Vladimir Potanin

Vladimir Olegovich Potanin (Владимир Олегович Потанин in Russian; born January 3, 1961) is a Russian businessman and oligarch. His partner has been for many years Mikhail Prokhorov. He acquired his wealth notably through the controversial loans-for-shares program in Russia.

Early Life and Education

Potanin was born in Moscow, in the former USSR, into a high-ranking communist family.

In 1978, Potanin attended the faculty of the International economic relations at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), an elite school that groomed students for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Upon graduating MGIMO in 1983, he followed in his father's footsteps and went to work for the FTO "Soyuzpromexport" with the Ministry of Foreign trade of the Soviet Union.

Career

During perestroika, Vladimir Potanin quit the State’s structures of Foreign trade and in 1991 created the private association Interros using his knowledge gathered at Ministry of Foreign trade and his previous professional network.

In 1993, Potanin became President of United Export Import Bank. From August 14, 1996 until March 17, 1997 he worked as First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

Since August 1998, Potanin hold the positions of President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Interros Company.

Potanin's Interros owns 30% and controls Russian Nickel giant Norilsk Nickel, a company owned by Oleg Deripaska's RUSAL, Abram Reznikov's Alamak Espana Trade and Alisher Usmanov's Metalloinvest.

Since March 2003 Potanin has taken charge of the National Council on Corporate Governance (NSKU), whose main goal is to improve the legislative regulations in Russia and to introduce professional and ethical standards of corporate governance into the operations of Russian companies to boost up the reputation and investment appeal of the Russian business.

Since December 2001 he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (NYC). In April 2003 Potanin was elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the State Hermitage, the most renowned Russian art museum. Since 2005 Potanin has been a member of the Public Chamber of Russia.

In January 2007 in Paris Potanin was named an Officer of the prestigious Order of Arts and Literature for his cultural contributions. The French Ministry of Culture and Communications granted the award.

In March 2009, Potanin sued former business partner and Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov $29 million over a property disagreement in Moscow.

Personal life

He is married to Natalia Potanina; the couple has three children: Anastacia, Ivan and Vassily. He is fluent in English and French.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Vladimir Lisin

Vladimir Lisin (born 7 May 1956 in Ivanovo) is a Russian steel tycoon. He is considered by Forbes magazine to be the richest man in Russia and 14th richest in the world. His estimated net worth is $24 billion.

Background

Vladimir Lisin has been a member of the Board Directors of Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) since 1996 and its chairman since 1998. Since 1993, he has served as a Board member of several leading Russian metal producers, including NLMK, MMK and Sayansk and Novokuznetsk Aluminium Plants. He previously worked as Deputy Chief Engineer and as Deputy General Director of the Karaganda Steel Plant, one of Kazakhstan’s four largest steel plants. He started his career at the Tulachermet Metals Works as a foreman, rising through the ranks to become section manager and shop manager.

He is a graduate of the Siberian Metallurgic Institute (1979), received an MSc in Metal Engineering (1989), an MSc in economics from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration(RANEPA) (1992), a doctorate in Metal Engineering (1997), was a Professor at RANEPA (1999); and received a doctorate in economics (2005).

He holds various patents for metallurgical processes and has published numerous articles on metallurgy and economics. He is a professor of the Academy of National Economy and the holder of the Council of Ministers’ prize in the science and engineering (1989), the Honorary Metallurgist of Russia (1999), the Knight of the Order of Honour of the Russian Federation (2000) and the Knight of the Order of St. Sergiy Radonezhsky (2001).

Dr. Lisin is married, with three children: Vyacheslav, Dmitry, and Alexander. They were born in 1972, 1983, and 1994.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Viktor Vekselberg

Viktor Felixovich Vekselberg (Russian: Виктор Феликсович Вексельберг, Ukrainian: Віктор Феліксович Вексельберг; born April 14, 1956, Drohobych, Ukraine, Soviet Union) is the owner and president of Renova Group, a large Russian conglomerate.

Business Empire

Victor Vekselberg was born in 1957 in Western Ukraine. He graduated from the Moscow Transportation Engineering Institute in 1979. In 1993, he became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Renova, one of Russia's most progressive investment and business development companies.

After working as an engineer in an obscure state lab for many years, Vekselberg moved to business in 1990. He rose to prominence after Boris Yeltsin's reelection in 1996 as co-owner and chairman of Tyumen Oil (TNK), one of Russia's largest oil and gas companies. He took a controlling interest in the company in 1997 and has subsequently developed a joint venture with BP. About the same time he co-founded SUAL Holding, which since grew to control Russia's second-largest aluminum business and is ranked ninth in the world. Later, he integrated those and other assets under the umbrella of Renova Group, delegating operating responsibilities to managers. Acting as a chairman of the executive board of TNK, he was instrumental in negotiating and establishing a 50–50 joint venture with British Petroleum in the largest private transaction in Russian history. He is currently a member of the board of directors and the vice-president of TNK-BP.

Vekselberg is now overseeing a vast restructuring of his assets: the division of property with partner Leonard Blavatnik, the merger of Renova's aluminium assets with those of Oleg Deripaska, and the integration of various electricity and telecommunications investment.

Viktor Vekselberg is often considered to be one of the remaining Russian oligarchs. His estimated net worth is $1.8 billion in March 2009.

Family

He is married to Marina and has two children, a daughter, Irena, and a son, Aleksander.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Alexei Mordashov

Alexey Mordashov (Mordashóv) was born on 26 September 1965 in Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast. He is a Russian business oligarch and self-made billionaire. He is the main shareholder and the CEO of Severstal, one of Russia's largest steel and mining companies. Mordashov has an estimated US$ 18.5 billion fortune according to the US business magazine Forbes.

Career

He began his career in 1988 as a low employee at the Cherepovets steel mill and in 1992 became finance director, shortly before the company was privatised. He formed two investment funds and, by buying up workers' shares, built a major stake in the factory. He became general director of the company in 1996. He built a conglomerate, Severstal, acquiring steel, coal and mining companies.

Philanthropy

Both individually and through Severstal, Alexei Mordashov is involved in a wide range of philanthropic and charitable enterprises.

Through Severstal: Sponsor of the Bolshoi Theatre; sponsor of the Mariinsky Theatre; sponsor of the Tretyakov Gallery; sponsor of the Russian Museum; sponsor of the Museum of Frescoes by Dionisius; sponsor of the Sergei Andriaka Watercolour School; sponsor of the Moscow International Film Festival; sponsor of the Road Back Home charity for homeless children; sponsor of the "Severstal Cherepovets" super-league ice-hockey team; sponsor of the Dynamo (Moscow) Women’s Volleyball Club; sponsor of the Russian national male chess team; sponsor of over 20 Russian sports facilities including sports stadiums, ice rings, heated football fields and athletic centres.

As an individual: Bolshoi Theatre Charity Board; council for the restoration of the Valaam Monastery.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Alisher Usmanov

Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov (born 9 September 1953, Chust, Namangan Province, Uzbek SSR, USSR) is an Uzbek-born Russian businessman. According to the 2011 edition of Forbes magazine, the oligarch is one of Russia's richest men, with a fortune estimated at US$17.7 billion, and the world's 35th richest person.

Usmanov is married and is a graduate of Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

He has accrued his wealth from mining, lumber and investment. He is the majority shareholder of Metalloinvest, a Russian industrial conglomerate, which he founded to manage Gazprom's metals interests.

He is also a co-owner of the media holding which comprises 7TV and Muz-TV federal television channels and 33 regional TV broadcasting stations. Besides this, Alisher Usmanov personally owns the Kommersant and Sekret Firmy Publishing Houses, shares in the company SUP, which controls Internet website Livejournal.com and internet newspaper «Gazeta.ru».

Mr.Usmanov is a co-owner of Russia's second-largest mobile telephone operator MegaFon and Russian investment fund Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which owns stakes in popular web portals like Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki.ru, Vkontakte.ru, Facebook.com and others.

Usmanov is the president of the FIE, the international governing body of fencing as has since invested in fencing programs and fencing development around the globe.

Usmanov is a major shareholder in London's Arsenal Football Club, following in the footsteps of fellow Russians Roman Abramovich, owner of rival Chelsea, and Alexandre Gaydamak, former owner of Portsmouth. In February 2008, his Metalloinvest also became sponsor of Dinamo Moscow, the Russian capital's football team once funded by the Soviet secret service. His Metalloinvest group's name replaced the Xerox Corporation's on its players' shirts as part of the $7 million deal. "For me, Dinamo is a first love," said Usmanov, the club's website reported Usmanov as saying. The ballet fan had sidestepped a conflict of interest with Arsenal, London's The Sun reported, 'as Usmanov does not have any shares in the Moscow club. But he is on the board.'

From : www.wikipedia.org

Roustam Tariko

Roustam Tariko (born March 17, 1962) is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Russian history. He is of Tatar descent.

Tariko is the founder of Russian Standard Vodka, the leading premium vodka in Russia. He also founded Russian Standard Bank, a pioneer in Russian consumer credit market and one of the top credit and term life insurers in Russia. In contrast to many other Russian businessmen, Tariko is a self-made man, having built his empire from scratch. In 2009, Tariko's net worth was estimated at $1.1 billion.

Born in the town of Menzelinsk in Tatarstan on March 17, 1962, Tariko moved to Moscow to study at the age of 17. He graduated in 1989 from the Economics faculty of Moscow Institute for Railway Engineering and got an MBA from INSEAD in France in 2000.

The economic reforms of the 1980s created new business opportunities, which Tariko recognized and took advantage of. Unlike many other Russian businessmen who created their empires through the privatization of state enterprises in the early 1990s, Tariko built his company from scratch.

While studying, Tariko had had a part-time job as a street cleaner. He says he had to get up early and clear the snow even if it was −20C. Already at this point, Tariko had an eye for making money: Tariko's first business was a small cleaning company he established with two friends.

Tariko's first major business was a hotel room brokering service, which served foreign customers at Russia's largest hostel. He charged a premium on those rooms which he had renovated at his expense.

In the late 1980s, Tariko began importing Kinder Surprise and Ferrero Rocher chocolates to the Soviet Union and selling them for rubles. Previously, such goods were only available in hard currency stores closed to average Russians. Tariko parlayed his success in selling Italian chocolates into an exclusive contract to import the Martini brand. Record sales of Martini enabled him to grow his company Roust Inc. into the leading importer of premium spirits in Russia.

The venture was a success, and in 1992 Tariko founded Roust Inc., a company which became one of the largest premium product distribution companies in Russia.

Tariko completed his MBA at INSEAD in France in 2000.

Building on his success, Tariko wanted to build a Russian consumer brand which would "embody the vibrant spirit of Russia." Tariko reportedly wondered why Russia, the birthplace of vodka and the biggest vodka market in the world did not possess a domestically produced premium vodka brand. In 1998, Tariko, through his Russian Standard Company, brought to market Russian Standard Vodka Original, the first genuinely Russian premium vodka. It became an almost instant success, and quickly established itself as the number one brand of its kind in the country.

In 1999, Tariko expanded his empire into the banking business by founding Russian Standard Bank. Today, the bank is the market leader in consumer finance and the country's largest consumer lending bank.

In total, the companies belonging to Tariko's holding company Russian Standard Corporation now employ over 25,000 people.

In Forbes magazine's "World's Richest People" ranking of 2009, Tariko was listed at number 647 with an estimated wealth of $1.1 billion.

Tariko is also the owner of the Miss Russia Pageant.

From : www.wikipedia.org