Vekselberg, Viktor Feliksovich
Russian businessman, Owner and President of Renova Group 

Viktor Vekselberg (Виктор Феликсович Вексельберг) born on April 14, 1957 in the town of Drogobych in the Lvov region of the Ukraine SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine).

1979 - graduated with honors from the faculty of automation and computer engineering of the Moscow Railway Transport Engineering Institute (MIIT) in the speciality of systems engineering. He continued his education with a post-graduate course at the Computing Center of USSR Academy of Sciences.

1978-1990 worked at the Special Design Office of Rodless Pumps (OKB BN) “KONNAS”. He started as a technician but was eventually promoted to research manager.

1988 - founded NPO KomVek, a research and production company that cooperated with the Irkutsk Aluminium Plant.

1990 - became a founder and a manager of KAM (research company)

1991-1996 - was a Senior Deputy Director-General of ZAO Renova (closed joint-stock company) that he founded together with Leonard Blavatnik – his fellow-student who gave up the institute and immigrated to the United States. Two-thirds of shares were owned by NPO KomVek and one third was owned by the investment fund Access Industries, Inc. belonging to Blavatnik.

Starting in the middle of 1990, Vekselberg started to purchase shares of aluminum plants.

1996 - participated in the founding of Siberia-Ural Aluminium (open joint-stock company) (SUAL) that incorporated Irkutsk and Ural Aluminium Plants. During the 1990s, SUAL incorporated Bogoslovsky and Kandalakshsky aluminium plants, Kamensk-Uralsky metallurgical plant, and bauxite mines.

1996-2000 - was a Director-General of Siberia-Ural Aluminium Company (SUAL), and consecutively served as Director-General of Renova.

1996 -Renova, under Vekselberg’s management, started to purchase shares of oil companies.
September 1997 - became a member of the Board of Directors of Tyumen Oil Company (TNK) (open joint-stock company) (TNK).

April 1998 - became a Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tyumenneftegas (open joint-stock company).

June 1998 - became a member of the Board of Directors of Nizhnevartovskneftegas (open joint-stock company).

July 1998-April 2002 - served as first vice-president and Deputy President of TNK.

September 2000-January 22, 2003 - President of SUAL-Holding.

July 2001- director of strategic planning and corporate development for TNK.

April 2002 - became President of TNK.

January 2003 - became Chairman of the Board of Directors of SUAL-Holding.

February 2004 – purchased nine of the Fabergé eggs from the Forbes publishing family in New York City at a Sotheby’s auction. The Russian business newspaper Kommersant reported that apart from the eggs, Vekselberg received approximately 190 other items from Fabergé – brooches, snuffboxes and ink appliances. The collection was transported to Russia and exhibited in the Kremlin and Dubrovnik in 2007.

February 21, 2005 – left the board of directors of SUAL. The company explained that Vekselberg left his position at SUAL in order to cease his powers on an operative, administrative level and to concentrate on strategic decisions in his post of chairman of the board of directors of SUAL Holding, operated by SUAL.

March 2005 – Forbes Magazine estimated Vekselberg to be worth $5 billion (96th richest in the world).

February 2006 – announced that in search of a strategic partner for SUAL, negotiations had begun with its primary competitor, RUSAL (Russian Aluminum), belonging to Oleg Deripaska. (Vekselberg has been involved in such restructuring of his assets for more than four years, negotiating with world leaders in aluminum manufacturing, notably Alcoa (USA) and Rio Tinto Alcan (Canada)).

August 21, 2006 – RUSAL and SUAL agreed on a merger. Kommersant reported that the consolidated company would command a 100% share of the Russian aluminum market; the newspaper also noted that Deripaska would receive a 75% stake in the new company, while Vekselberg and his partners would get 25%. Kommersant reported at the time that RUSAL and SUAL would have no qualms in obtaining permission from the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, as the new merger would create a complete monopoly on the Russian aluminum market. Competition law in Russia does not oppose such deals if they contribute to bolstering Russian producers on the world market, Kommersant noted. .

September 2006 – agreed to pay approximately $ 1 million in expenses to transport the Lowell House Bells from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, back to their original location in the Danilov Monastery, Moscow and to purchase replacement bells. The historic bells returned to Moscow on September 12, 2008

October 9, 2006 – announced that RUSAL, SUAL Group and a third company, Swiss commodities trader Glencore, have signed an agreement on the consolidation of assets, thus merging to form the new company, United Company Rusal. The deal allowed Vekselberg to free resources for projects in chemistry, energy and municipal services, as well as activization of business enterprises with owner of Access Industries Leonard Blavatnik. The sum of the merge was in the region of $ 30 billion.

March 27, 2007 – The deal of the merger was finalized to create United Company Rusal. The deal saw RUSAL receive a 66% stake in the unified company, while SUAL acquired 22% and Glencore 12%. The structure of the new company included four bauxite extraction centers, 10 alumina and 14 aluminum factories, as well as three foil rolling facilities. Vekselberg became chairman of the board of directors of the company, while Alexander Bulygin became the Chief Executive Officer. The structure of the board of directors of the company included Bulygin, Vekselberg, Deripaska, Blavatnik, Ivan Glasenberg (CEO of Glencore), Andrew Michelmore (CEO of En+ Group), Michael Nossal (financial director of En+ Group), Vladimir Titkov (general director of En+ Service).

mid-April 2007 – embarked on a new ambitious project with former president of SUAL Bryan Gilbertson. Kommersant reported that Vekselberg had decided to become the largest shareholder of the investment fund Pallinghurst Resources, operated by Gilbertson. A key asset of the fund is the Fabergé brand-name, under which partners wish to produce gems through the diamond company Alrosa. In general, Renova can sell under the Fabergé trademark cosmetics, clothing, precious metals and copies of Fabergé’s Imperial Easter Egg collection – of all this, Pallinghurst Resources has the right to release eight classes of production.

April 19, 2007 – listed as the 10th richest Russian by Forbes Magazine, with an estimated wealth of $10.6 billion dollars (as of spring 2007).

October, 2007 – received a spate of unexpected publicity in the press and political circles, as a result of a household gas explosion in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine on the morning of October 13, which left 30 people dead. The blast, which occurred in a nine-story apartment block in Ukraine's third-largest city, caused a section of the building to collapse and damaged ten neighboring buildings. In the aftermath, prominent Ukrainian politicians blamed the city's gas supply company DnipropetrovskGorGaz, owned by Viktor Vekselberg, for the explosion. Yulia Latynina of Ekho Moskvy radio cites Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko as declaring that he would teach Russian oligarchs a lesson about "criminal liability, if they don't understand their moral responsibility," and Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as having "assembled a group of 10 lawyers that will force Mr. Vekselberg to pay for all losses caused by the accident."  As a result of this public outcry, Vekselberg announced that he would pay the families of the deceased $100,000 each and $10,000 to each of the injured. However, the gas company in question did not take responsibility for the fatal blast. It is noteworthy that the cause of the accident was not established, although the dilapidated condition of gas lines, a high-pressure surge or tampering with gas meters by residents were regarded as possible causes.

March 5, 2008 – ranked #67 in the list of world’s richest by Forbes magazine, with a net worth of $ 11.2 billion

He is also
- Chairman of the Board of Directors of Renova and RUSIA Petroleum;
- member of the Board of Directors of SUAL, Irkutsky Aluminium Plant, SIDANKO;
- member of the Coordinating Council of Metallurgical Complex of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation;
- member of the Commission on Federal, Interregional and Regional Social and Economic Policy under the Chairman of the Federation Council;
- director of the Russian Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen (employers) – RSPP(r);
- full academician of the International Academy of Science on Ecology, Human and Nature Safety (MANEB).
He is an author of a number of scientific publications and inventions in the field of automation in oil producing industry.
He is married and has a son and a daughter. His family lives in New York.
He enjoys poetry and his favorite poet is Leonid Pasternak.

Related Sources

Lenta.Ru, Biography of Viktor Vekselberg (In Russian)

Moscow Times, Yulia Latynina, "The Price of Democracy," October 31, 2007

Renova Group, Home Webpage

Last updated September 17, 2008