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GREF, German Oskarovich
President of Sberbank and former Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation
German Gref (Герман Оскарович Греф) was born on February 8, 1964 in Panfilovo in Kazakhstan. He was the Minister of Economics and Trade of Russia from 2000 to 2007 and is currently the president of Sberbank.
Gref is the son of ethnic Germans who had been deported to Kazakhstan in 1941. Having completed two years of military service in 1984, he studied law at Omsk State University. He moved to teach law at Leningrad State University in 1990. While teaching at the university, he completed his PhD and worked at the St Petersburg city administration, dealing with legal and property issues. During this time he worked closely with mayor Anatoly Sobchak, meeting his protégés Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, Alexey Kudrin and Dmitry Kozak, all of whom would go on to hold important positions in the federal government.
In 1998 Gref was appointed First Deputy Minister of State Property of the Russian Federation, sitting on the board until 2000. He was also appointed to the boards of the Federal Commission for the Russian Securities Market and the board of Gazprom in 1999.
Gref became Minister of Economic Development and Trade in May 2000, a position he held until Mikhail Kasyanov’s government was dissolved by Vladimir Putin four years later. Gref was one of the ministers to survive the reshuffle and was reappointed to the next government, serving under Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
In his time at the ministry, Gref supported accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and created the Stabilization Fund, designed to mitigate the impact of a major fall in oil prices on the Russian economy.
When Fradkov was replaced by Victor Zubkov in September 2007, Gref was not reappointed, and in November 2007 he became the new president of Sberbank. In June 2009, Gref joined the board of Lukoil. He has been married twice and has two children.
Related links:
Profile on Sberbank website
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