Viktor Vekselberg was born in 1957 in the town of Drogobych, Western Ukraine. In 1979 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineering. Since 1990 Viktor Vekselberg has been the chairman of Renova, the leading Russian asset management company.

In 1996 Viktor set up OAO Siberian and Urals Aluminum Company (SUAL) and performed as the president of the company up to 2003, when he became the chairman of the board of directors of SUAL Group.

In 1998-2002 Viktor Vekselberg was known as the deputy of the chairman of the board in Tyumen Oil (TNK), later he formed a joint venture with British Petroleum. Today he is a member of the board of directors of TNK-BP.

Following the results of 2001 Vekselberg led the CEO rating of nonferrous metallurgy businesses. The same year he was acknowledged one of the best entrepreneurs and corporate managers in Russia.

In the 1990s Viktor Vekselberg’s interests expanded from oil and gas production to road building. The key directions of his business were:

1. crude mineral oil and gas production (TNK, the Russia’s third largest oil company and such firms as Sidanko, Onako, Slavneft, Rusia-Petroleum, Rospan)

2. metallic ore production, production of nonferrous metals (SUAL, VSMPO, the world’s leader in production of titanium, aluminum, magnesium and nickel products)

3. foods production (Irkutskpisheprom – a food manufacturing company comprising 15 firms such as Bryansk meat-processing factory, the largest brewery in Eastern Siberia and others)

4. trade in foods (meat, poultry, dairy products)

5. transportation business (major shareholdings of two biggest Russian ports – in the Primorsky Krai and Tuapse, Koltsovo airport,)

6. dispatching operations (Renova)

7. power production and distribution

8. coal mining (coal complexes Bogatyr and Severny in Kazakhstan)

9. manufacturing machines and equipment (diesel engines, gas turbines, drilling units)

10. road building and repair

11. basic chemicals production

12. wholesale trade in chemicals (the united merchandising company)

13. banking activity

Swiss companies Sulzer and Oerlikon account for more than 10 percent of his net worth of $12.4 billion, according to Forbes 2012.

In 2012, AAR, where his Renova holds roughly 25 percent, has agreed to sell its stake in TNK-BP to Rosneft, an historic deal in the oil industry.

Vekselberg is also the man in charge of the construction of the Skolkovo innovation hub.

He is the owner of the world’s largest private collection of Faberge eggs.

Vekselberg enjoys reading books, especially poetry. Boris Pasternak is his favorite poet.

Viktor Vekselberg is married and has got a son and a daughter.

Capital

$ 10 500 mln (2020), Forbes: # 12

UC Rusal (9.8%), Swiss companies Oerlikon (19%) and Sulzer (44%).

He got $ 7 billion in March 2013 from the sale of its stake in TNK-BP to Rosneft.

Sanctions

The US Treasury Department included Vekselberg on the sanctions list in April 2018. He had to urgently reduce his shares in Swiss companies to below 50%. Renova sold a 14.6% stake in Sulzer for $ 568 million to Sulzer itself. The money is blocked in accounts in Switzerland.

Sources:

    allbestpeople.com
    www.ippnou.ru
    www.temadnya.ru

Olga Pletneva (updated by Anna Dorozhkina)