Alexander Kugushev was born in France, of Russian parents, and educated successively in Yugoslavia, Austria, Switzerland and Argentina. The son of political émigrés, growing up in a Europe rent by conflicts between the two World Wars, he experienced a fair share of life's ups and downs. He lived through World War II, the defining experience of his life, as a boy and into his early teens.
He lost his father as a small child. His compassionate mother taught him respect for all life and regard for the equality of all people. She also inculcated love of music. From his grandfather he learned that we can all excel and that there is no ceiling to what we should know. From his years in Switzerland he learned deep devotion to democracy. From his two emigrations, to Argentina and, twelve years later, to the United States, he learned about the contradictions and paradoxes of life. His Yankee wife taught him much about America and about the possibility of pursuing happiness (and of even catching it).
He is a journalist by trade and a publisher by profession, having spent a career of over forty years publishing educational materials in the United States, in print and on the internet. He was the founder and CEO of CyberGnostics, an online educational publisher. He is a committed naturalized American, speaks seven languages and has traveled extensively throughout his life, at this point to over seventy countries. He reads omnivorously and is a dedicated outdoorsman. He lives in Menlo Park , in Northern California.