Social Links Leadership Transition: Co-founder Ivan Shkvarun Becomes CEO

Big news everyone. Andrey Kulikov, who has been our CEO since the company was founded, has decided to step down. Andrey has come to this decision of his own accord and leaves on the best possible mutual terms. Our CRO and company co-founder Ivan Shkvarun is Andrey’s successor.

Andrey leaves the company and Board of Directors having brought immense value to everything we’ve done and always reliably steered the ship in the right direction. And we couldn’t hope for a better successor than Ivan, who’s also been here from the start, has great vision, and knows the company and team inside-out.

Ivan expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Andrey for the huge contribution and effort he’s brought, adding, “During his remarkable tenure, Social Links has become a leader in the OSINT market, showing stable growth dynamics, a superb portfolio of innovative products, and a strong client base spanning 80 countries around the globe.” 

Under Andrey’s superb leadership, the company has doubled in size every year, developed leading-edge OSINT solutions, expanded to emerging markets, built strong relationships with more than 30 partners globally, and contributed significantly to the core aim of helping make the world a safer place. Speaking of his time with the company Andrey said:

“Over the last seven years at Social Links, I've experienced everything from incredible successes to tough, team-strengthening challenges. As I step down as CEO, I look back with great pride in what we've achieved together. My gratitude extends to every member of our amazing team, our dedicated partners, and our clients, many of whom have been with us from the very beginning. Not only have we achieved a leading position in the OSINT market, we’ve also made a significant contribution to global security.” 

“As a strong believer in the limitless potential of the team under Ivan Shkvarun's leadership, I am confident that Social Links is entering a new era, in which we will deliver new opportunities for a range of markets, through the power of open data and AI. I eagerly await seeing the new heights Social Links will reach, in continuation of our mission and values, even as I step away from an active role.”

Speaking on what the future holds for the company, Ivan said, “Moving forward, we’ll be focussing on the development of an Open Data platform with the potential to unlock trillions of dollars every year across Finance, Cybersecurity, Sales and Marketing. We firmly believe we can spearhead another revolution, just as we did in the OSINT sphere five years ago.
We’re on course to become a unicorn company by 2028, with round B taking place in Q1 of 2025, followed by round C in 2027.”

We all wish Andrey the very best and look forward to a new period of evolution under the guidance of Ivan!