Irina Sennikova is the Dean of Riga International School of Economics and Business Administration (RISEBA), where she worked from its establishment.

Her academic background lies in the area of linguistics. She graduated from the University of Latvia, the Faculty of Foreign Languages. For some years she taught English as a foreign language specializing in Business English. Then later in her career she changed her focus to the business area and obtained first an MBA degree and then MSc in Management from the IEDC-Bled School of Management (Slovenia). She is currently completing her PhD studies at Kozminski University (Poland) in the area of intellectual entrepreneurship. Apart from her administrative responsibilities, she teaches courses in management, leadership, and organizational behavior at RISEBA. She attended various faculty development programs including the International Faculty development program (IFDP) at IESE in Barcelona in 2002 and the European Entrepreneurship Colloquium for Participant Centred Learning (EECPCL) at Harvard Business School in 2005. She has recently completed an International Deans program organized jointly by ABS (the Association of Business Schools), UK, and EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development).

She has been involved in various international projects. She is a founding member of the International Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF) and is a Senior Enterprise Fellow at the University of Essex School of Entrepreneurship and Business. She is a Vice Chair of the EQUAL board and a member of CEEMAN Accreditation Committee.

Her research interests lie mainly in the area of entrepreneurship, exploring its new dimension, namely intellectual entrepreneurship. She is also involved in organizational research investigating the issues of motivation, staff turnover, and leadership.