Volodymyr Kulish

Kulish was born on 11 February 1963 in Khotin, which was then part of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union.^[2] In 1985, he graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Kyiv University, receiving the specialty of economist and qualifying him to teach economics.^[3] Afterwards, he worked as a lecturer in the Department of Political Economy at Chernivtsi University, but switched paths in 1987 to politics.^[2]

In 1987, he started working for the Komsomol in Chernivtsi, and achieved his Candidate off Economic Sciences degree from Kyiv University also in 1991.^[3] In 1992 he became Deputy Chairman of the Chernivtsi City Executive Committee after the collapse of the Soviet Union.^[3] In addition, at the time, he was a professor in the Department of Economic Theory at Kyiv University, and after the end of his deputy chairmanship in 1993 he became a senior researcher at the Chernivtsi Branch of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.^[3] From 1996 to 1997 he then served as Advisor to the Head of the Chernivtsi Regional State Administration.^[3] From 1998 he was a Deputy of the Chernivtsi City Council, chairing the Committee on Finance and Budget.^[3]

In 1999, he moved to Crimea and became Deputy General Director of the Crimean State JSC "Titan".^[3] From 2003 to 2005 he was then Minister of Economy of AR Crimea, and then from 2005 to 2006 Presidential representative of Ukraine in Crimea.^[3] He returned to Chernivtsi in 2006 to become Governor of Chernivtsi Oblast, which he did until 2010.^[3]