Stepan Veselovsky, the executive director of the Lviv IT Cluster, who was removed by the supervisory board, described his version of the events that led to the dismissal of the organization’s team. Below is his direct speech.
Stepan Veselovsky, the executive director of the Lviv IT Cluster, who was removed by the supervisory board, described his version of the events that led to the dismissal of the organization’s team. Below is his direct speech.
I will explain what happened. On January 23, 2026, at 09:36 in the morning, information appeared in the media about differences in views on the development of the Lviv IT Cluster between the Supervisory Board and the team. The material contained comments by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board about trademarks, an announcement of the IT Arena conference in Warsaw without prior communication with the Supervisory Board, and comments from an «anonymous source of the publication, familiar with the situation». I would like to note right away: all these issues were discussed at working meetings with the Supervisory Board. I received the journalist’s request for comment at approximately 10:00 p.m. the night before. The fact of such a text was shocking, however, we openly answered the questions posed and explained that this was a surprise for us, because over the years of the organization’s existence, differences in views between the members of the Supervisory Board and the management team had been successfully resolved.
Simultaneously with the news in the media, a voluminous email was sent on behalf of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board with a communication to the Lviv IT Cluster team about management conflicts. Also, at the same time, a separate communication was sent to representatives of the member companies of the organization. Communication through the media surprised us: the day before these events, another meeting of the management and the Supervisory Board was held, at which, in our opinion, we reached a consensus. Also, at the same time as the news was released in the media, a personal message from the Chairman of the Supervisory Board regarding the readiness to continue negotiations came, on the same day we proposed the day and time of the next meeting, to which we did not receive a response.
Instead, on the fifth day of silence, a message came about the dismissal of the executive director, the first article appeared in the same media outlet where it all started, and mailings were sent to the team and participating companies. An important point: during communication with the Supervisory Board, I agreed to leave the position of CEO of the Cluster at the end of 2025. However, the Supervisory Board insisted that I continue to hold my position for some more time. I agreed. In the end, I learned about my dismissal from a press release in the media, and not in person. After talking with the entire team and consulting with media specialists, we realized that these events have all the signs of a planned and well-thought-out discrediting information campaign, which, most likely, will continue and be based on distortion of facts and unfounded accusations and will continue until the customer achieves its goals. Such methods are not consistent with the team’s values, so we have made a collective decision to leave the Lviv IT Cluster in its entirety. I want to assure you that this is definitely not an emotional or rash decision. Our team is made up of experts who have been deeply involved in the projects — each of them will be in touch with you in the future and will continue to advise on the necessary issues.
I would like to add that today, January 27, in the afternoon, representatives of the supervisory board visited the office, with whom it was agreed to transfer all matters to the acting CEO. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday of this week. During today’s meeting, we again received new threats from the supervisory board and expect new media attacks from the same media.
Regarding trademarks, they remain with the cluster, the re-registration process was launched a few months ago. The Supervisory Board knows about this, so their communication in the media surprised us.
Regarding the IT Arena project. This project was founded by me as a private individual in 2013. IT Arena has been headed by Yuriy Ogonovsky for about 10 years, during which time it has grown into a conference that has gathered 6+ thousand people in Lviv. The project has always been self-supporting, providing an opportunity for companies to talk about their brand not only in Ukraine but also abroad, and for startups to attract investments. IT Arena has never been financed from cluster membership fees, instead providing free tickets to all participating companies. The IT Arena brand belongs to me, and the trademark was transferred to Ogonovsky for the purpose of further development and launch in Warsaw. We plan to continue working with Ukrainian tech business, supporting the market with projects and initiatives. Very soon we will share new plans — we will be happy to meet for coffee and discuss our next cooperation. A special thank you to the hundreds of members of our community who sent messages of support to me and our team. We appreciate it.
As a reminder, the Supervisory Board of one of the largest technological associations in the country, Lviv IT Cluster, has decided to remove Executive Director Stepan Veselovsky. Veselovsky and the team announced that they are leaving the cluster.
The situation became critical after manipulations with the organization’s intellectual property were exposed. Veselovsky, without the consent of the council, transferred the rights to a number of key trademarks to his deputy Yuriy Ogonovsky. In addition, the tandem of managers began registering new legal entities and brands that duplicate the names of the cluster’s assets.
In a comment to dev.ua, Veselovsky confirmed that the current situation will not affect the holding of IT Arena in Warsaw and Lviv, since this is his project.
