The initial funding was provided by the Russian government and Western foundations focused on developing education in Russia.

As the idea was to provide Russian students, already well-trained in mathematics and statistics, with access to world-class education in economics, the NES teaching was set to be a 2-year full-time master-level program with a curriculum modeled on the first two years of PhD programs in top US and UK universities.

For core teaching in economics, econometrics, and finance NES relied on visiting professors and advisors, which included Zvi Griliches, Don Patinkin, Andreu Mas-Colell, Bronwyn Hall, Ben Bental, Elhanan Ben-Porath, Michael Ellman, Itzhak Zilcha, Thomas Sjostrom, Brigitte Granville, Avner Bar-Ilan, James Leitzel, Daniel Kahn, Leonid Polishchuk, Judith Shapiro, and many others.

A critical leadership role was played, in addition to Makarov and Ofer, by Penn State professor Barry Ickes; key local administrators included Zarema Kasabieva, Alexander Friedman, Valentina Krupina, and Oxana Budjko.

In 2014, NES moved to a new campus in Skolkovo, built for the purposes of academic life, and combining modern auditoria with sports and recreation facilities.