Gennady Timchenko: biography. Charitable Foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko: reviews. Gennady Timchenko - a billionaire who founded an oil empire from scratch Daughter of Gennady Timchenko
Gennady Timchenko- Founder and main shareholder of Volga Group, member of the Board of Directors of OAO SIBUR Holding and OAO NOVATEK. Former co-owner of Gunvor Group. Gennady Timchenko has over 30 years of experience in the Russian and international energy markets. He is actively involved in charitable and sports activities. Chairman of the Economic Council of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He is a Finnish citizen and lives in Geneva, Switzerland.
Source: http://volga-resources.ru/people/shareholder/
Biography of Gennady Timchenko
Gennady Timchenko was born in 1952 in Leninakan (Armenia), in 1976 he graduated from the Leningrad Mechanical Institute with a degree in electrical engineering. He began his career at the Izhora plant in Leningrad. In the 1980s
Gennady Timchenko worked as a senior engineer at the Leningrad representative office of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, as well as a deputy general director at Kirishineftekhimexport (established by the Kirishi Oil Refinery to export petrochemical products). Subsequently, he moved to Finland, where in 1991 he went to work for the Urals-Finland company, which was engaged in the sale of oil and oil products.
In 1997, Gennady Timchenko co-founded the Gunvor group, one of the largest international trading groups. In 2003, he participated in the creation of Transoil LLC, which currently occupies a leading position in the field of transportation of oil and oil products in Russia. Subsequently, Gennady Timchenko made a number of strategic investments in large industrial assets, such as OAO NOVATEK, OAO Stroytransgaz, and OAO SIBUR Holding. In 2007, in the interests of professional management of a number of the entrepreneur's assets, the investment group Volga Group was formed. It currently combines investments in 17 companies and is one of the largest investment groups operating in the Russian market.
Personal life of Gennady Timchenko
Gennady Timchenko is married and has three children. On December 6, 2013, Gennady Timchenko's wife Elena Timchenko and his daughter Ksenia Frank (both citizens of Finland) received the Order of Friendship "For strengthening friendship and cooperation with Russia, as well as developing scientific and cultural ties and active charitable activities."
Charity and social activities of Gennady Timchenko
For over 20 years, the family of Gennady Timchenko has been involved in charity work. The activities of the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation are aimed at a systematic solution of social problems in Russia (timchenkofoundation.org). Among its key areas are support for the older generation, development of sports and culture, assistance to families and children. By establishing long-term partnerships with non-profit organizations, state and municipal institutions, the foundation supports the social sphere and promotes the development of local charity.
Gennady Timchenko - President of the SKA hockey club (since 2011) and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the KHL (since 2012), heads the Economic Council of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry - an independent business association that contributes to the creation of favorable opportunities for interaction between Russian and French business circles .
In 2013 he became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society.
In 2014, Timchenko became the chairman of the Russian part of the Russian-Chinese Business Council instead of Boris Titov, who headed the Council for 10 years.
Gennady Timchenko (born 1952) is a Russian businessman and billionaire. He owns the Volga Group investment group founded by him, which specializes in investing in energy, transport and infrastructure assets. Previously, he was a co-owner of the international energy trader Gunvor Group. In 2014, Timchenko ranked 62nd in the ranking of billionaires according to Forbes magazine. As of April of this year, this magazine estimates his net worth at $ 11.3 billion.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the KHL and the president of the SKA club (St. Petersburg) is still the same Gennady Timchenko. The photo below was taken last year and shows him as an open and friendly person.
Youth and family
Gennady Timchenko was born in Armenian Leninakan (now Gyumri) in 1952. His family was quite typical for that time. His father served in the Soviet Army, and several years of his service were in the group of Soviet troops in Germany (GSVG). Therefore, Gena Timchenko spent 6 years of his childhood (in the period 1959-1965) in the GDR, where he learned German, as well as in Ukraine, in the city of Bolgrad in the Odessa region, where his father was subsequently transferred.
Where did Gennady Timchenko go after graduation? His biography continued in Leningrad, where he studied at an elite Soviet university - the Leningrad "voenmekh", which trains personnel for enterprises of the military-industrial complex. After graduating in 1976, he became an electrical engineer.
Who is Gennady Timchenko married to? His wife Elena, who is a citizen of Finland, actively helps her husband in his affairs, especially those related to charity. They have three adult children - two daughters and a son.
As of August last year, Timchenko and his wife lived in Moscow in a rented house that had previously been the residence of Nikita Khrushchev. He also owns a house in Switzerland, by the way, next door to a well-known Ukrainian oligarch
Gennady Timchenko himself told ITAR-TASS last year that his son continues to be a citizen of Finland and studies at the University of Geneva.
The path to the heights of business
In 1977, Timchenko began working as an engineer at the Izhora plant in the city of Kolpino near Leningrad. The enterprise then specialized in the production of large electric generators for power plants, including nuclear ones. Since the young specialist spoke German, he was transferred to the sales department of the plant. Here Timchenko began to make a career, and already in 1982 he moved to Moscow to the Ministry of Foreign Trade as a senior engineer in one of the departments of the ministry.
In 1988, when Russia began to liberalize its economy, he was appointed deputy director of the state oil company Kirishineftekhimexport (Kineks), which was established in 1987 on the basis of a refinery in one of the three largest refineries in the RSFSR. Timchenko's team built the first routes for the export of certain petroleum products from the USSR to Western countries, and Gennady Timchenko himself became one of the leading figures in the Russian (then Soviet) oil trade. Timchenko was essentially a pioneer in the sale of liquid petroleum products to the West, which allowed him to build ways for the movement of commodity-money flows in an almost complete absence of competition, to establish promising connections with an eye on the market future.
And it was not long in coming. As soon as the USSR collapsed in 1991, Timchenko left Russia and was hired by Finnish-based Urals Finland Oy, which specializes in importing Russian oil to Europe. He settled in Finland and became a citizen of that country.
This is where the developments of the perestroika period came in handy. Over the course of four years, Timchenko rose to the position of first deputy and then general director of the company, which became known as International Petroleum Products Oy (IPP). And Gennady Timchenko did not forget about the family. His children, who were born in Finland, a daughter and a son, became its citizens.
This period of activity also includes acquaintance with V.V. Putin, who at that time worked in the mayor's office of St. Petersburg. However, it would be naive to believe that Timchenko's fortune arose thanks to the patronage of the then modest St. Petersburg official. The conditions for the accumulation of initial capital by him were created much earlier, back in the late eighties. While in Finland, Timchenko continued to use the Kirishi refinery as a source for importing oil products to the West, especially since until 1994 he was listed as the head of Kineks.
Having accumulated money from trading Russian oil abroad, in 1996, during the privatization, Timchenko and his partners bought out Kineks. On its basis, in 1997, the trading company Gunvor was founded, specializing in oil trading. In addition to Timchenko, the Swedish businessman Thorbjorn Turnqvist became its second major shareholder. who baffledly bought out Timchenko's stake in the company in March 2014, the day before the U.S. sanctions took action against the latter and his assets.
In 2007, Timchenko founded the private investment fund Volga Resources. Gradually, it developed into the Volga Group investment group, which consolidates its Russian and international assets in the energy, transport, infrastructure, financial services and consumer sectors.
In July 2013, he became a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor for organizing a permanent exhibition of Russian art in the Louvre, supporting the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and helping chess players to hold the Alekhine Memorial tournament.
Last March, following the Crimean referendum, the US Treasury placed Timchenko on a list of individuals identified as "members of the Russian leadership's inner circle." The sanctions froze all assets he held in the US and banned him from entering that country.
Citizenship
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Timchenko said that in 1999 he ceased to be a Russian citizen and received Finnish citizenship. Helsingin Sanomat wrote in 2004 that he acquired Finnish citizenship while living in Geneva at the time. In October 2012, in an interview with the Russian edition of Forbes, Timchenko said that he was both a Russian and a Finnish citizen. Last August, he told ITAR-TASS that he needed Finnish citizenship to travel abroad in the 1990s, when it was difficult to travel on a Russian passport, and that he never hid the fact that he had two passports. In the United States, the Department of the Treasury, when listing individuals under sanctions in connection with the Crimean events of 2014, lists him as a citizen of Russia, Finland and Armenia.
Gennady Timchenko: fortune
He has a stake in various gas, transport and construction organizations. Among his possessions: the Novatek gas company, the SIBUR Holding petrochemical concern, the Transoil railway operator for the transportation of petroleum products, the STG Group construction corporation and the SOGAZ insurance corporation. He is considered one of the most influential Russian oligarchs, having close ties to V.V. Putin, for which he was sanctioned by the United States as punishment for annexing Crimea to Russia. In response, Timchenko said: "You must be responsible for everything, even for friendship with the president." Until March last year, he was one of the founders of the Gunvor Group, one of the largest international energy traders.
According to the Russian edition of RBC, in 2012 Timchenko's assets were estimated at $24.61 billion.
In addition to business assets, he also owns a property in Geneva with an area of 341 m², which is located on a plot of just over 1 hectare, according to media reports. According to data from the Geneva Land Registry, the purchase price of the property was SFR 8.4 million (at the time of purchase in 2001 - about $11 million).
His income, according to the Finnish tax authorities, increased tenfold from 1999 to 2001. In 2001 he claimed an income of EUR 4.9 million. Due to high taxes, Gennady Timchenko moved to Switzerland in 2002 lived in Russia for the last few years.
Gunvor
Gennady Timchenko was a co-founder of the Gunvor Group corporation, registered in Cyprus and operating in trade and logistics in the international energy market. On March 19, 2014, he sold his stake in Gunvor to another co-founder. The sale was made the day before Timchenko was placed on the US sanctions list. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
In November 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York was considering allegations of illegal transactions in which the Gunvor Group bought oil from Russia from Rosneft and sold it to third parties through the US financial system. Gunvor issued a retaliatory statement on November 6, denying any crime.
"Volga Group"
In 2007, Gennady Timchenko founded the Luxembourg-based Volga Resources Foundation. The fund, which combines the assets of Timchenko, was renamed in June 2013 into the Volga Group investment group, represented at the international economic forum in St. Petersburg. He noted that over the next few years his group will focus on the development of infrastructure projects in Russia.
The Group owns assets in the energy, transport and industrial infrastructure, as well as provides financial services, trades in consumer goods and real estate. Her most famous investments are in the gas company NOVATEK and the petrochemical company Sibur.
In April last year, Gennady Timchenko sold a 49% stake in the Finnish company IPP Oy, which owned 99% of the Finnish aviation company Airfix Aviation. It was a small part of the Volga Group portfolio.
Volga Group was listed in the 2014 sanctions list of the US Department of the Treasury (OFAC - Office of Foreign Assets Control).
Sports and recreation business
In July 2013, together with brothers Boris and Gennady Timchenko, he created Arena Events Oy, which bought 100% of the shares of Hartwall Areena, a large sports hall in Helsinki. It also has a multi-storey car park with a capacity of 1,421 private vehicles. The partners also bought a stake in the Jokerit club, whose team became the six-time champion of Finland in the top-level hockey league Liiga. Consequently, the Jokerit were transferred to the Kontinental Hockey League for the 2014-15 season, where they played in the Western Conference in the Bobrov Division.
Public activity and charity
What else is Gennady Timchenko famous for? His biography will be incomplete, if not to say a few words about his patronage. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society.
In 1998, he became one of the co-founders of the judo club "Yavara-Neva".
In 2007, Timchenko and the Surgutex company founded the Klyuch charitable foundation, which supports family orphanages in Leningrad, Tambov and Ryazan regions.
In 2008, the Neva Foundation was founded in Geneva by the Timchenko couple in order to support and finance cultural projects in Switzerland and Russia. The main direction of work was a partnership with the Geneva Opera. The St. Petersburg Philharmonic was his trustee.
In 2010, they also created the Ladoga Foundation. Its main activity was aimed at helping the elderly, as well as restoring historical monuments, supporting cultural projects and introducing modern medicine technologies. Since September 2013, the Ladoga Foundation has been called the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation. Reviews in the press indicate that its activities correspond to the stated focus, and the founders of the fund finance it on a regular basis.
Timchenkr is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Museum and the Tolerance Center in Moscow.
Sports and hobbies
Timchenko is a fan of playing and watching tennis. Through his former Finnish company IPP, he has sponsored an open tennis tournament in Finland since 2000. According to some reports, he was a sponsor of the Finnish team in the Davis Cup and financed a number of Russian tennis players.
In April 2011, Timchenko became the chairman of the board of directors of HC SKA (St. Petersburg), replacing Alexander Medvedev. In May of the same year, as part of the new management structure of the club, he was appointed its president.
In July 2012, he replaced him as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the KHL.
Awards
October 12, 2013 Timchenko received the French Legion of Honor. This award was the reason for the opposition Russian publicist and writer Andrei Piontkovsky to write in his blog on Ekho Moskvy that "... awarding a criminal with the nickname Gangren with the highest distinction of the country covers the French state with shame." Only one thing is not clear: from which finger Piontkovsky sucked this "gangrene". Timchenko, of course, is not an angel, but he obviously made his capital not in the criminal environment, but among the Soviet party nomenklatura, which took advantage of the “Gorbachev” perestroika to accumulate its initial capital.
Is it possible to chat with Timchenko on the Web?
In an interview with ITAR-TASS on August 4, 2014, Timchenko stated that he does not use a computer, unlike his wife Elena, who has her own email address. According to him, she receives up to one and a half hundred letters a day and tries to answer everything. Imagine how many letters Gennady Timchenko himself could receive! Contacts with him for this reason are not available to the general public.
It turns out that it is a very closed figure. Actually, this is a very convenient position, which Gennady Timchenko took advantage of. Contacts, mail - all this carries the potential risks of information leakage about his business, which in the conditions of very intense competition can cause irreparable harm to him. That is why Timchenko is in no hurry to reveal himself to the public. However, if someone is eager to communicate with him, then you can try to write to the email address of the Timchenko Foundation: [email protected]
Gennady Timchenko became a millionaire back in the 90s, but for many years in Russia only a few friends and business partners knew about him. He himself did not seek fame. Timchenko is the same age as President Vladimir Putin and one of his friends. He was born into a military family in Leninakan, spent his childhood in Germany and Ukraine, and received his higher education in Leningrad.
In the late 80s, Timchenko got a job at the Kirishineftekhimexport foreign trade association, which exported oil products from the Kirishi refinery, and this determined his future fate and career. Until the Crimean events of 2014, the trade in oil and oil products was his main business. In 1997, together with partner Torbjorn Tornqvist, he founded the oil trading company Gunvor. Pretty soon it became a major supplier of Russian oil to foreign markets. State and private oil companies worked with Gunvor - Rosneft, Surgutneftegaz, TNK-BP, Gazprom Neft. By the end of the 2000s, Gunvor became one of the three largest oil traders in the world: in 2010, it sold 116 million tons of oil, with revenues of $68 billion.
The day before the sanctions, on March 19, 2014, Timchenko sold 44% of the trader to Tornquist, and now the basis of his fortune is the stakes in Novatek, the country's second largest gas company after Gazprom, and Sibur, the largest petrochemical holding. Timchenko also controls one of Russia's leading construction companies, Stroytransgaz, the carrier of oil products Transoil, and invests in food production: he owns the Aquanika water plant and apple orchards in the Krasnodar Territory.
The Timchenko family lived abroad for a long time - first in Finland and then in Switzerland, but now, due to sanctions, they spend their time mainly in Russia. Timchenko's wife Elena heads their joint charitable foundation, which supports the older generation, develops sports and culture, and helps children. The eldest daughter Natalya studied English literature at Oxford, and now, according to Forbes sources, she has taken up cinema. The youngest daughter Xenia graduated from the University of Edinburgh, where she studied philosophy and French. Her husband is Gleb Frank, the son of Sovcomflot CEO Sergei Frank, and the couple has two children. Timchenko's younger son Ivan is studying international relations at the University of Geneva.
Number The ice palace in St. Petersburg, which by 2023 plans to build the SKA club under the leadership of Timchenko, can cost 20 billion rubles. It will be the largest ice arena in the world.
Deal Timchenko is actively investing in agriculture in the Krasnodar Territory, in particular in the production of apples. In December 2018, his structure became a co-owner of the Divnomorskoye Estate winery, which produces premium wines. The company has its own vineyards with an area of 47 hectares.
Brand Aquanika water.
Citizenship Finland, Russia.
Hobby Plays hockey, collects a collection of works by Soviet artists.
Charity The Charitable Foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko is engaged in supporting the older generation, developing sports and culture, and helping children.
Sport President of HC SKA, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the KHL, Vice President of the Russian Olympic Committee.
The wives of most of the participants in the rating of the richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes avoid publicity. Their names appear in the press either in connection with high-profile divorces, as in the case of Elena Rybolovleva and Natalia Potanina, or - much less often - in connection with personal success, as in the case of Irina Viner and Stella Kesaeva .
Irina Viner, wife of Alisher Usmanov
Husband: Alisher Usmanov, founder and main shareholder of USM Holdings (#3 in .
What does: the head coach of the Russian rhythmic gymnastics team, raised several Olympic champions, including Alina Kabaeva.
How we met: Irina Viner-Usmanova and Alisher Usmanov met in a gym in Tashkent, where she was engaged in rhythmic gymnastics from the age of 11, and he was engaged in fencing. Later they met in Moscow when Viner was already working as a gymnastics coach, and Usmanov was a student at MGIMO. Soon they began to live together. An offer of marriage Usmanov did while in prison, after he was sentenced to 8 years in prison in the so-called "cotton case" (In 1989, the court removed Usmanov's conviction, and in 2000 the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan recognized that the 1980 conviction was unfair. Thus, the billionaire was found not guilty of the crimes imputed to him and has no criminal record). From the conclusion, Usmanov sent a handkerchief to Viner, which, according to Uzbek custom, means a marriage proposal. They got married in 1992.
Children: Irina has a son Anton Viner, there are no common children.
Quotes:“I think that a loved one, a favorite thing is happiness given from above. Therefore, it is necessary, in spite of everything, not to abandon and not betray this happiness ”(in an interview with Forbes Woman)
“The wife makes the husband. At the request of a woman, a man becomes the very one that she invented him. I always told Alisher: “You are a genius! You're great!" And he became so, although he went through many trials ”(in an interview with Hello! magazine).
Marina Dobrynina, Viktor Vekselberg's wife
Husband: Viktor Vekselberg, chairman of the board of the Renova group of companies (No. 7 in the ranking of the richest Russians according to Forbes).
What does: heads the Dobry Vek charitable support foundation (founded in 2002), which helps children and adults with mental disorders. The main work of the fund is to support state and public organizations, the fund oversees more than 100 projects for the rehabilitation of mental patients, helps to create rehabilitation centers. The Foundation holds a festival of creativity for people with mental disorders "Ariadne's Thread". Since 2008, together with the Nikita Mikhalkov Foundation, the Urga Territory of Love has been helping film veterans. Vekselberg also has his own charitable foundation, Link of Times.
Dasha Zhukova, wife of Roman Abramovich
Husband: Roman Abramovich, private investor (No. 13 in the ranking of the richest Russians according to Forbes)
What does: founder of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, was the editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine Pop, heads the Garage Magazine, one of the founders of the clothing brand Kova & T.
Quote:“I can't tell if I'm a good cook. I don't cook at all. When I was in college, we cooked a lot of Mexican food: omelettes and simple snacks. But I love baking, I love making cookies and cupcakes and cakes.”
“For me, work is not just work, it is always pleasure” (in an interview with The Guardian).
David Yakobashvili, founder and member of the board of directors of Wimm-Bill-Dann, with his wife Ellada (right) and Regina von Flemming, former CEO of Axel Springer Russia
“The wife is in France. I visit her whenever possible on the weekend. I like being on the road. Besides, I have my own real estate business in Europe... I don't feel lonely. We are talking. Now there are many electronic devices for this. In these twenty years, I have become accustomed to this. My whole life is in the office. I come home literally for a few hours - to sleep. I get up and go back to work. Work is the main thing in my life” (David Yakobashvili in an interview with Itogi magazine).
Stella Kesaeva, wife of Igor Kesaev
Husband: Igor Kesaev, owner of the Mercury group of companies (No. 35 in the ranking of the richest Russians according to Forbes)
What does: Collector of contemporary art, philanthropist, publisher. Founder of the Stella Art Foundation, Commissioner of the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale. Owns the largest collection of Western and Russian artists in Russia, which includes 1500 works. Stella's husband helps finance the gallery. In 2004, Kesaeva organized the first exhibition in Russia of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov - "The case in the museum and other installations" in the Hermitage.
Children: three children
Quote:“I grew up in the North, where my father worked as a geologist - there was no art there, only stones and northern lights. On vacation, she went to Moscow and Leningrad, stood in line at film festivals. And after marriage and moving to Moscow, there was nothing at all: children, household, no money, and it was not clear how to live on. In the early 1990s we moved abroad and I started visiting museums in New York, Geneva. Contemporary artists have become a real discovery for me. In general, I’m more interested in what defies explanation, then the brain starts to work ”(in an interview with the Dog magazine).
“I am constantly adding to my collection, I love it, and I know that my children will be very happy to inherit these works. In 30 years, they will surely go down in history ”(in an interview with Forbes).
Elena Likhach, wife of Andrey Skoch
Husband: Andrey Skoch, Deputy of the State Duma (No. 18 in the ranking of the richest Russians according to Forbes)
What does: I met my husband Andrei Skoch more than 15 years ago, but only in 2011 did the lovers get married - in the closed institution "Sporting Club" on the outskirts of Minsk (Elena is from Belarus). Philip Kirkorov congratulated the newlyweds.
Now Elena is pregnant - the child will be the fifth for her and the tenth for her husband (Skoch has 9 children in total, three of which Elena gave birth to, and she, in turn, has a daughter from her first marriage). She tried herself as a denim designer, but in the end, the hobby only brought losses, and she left it. She is famous for throwing parties in a house in Sardinia and during the Cannes Film Festival she parks her yacht in front of Eden-Roc, where the stars live.
Children: four children
Veronika Vardanyan, wife of Ruben Vardanyan
Husband: Ruben Vardanyan, partner at Vardanyan, Broitman & Partners (No. 81 in the Forbes ranking of the richest Russians)
What does: Ruben Vardanyan's wife agreed to become his wife three weeks after they met. Veronika, together with her husband, is the founder of the RWZ Foundation, which implements charitable projects in Russia and Armenia. Previously, she worked on projects in the hospitality industry, film production and distribution, in 2009 she co-produced the feature film Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky, which closed the Cannes Film Festival.
Children: four children
Quote:“We believe that children should be taught to take risks and have the strength and courage to step out of their comfort zone. You can really learn only if you are constantly doing something new and constantly putting yourself in new circumstances. Otherwise, stagnation and lack of development. And in an ever-accelerating post-industrial society, these skills will become even more important ”(in an interview with Prime traveler magazine).
Anna Kasyan
Gennady Timchenko is one of the richest and most successful businessmen in Russia, whose fortune in 2016 is estimated at $ 11.4 billion. The entrepreneur is considered an influential person in the country's business sphere, due to which Russian and foreign entrepreneurs seek to cooperate with him. The assets of the Volga Group founded by the oligarch include shares in the Novatek gas company, the Kolmar coal mining company, the Transoil railway company and the SIBUR petrochemical company.
Timchenko Gennady Nikolaevich was born on November 9, 1952 in the Armenian city of Leninakan in the family of a soldier of the Soviet army. By the nature of his father's service, the family of the future billionaire often moved from country to country, so the boy spent part of his childhood in the GDR and Ukraine. He graduated from high school in the Ukrainian city of Odessa region, but received his higher education at the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute.
The businessman left the university with a diploma in electrical engineering, with which he got a job at the Izhevsk plant, which specializes in the production of large electric generators for nuclear and power plants. The start in Timchenko's career came unexpectedly - the young man spoke German, which allowed him to get a place in the trade department of the enterprise, from where Gennady, from the position of a shift foreman, was able to escape to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade. Working in a new position as a senior engineer involved frequent trips abroad, which could not but affect Timchenko's worldview.
Gennady worked in the civil service for 6 years, and after that, thanks to his own professionalism and determination, he got into the oil business, having been appointed deputy director of the Kirishineftekhimexport state oil refinery, which was one of the three largest refineries in the country. At one time, information appeared in the Russian media that Timchenko worked in the structure of the KGB of the USSR in the first period of his working biography, but the entrepreneur himself denied this information in an interview in 2008.
At the enterprise, Gennady Timchenko began to communicate with Andrey Katkov and Evgeny Malov, who later became business partners. Since the export of oil abroad required coordination with closed state structures, friends coordinated projects with the KGB through the former service officer Andrei Pannikov. Thanks to the efforts of the military partners, they managed to reach out to Finnish colleagues and create the Urals company to conduct foreign trade operations.
Thanks to Timchenko, the first routes for the export of oil products to the West were built in the USSR, which made Gennady the country's leading oilman.
Business
After the collapse of the Union in 1991, Timchenko moved to Finland and headed Urals Finland Oy, which specialized in importing Russian oil to Europe. This enterprise became a purchaser of the products of the Russian plant Kirishineftekhimexport, at that time the future billionaire was still listed as its leader.
In 1996, during the period of global privatization in Russia, Gennady Nikolayevich bought Kineks from the state and based on it, together with the Swedish partner Torbjorn Tornkvist, founded the oil trading company Gunvor. Through this company, Russian oil was exported by leading companies in the country, including Rosneft, Gazprom, Surgutneftegaz and TNK-BP.
In 2007, Gunvor's revenues reached $70 billion, and Timchenko decided to create his own investment holding without co-founders. Then the Volga Group company was “born”, specializing in investments in the development of Russian business in promising sectors - transport, energy and infrastructure. The group's assets include shares of Russian enterprises: Novatek, Stroytransgaz, Transoil, Sukhodol, Petromir, SIBUR.
In addition to the energy and transport areas, the billionaire invests in the development of the banking and insurance sectors, sports and culture, and also owns 100% of the shares of the drinking water producer Aquanika. In 2014, the group's asset portfolio was replenished with shares of Alma-Holding LLC, which specializes in the wholesale trade in food and non-alcoholic beverages.
In 2014, the businessman sold his own assets in the Gunvor company to the co-founder, which was done the day before the US imposed sanctions against Timchenko. The billionaire for himself considers the sanctions imposed against him a high assessment, which means a significant contribution to the development of the Russian economy. Gennady painlessly transferred assets to Russian banks, as he took care of this in advance.
Personal life
The personal life of Gennady Timchenko is carefully hidden from the public eye. The billionaire's wife Elena Timchenko has been the permanent partner of the oligarch both in life and in business for several decades.
The spouses also conduct common charitable activities - together they founded the largest in Russia "Timchenko Fund", whose activities are aimed at supporting families and children, the older generation, the development of culture and sports. The official website of the charitable organization regularly publishes reports on the work done, children's sports news, notes on cultural events and the creation of new support centers for parents of adopted children.
In addition to the charitable foundation, Gennady Nikolayevich is considered a Russian philanthropist, since he allocates sums of money from his own funds for the construction and restoration of churches in the country.
The businessman has three children - two daughters - Natalia and Ksenia and son Sergei, who were born in Finland. Natalia graduated from Oxford, Ksenia - in Edinburgh. Sergei graduated from high school in Switzerland, but chose a Russian university. Now the children live and work in Russia, their daughters and son have followed in the footsteps of their father, are engaged in business and charity.
As for the leisure of the billionaire, in addition to business, Gennady has been fond of sports since his youth. Timchenko loves hockey, golf, alpine skiing, tennis, in connection with which he provides serious sponsorship to Russian tennis players. A photo of an entrepreneur in a hockey uniform regularly appears in the press. Timchenko participates in the Night Hockey League games along with other political and economic leaders of the country. In addition, he heads the SKA hockey club, is the vice president of the Russian Olympic Committee, and was also one of the founders of the Yavara-Neva judo club in St. Petersburg, whose honorary president is the president of the Russian Federation.
Gennady Nikolaevich has another interesting hobby - the entrepreneur brings up Romi the Labrador, the daughter of the dog of the Russian head.
State
The fortune of Gennady Timchenko for 2016 was estimated at $ 11.4 billion. This allowed the entrepreneur to take the 5th position in the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes. In addition to the assets of Volga Group, the oligarch owns estates in Switzerland and Finland. In 2017, Timchenko's fortune increased to $16 billion, which allowed the entrepreneur to climb one place in the Russian list of oligarchs. In the world ranking, the entrepreneur is in position 59.
Gennady Timchenko now
Now Gennady Timchenko lives with his family in the former residence of the Soviet leader on Sparrow Hills. Despite the fact that there is a ban on construction in the reserve, a helipad and sports courts were built on the territory of the mansion.
In 2017, Gennady Timchenko celebrated his 65th birthday. The leadership of the KHL, the chairman of the board of directors of which is the entrepreneur, as well as employees of the charitable organizations "Charitable Fund of Elena and Gennady Timchenko", "Key", "Neva" congratulated the entrepreneur on the triumph.