Mikhail Parakhin

Former Yandex CTO and ex-CEO of Microsoft's Advertising and Web Services (Bing), who became Shopify CTO in 2024 and joined Toloka as executive chairman when he co-invested in the May 2025 Bezos-led round. Gives Toloka senior big-tech credibility with lab and enterprise buyers.

Background

Physicist by training (MEPhI). Yandex CTO 2015-2019, overlapping with Toloka's growth inside Yandex; Microsoft 2019-2024 leading Bing and advertising/web services; Shopify CTO from Aug 2024.

What they run now

Board-level strategy and investor; Shopify ties show up in Toloka's work (e.g., 2026 Shopify Tangle case study).

Career

2025 – presentExecutive Chairman, Toloka
2024CTO, Shopify — 2026 status not verified
2022 – 2024CEO, Advertising and Web Services, Microsoft
2015 – 2019CTO, Yandex
1994-2000National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Master's, Physics of High Energy Particle Beams

On the record

Expert data demand · 2025-05

Said demand for world-class AI data expertise is more urgent than ever and Toloka is well placed to meet it. source

Connections

Olga Megorskaya — CEO; ex-Yandex colleague

Investments and boards

Toloka (chairman)
Fennel AI (per Crunchbase)

Who they amplify

Accounts whose posts Mikhail has reposted recently: Olga Megorskaya, Toloka, Bobby Morrison, Anna Veronika Dorogush.

Why it matters here

Little direct relevance to a small specialist; relevant as the link between Toloka and Shopify (a commerce/design-heavy buyer) and as a signal of Toloka's governance.

How to reach

Not a realistic cold contact; reachable only through Toloka leadership.

What we could not establish

Whether he is still Shopify CTO in 2026
X handle not verified

Background

What they run now

Career

On the record

Connections

Investments and boards

Who they amplify

Sources

Olga Megorskaya

Artem Grigorev

Vaibhav Srivastava