.jpg)
Lyubim Kogan
Approaching the 25th year since surviving the World Trade Center attacks, I’m speaking publicly after decades of working in silence. Not to revisit the past, but to carry forward what was learned through survival, responsibility, and service.
I’m a Winter Olympian, a five-time first-generation immigrant, and a national bestselling co-author with Steve Forbes (2014).
In 2015 — one year after the annexation of Crimea — I left Wall Street to take over a collapsing infrastructure company in Ukraine. After five years of losses, we returned it to profitability in 2019. In April 2024, Russian drone strikes destroyed everything we had rebuilt.
At that point, I had a choice: rebuild another business — or finally do what I had been preparing for all along.
Out of those ashes, Wings4Heroes.org was born — a self-funded humanitarian mission where amputee and deaf combat veterans rediscover purpose through camaraderie, adventure, and flight.