Dream on Te life Efimova envisioned while
attending Eastern is now splashed across her Instagram account, where she can be seen speaking to over 350 guests as the keynote speaker at the EMU Business of the Year Luncheon last March 18. Just days later, she was petting a deer on the island of Mijayima in Japan. Another photo features Efimova at a shooting range, clutching a gun; the photo caption could be Efimova’s life motto: “Getting to know the unknown.” What’s next? A brand expansion
Above: Russian cobblers crafting a pointe shoe for the Spotlight Collection. Below: Macyn Vogt, Joffrey Ballet trainee, wearing the Motion jazz shoe.
into new areas that are deliberately not dance-related. Efimova is also writing a book that she hopes will inspire future entrepreneurs, especially those who want to make something from nothing. “I want it to be inspirational for entrepreneurs— for women and immigrants,” she says. “I’m telling the story of Russian Pointe as an example, for individuals to visualize their success.” Beyond business and book-writing,
Efimova is immersed in public service and philanthropic endeavors. She dedicates time to Russian-American relations and culture. She has served on boards and committees for arts organizations. She has collaborated with the Russian Embassy. In 2011, Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk appointed her chair of his Russian and Eastern European Advisory Board, one of several advisory groups he formed to better understand the needs of various constituent groups. In 2014, she was appointed Midwest vice president of the U.S.-Russia Chamber of Commerce. When she can break away from
her business, travels and speaking engagements, Efimova relishes being at home, on the 73rd floor of Chicago’s Trump Tower. She switches off her phone. No Facebook or Instagram. No noise. It’s then, she says, “I dream about everything and anything.”
Chris Azzopardi, a 2006 EMU graduate, is a feelance writer whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair, US Weekly and USA Today. He also contributes to Entertainment Tonight’s
ETonline.com.
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