From anti-fraud analyst to CEO: The RedCore guide for turning specialists into leaders
RedCore details the corporate culture and management development systems that enabled Volodymyr Todurov to advance from an anti-fraud analyst to CEO of Frogo.
Opinion.- With competition for talent intensifying across the global gaming industry, companies are being judged not only on the products they create, but also on their ability to develop their employees, cultivate leadership and create opportunities for long-term growth.
Volodymyr Todurov joined RedCore seven years ago as an anti-fraud analyst. Today he holds two roles at once: chief analytics officer at RedCore and chief executive of Frogo, the anti-fraud platform that won “Anti-Fraud Innovation of the Year” at the SiGMA Central Europe B2B Awards 2025. The turning point was his conversation with Marina Ilina, CEO and founder of RedCore.
“One day, I came to Marina Ilina with an idea for my product. I brought the numbers, showed how much we were spending at the time, how much we could save, and what the scaling potential looked like. Her only response was one question: ‘What do you need to make this project happen?’” recalls Todurov.
Volodymyr’s story is an example of how a leadership position becomes the result of a joint effort between a specialist and the business.
The journey from analyst to the head of two business areas is neither a coincidence nor an exception to the rule – it is the result of a system that RedCore has been building over the years. According to Gallup research, managers account for up to 70 per cent of their team’s engagement, while high employee engagement is directly linked to a 21 per cent increase in company profitability. Today, nearly 5,000 specialists and more than 700 managers work across RedCore business group’s brands, and many of its B2B brands have grown from internal initiatives – just as Frogo once did.
Corporate values as the foundation
A leadership system begins to take shape long before the first training course or team-building session on how to effectively manage people and processes. It starts to form the moment a company defines what kind of people it sees as part of its future and what will unite them all.
“This is how we developed the profile of our ideal candidate, based on our corporate values: ‘Be the First to Lead,’ ‘Be an Expert in Your Domain,’ ‘Be a Partner in Teamwork,’ ‘Be Focused on Results,’ and ‘Be Open and Honest in Communication.’ These same values underpin everything we do, from hiring and onboarding to decision-making, launching new products, and business development,” explains Oksana Izmailova, CHRO at RedCore.
However, defining corporate values is not enough; they only become meaningful when they serve as the foundation of the company’s day-to-day operations and are reflected in management decisions, approaches, and business processes. Having a unified set of principles allows the business to scale without compromising quality, regardless of how many new teams, products, or business directions are added.
Volodymyr Todurov confirms this consistency from his own experience: “A lot has changed at RedCore over the years, but our corporate values and management principles have always remained our main point of reference. We have always relied on data, rational thinking, and efficiency, and that approach remains unchanged to this day. Our mindset often stays ahead of the business’s current stage of development, and I believe that is one of our greatest advantages. We continuously expand our horizons and set increasingly ambitious goals for ourselves, and that is exactly what enables both the business group and its people to grow and evolve.”
How new brands are born
Volodymyr Todurov’s conversation with Marina Ilina was not an advance of trust, he came not only with an idea but also with the numbers and a solid business case. It is equally important that, by that time, he had already built two functions virtually from scratch and had demonstrated significant financial results. “So, it wasn’t an advance of trust, it was a green light to use the trust capital I had built up over the previous years,” says Volodymyr Todurov, recalling how the business unit was created.
Frogo’s story is not an isolated case but part of a broader pattern. “This is exactly how many of our B2B brands came to life. Our specialists were brave enough to say, ‘This is what the market needs. Let’s build it.’ And we, as a business group, provided all the resources needed to turn those ideas into reality. So, in our case, initiative and responsibility are not just words, they are an integral part of the business,” notes Oksana Izmailova.
Management is a separate competency
Receiving a management position is not the finish line, it is the beginning of a separate learning journey. “Being a manager is a profession in itself, and it has to be learnt. Moreover, it is something you continue learning for as long as you are responsible for a team and its results. Many people believe that if someone is a strong specialist, they will automatically become a good manager. In reality, these are completely different competencies. That is why we have worked on it a lot, and continue to work, ensuring that our leaders know how to manage people, provide feedback, build teams, and take responsibility not only for their own results but also for the results of others,” says Oksana Izmailova.
Internal development should not be just an attractive item on the list of employee benefits, it is the business’s circulatory system. Once it stops functioning, the company inevitably begins to lose its pace of development. At RedCore, development is embedded into the daily work of every team, with new knowledge being applied immediately in practice. In the past year alone, the business group launched more than 40 learning programmes in five languages and created a dedicated space for sharing knowledge and expertise — the Knowledge Sharing Space. Development continues through regular 360° Performance Reviews, mentoring programmes, and the opportunity to explore other business areas within the business group through Swap&Work.
This comprehensive approach enables specialists to go beyond their professional expertise and strengthen new business areas, just as it did for Volodymyr Todurov, who today is responsible for several diverse teams: “Today, I lead several business areas at once. At RedCore, these are BI and Anti-Fraud Operations, while at Frogo they include development, marketing, sales, and operations. These are fundamentally different teams with different objectives, processes, and competency requirements. Each of them requires its own management approach, but they are all united by one thing, a clear organisational structure and strong managers.”
How delegation develops leaders
As the scope of his own responsibilities grew, Volodymyr Todurov came to a principle that now defines his approach to leadership: “Every stage of an employee’s growth is the result of someone once delegating new responsibilities to them.”
Delegation is not only a way to free up time, but also the point at which development stops being individual and becomes a team effort. As long as a manager keeps all the key responsibilities to themselves, only the manager continues to grow. But when they consciously begin sharing knowledge, responsibility, and decision-making with others, the entire team grows alongside them. “You cannot scale without delegation. It is the best tool for developing specialists within a team: you see a person’s potential, give them more responsibility, and they begin to grow. Today, my team consists of more than 160 specialists, and maintaining this pace of growth would be impossible without a systematic approach,” says Volodymyr Todurov.
Over time, this principle extends beyond team management and becomes the foundation that enables the business itself to scale. “The secret lies in hiring the right specialists and developing them into leadership roles. That is what allows us to maintain stability and achieve sustainable growth. As Frogo continued to grow, we also deliberately transferred a number of functions to RedCore’s expert teams. These include legal support, finance, marketing, HR, and other shared services. As a result, the product team was able to focus entirely on its core expertise and product development. It is this combination of developing people and thoughtfully distributing responsibilities that enabled us to scale not only the team, but also the management system and the business itself,” concludes Volodymyr Todurov.
It is important to remember that delegation is the beginning of a collaborative process, not the end of one. In the early stages especially, leaders need to remain actively involved, helping people find solutions, sharing their experience, making timely course corrections, and creating the conditions that allow others to move confidently towards their goals. As Oksana Izmailova describes it: “Being responsible for a team’s results means being responsible for ensuring that the team has all the resources it needs to work comfortably.”
The companies that succeed in the long term do not limit themselves to developing specialists or offering leadership training. They create an environment where people are encouraged to think beyond the boundaries of their roles, take ownership, and work alongside strong professionals while having the resources to turn their ideas into innovative solutions. It was exactly this kind of environment that welcomed an Anti-Fraud Analyst at RedCore—someone who, through initiative, ownership, and the right environment, went on to become CEO of Frogo and Chief Analytics Officer at RedCore.
