Charles Hecker is the author of the 2024 book Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia, published in the UK by Hurst Publishers and in the US by Oxford University Press. Prior to writing Zero Sum, Charles was a partner at Control Risks, the international, specialist risk consultancy. For eight years, he was the managing partner of the firm’s Moscow office. He was later co-head of Control Risks’ geopolitical risk consulting practice. Prior to working at Control Risks, Charles was a journalist in Russia for The Moscow Times and in Florida for The Miami Herald. Charles has a BA in Russian and Soviet Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA from the Russian Research Center (now the Davis Center) at Harvard University. He is on the advisory boards of the Davis Center and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at UCL.