THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9410220229
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
In 1992, Muscovite Alexander Razinski arrived in Norfolk with his family, four suitcases and no English. What he had was an idea. He wanted to open an American hospital back in Russia.
At the urging of a friend, he came to Hampton Roads to contact Dennis Ackerman, director of Old Dominion University's Entrepreneurial Center.
By 1994 - with the help of Ackerman - Razinski's idea had translated into a $5 million American clinic in Moscow, backed by New York-based PepsiCo and New York-based Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Services, the parent company of a hospital by the same name. The clinic celebrated its grand opening earlier this month in the Medincentre, a medical facility where Razinski's clinic has opened shop on one floor.
``Most of the Americans in Russia are young professionals with families,'' the 36-year-old Russian said. ``It's a huge relief for the community there'' to have the clinic.
Razinski's clinic is the only one of its kind in Russia. Called the Columbia-Presbyterian/Moscow clinic, it offers the most modern technology, nine English-speaking doctors and the assurance that every medical need can be accommodated, regardless of how dire. As a product of local minds, the clinic and its future offshoot may leave Hampton Roads an international legacy.
Razinski and his Russian partner, Dr. Gregory Goluhov, chief administrative officer for the City Hospital in Moscow, recognized the burgeoning American expatriate population in their country in 1989. Most Americans worked for U.S. companies operating in Russia.
``I knew that the number of expatriates living in Moscow was growing,'' Razinski said. He estimated the number of Americans between 200,000 and 300,000.
A bespectacled, bearded man, Razinski speaks in somewhat broken English. He earned two master's degrees at the Moscow Institute for Agricultural Engineering, one in ground transportation and the other in mechanical engineering. He worked for the Ministry of Agriculture in Moscow for several years, lived in Austria for a year before returning home briefly. He moved his daughter and wife to the United States in February 1992.
The two Russians wanted to open an American hospital to serve the explosion of Americans living and traveling in Moscow. Not only would the hospital provide the latest technology, it would give U.S. citizens and other English-speakers a place they could communicate their medical needs comfortably.
ODU stepped in as the catalyst that set Razinski's plan into motion. Staff from the Entrepreneurial Center formed a business plan and referred him to some local business people who showed interest in the joint venture.
``We did the research to put together the spreadsheet, the financial projections,'' Ackerman said. ``I helped put together a team that had experience with negotiation with companies.''
The Entrepreneurial Center hooked up Razinski with local Hampton Roads investors, Nevin Palmer Carr and Roger T. Maloney, two businessmen who belonged to Ackerman's network of contacts.
Carr and Maloney, former Navy men, had a defense contracting company that sold electronics products. They also had a marketing company but wanted to diversify their financial holdings, so they moved away from defense-related investments to international trade, like Razinski's company, Worldwide Medical.
The men formed Worldwide Medical Services with Razinski and Goluhov. Working with Ackerman and his staff, they came up with a short list of companies working in Russia for more than 10 years and then sought contacts in those companies.
Worldwide Medical approached PepsiCo's international investment arm, called the Pepsi World Trade, because ``they've been in the former Soviet Union for many years and they know the operating environment,'' Razinski said. Plus, Carr, a Naval Academy graduate, could use his alma mater as a connection to another academy graduate who ranked high among Pepsi's executives.
Pepsi loved the idea.
``They hadn't worked on a medical center before, but they were looking for ways to establish other businesses in countries they were currently selling products,'' said Ackerman, ``so they could make a difference by improving their toehold and influence in those countries. What we did here was give them a package of ideas that they were very excited about.''
Although Pepsi had expertise operating in Russia, they wanted to get help with the technical side of running a hospital, enlisting help from Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City.
``It is an incredible thing we're undertaking,'' said Dr. Bruce A. Barron of the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. His hospital would have never undertaken such a task had it not had the benefit of Pepsi's overseas experience, he said.
Columbia-Presbyterian Health Services Inc. has a 50 percent stake in the project, followed by Pepsi's 35 percent share and Worldwide Medical's 15 percent stake, Barron said.
Opened in early October, the clinic provides mainly out-patient services but has several affiliations with Russian, London and American hospitals for various services, from consultation to emergency airlifts.
Although the multimillion dollar deal has produced only a clinic thus far, Worldwide Medical plans to expand the clinic in its next phase to a hospital and then open clinics in other cities, Ackerman said.
The clinic will operate like a health medical organization, or HMO. Razinski plans to market his venture's medical services to American companies and travel agencies who will sign up as members and offer coverage to employees or tourists associated with their organizations.
``It's not just a project to make money,'' Razinski said about the clinic. ``Its job is to do something good.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
GARY C. KNAPP
Alexander Razinski proposed the idea of an American clinic in
Moscow, finding contacts through ODU's Entrepreneurial Center.
by CNB