Boris Mashkovtsev became director of Soyuzmultfilm after heading Airplane Studio LLC, bringing with him over a decade of experience in animation production. He co-authored the concept for the hit children's animated series "Fixiki," which in recent years has become one of the leading animated brands in Russia. Boris graduated with honors from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (known as VGIK) with a degree in producing and has been a member of the governing board of the Association of Animated Cinema since 2012 Holding a PhD in economics, he combines producing with teaching at his alma mater VGIK: both as a lecturer in the Producing Department and director of the institute's Multimedia Producing Seminar. Boris is also co-author and chief scholarly editor of "A Dictionary of Modern Animation Terminology" (awarded the "Slon" prize from the Guild of Film Critics and Scholars) and co-author of the textbook "Producing Animated Films."