What was the foundation of Sillamäe Environment and Technology College? It was the dream of the rector of the Institute of Economics and Management Mr. Hanon Barabaner. The dream to give opportunity to Russian-speaking students to receive higher education in their native language. The Institute was created in 1993 and was then called the International Environment and Technology College (IETC) – the first private university of higher education in the North-Eastern region of Estonia. 

In 1999 college got its new name - Sillamäe Institute of Economics and Management (by the name of the city it was founded in), and in 2005 it received its present name – the Institute of Economics and Management ECOMEN. When college was firmly standing on its feet, professors from other universities started to arrive. Barabaner’s dreams – to develop the college into an institute, to obtain full accreditation of all study programs and state recognition of university’s diplomas, to receive orders for preparing necessary specialists from the state of Estonia – these dreams were made real by the team. Besides the people that started higher education in Sillamäe this team includes the members of the administration – the chairman of the academic council, a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, a recognized expert in international economic relations, logistics and scholarly research supervisor Michail Bronshtein; a vice-rector on socio-economic issues Lyudmila Barabaner;a vice-rector, doctor of economics and recognized management expert Alexander Lukyanov; vice-rector on development Maks Kaur and vice-rector Natalya Morohova who leads the Institute’s branch in North-Eastern region. Similarly well-known people are on the Institute’s Guardian Council – general director of BLRT group of companies Fjodor Berman; director of Fabec Elektronics OU Andrey Nasonov; general director of AS Estel Pluss Sergey Frolov; member of the board of Tallinna Aripank Valery Lvovsky and others. 

The Institute of Economics and Management not only prepares leading experts in respective fields but also serves as a reputable research center where theoretical and (more importantly) practical research is conducted. Among the research subjects are: environmental monitoring, marketing, efficiency of companies of energy and public utility sectors and dozens of others.