than making a difference to my personal development. But there I can really apply my knowledge and make a difference both in the company and in the community." And Sorokin embraces the concept that a liberal arts education is a lifetime of learning. "I would like to go to business school in either Europe or the U.S. for a master's in business administration," he said of a future goal. "The main reason is to challenge myself even more. Even though I know this next assignment will be very challenging, I know that at a certain time I will be more comfortable in the job and not as challenged."
Hewitt is Wabash College's Director of New Media/Web Content Editor.
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