Presidential Management Training Initiative

PMTI Russian entrepreneur (center) training in American workplace

The mission of the Presidential Management Training Initiative (PMTI) was to deliver business training to Russia’s English-speaking business owners by having them shadow American business owners. President Boris Yeltsin initiated a broad plan in 1996 to obtain business management training for 50,000 young Russian entrepreneurs by sending them to various western countries to intern in counterpart companies. Yeltsin invited the presidents of the U.S. and European countries to encourage their business communities to participate.

President Bill Clinton agreed, and in 1997 PMTI was launched in the U.S. CCI played a role in developing the program, both advisory and programmatically. The PMTI methodology was virtually identical to CCI’s Economic Development Program. It brought Russian entrepreneurs to American companies for a month-long internship with U.S. companies. CCI was one of four agencies in the U.S. that coordinated PMTI.

Unlike CCI’s other programs where it made its own selections of candidates, a Moscow-based agency chose the Russian candidates. PMTI brought thousands of young Russian entrepreneurs from the remote outposts of Russia’s Far North, Far East, and all areas between to see how business was conducted in other parts of the world.

As President Yeltsin’s health waned, the program was phased out in different countries. CCI stopped PMTI participation in 1999 when the Productivity Enhancement Program (PEP) continued to expand and dominate the organization’s implementing capacity.