Gilbert Doctorow holds a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. He spent most of his professional life in corporate business, first with marketing responsibility in several Central European countries and ultimately as general manager based in Moscow and St Petersburg during the 1990s for leading manufacturers of luxury goods. For the past 15 years he has authored four books dealing with U.S.-European-Russian relations. In addition he has lectured, participated in expert forums devoted to international affairs and appeared in Russian domestic political talk shows on all national channels.