Ekaterina Dyachenko — Research Fellow, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: Room 443, 11 Myasnitskaya Str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: edyachen­ko@hse.ru

Asya Mironenko — Associate Researcher, Center for Institutional Analysis of Science & Educa­tion, European University at Saint Petersburg. Address: 6/1A Gagarinskaya Str., 191187 St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. E-mail: amironenko@eu.sbp.ru

The article explores the relationship between rectors’ professional back­grounds and the development of the universities governed by them. The basic hypothesis that universities governed by rectors with managerial experience are relatively more successful in their development is tested using a pre-de­veloped classification of rectors’ background. Development of universities was assessed by exploring how their academic, research and financial indicators changed over time. The universities were grouped into clusters so that dyna­mics of indicators were compared for universities with similar performance profiles. The study uses the data on performance of Russian ( public and pri­vate) universities in 2013 and 2016 which they submitted for the Monitoring of University Effectiveness. Rectors’ biographical data was collected from a nu­mber of publicly available sources. In addition to the main analysis, the article also presents the demographic characteristics of Russian university rectors.