Adventures in Russia: how a young American CEO built a media empire in Moscow.

When Peter Gerwe first flew to Moscow in the 1980s at the tender age of 22, his Russian business contacts were less than impressed. In fact, the stodgy Soviet officials who met his plane looked right past the young, casually dressed Gerwe as they surveyed the disembarking passengers in search of the vice president of production of U.S. Festival Productions--an undertaking of Apple's Steve Wozniak--they had invited to Russia.

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Gerwe eventually managed to win over the skeptical authorities and accomplish his mission of producing satellite TV exchanges between the U.S. and Russia--and to make connections in the insular Soviet broadcasting world. A few years later, with Russia moving toward a more open economy, Gerwe decided to move to Moscow to pursue a dream: launching an FM radio station broadcasting Western rock and roll. "It took three excruciating years and a lot of help from my friends to push it through the approval process," he recounts, noting that Radio Maximum was the first FM radio station in Russia. "Then it took off like a rocket."

Within a few months, Gerwe was off and running on the lengthy approval process for his next project--creating Russia's first entertainment television station. "Back then, Russians looked at television as a money pit--you put money into it and you get back political influence," he explains. "We were all about entertainment and profit."

And profit they did. Free of a political agenda, in 1996, STS (Russian television network), now known as CTC Media, began airing American shows dubbed in Russian and, later, Russian remakes of popular U.S. shows like "Married With Children." One of its most popular, the Russian remake of "The Nanny," catapulted STS into the big leagues as one of Russia's major television channels.

Success, however, also catapulted the company onto the radar screens of its local competitors. Soon Gerwe was being assaulted with offers from Russian oligarchs interested in buying his station--offering a fraction of its worth along with a thinly veiled threat that refusal could jeopardize the status of the fledgling station's broadcasting license. One determined suitor, Russian media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky, reportedly went so far as to hire away Gerwe's entire executive team. Gerwe managed to persevere and rebuild, only to then face the financial crisis that hit Russia in 1997. A group of investors stepped in with support and the television advertising market recovered nicely. "It grew between 30 and 40 percent every year and is still growing; there's huge money in Russia right now," says Gerwe, who turned over the reigns to the current CEO, Alexander Rodnyansky, in 2004, just two years before CTC's public offering on NASDAQ.

"It was time to bring in a better broadcast operator with local connections," explains Gerwe. "It was hard to walk away, but it was the right thing to do for the company's future. Ultimately, Russians like to deal with Russians."

Gerwe, too, seems to have an affinity for Russians--and the Russian media market. Rather than take the considerable funds he amassed while at CTC back to his home state of California, this ex-pat is staying put to pursue another dream: offering young founding CEOs both investment capital and the benefit of his experiences as CEO of Media Invest Corvette, a holding company that invests in Russian media companies.

"It's too early for me to leave--the Russian market is so hot," says Gerwe, who lives in St. Petersburg with his Russian wife and their three children. "If you want opportunity and adventure, this is the place to be."