Viktor Vekselberg Biography– Viktor Felixovich Vekselberg (born 14 April 1957) is a Russian–Cypriot oligarch, billionaire, and businessman of Ukrainian descent. He is the owner and president of the Russian corporation Renova Group. According to Forbes, his net worth is predicted to be $15 billion as of November 2021, making him the world’s 262nd richest person.
Vekselberg oversees projects to modernize the Russian economy and is close to the Kremlin. The US imposed sanctions on him and 23 other Russian nationals in April 2018 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, freezing up to $2 billion in assets.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, the US tightened its sanctions, while the UK, EU, and Australia also imposed sanctions on Vekselberg, seizing his assets and prohibiting him from traveling.
Viktor Vekselberg was born in Drohobych, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1957 to a Ukrainian Jewish father and a Russian mother (although some reports state that he was born in Lviv). He earned his bachelor’s degree in transportation engineering from the Moscow Transportation Engineering Institute in 1979. After that, he worked for a state-owned pump manufacturing as an engineer and research manager.
Who is Viktor Vekselberg?
Viktor Vekselberg is a Russian businessman who was born in Ukraine and has a net worth of $15 billion.
He is the son of a Ukrainian Jewish father and a Russian mother and was born in Drohobych, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
He attended and graduated from the Moscow Transportation Engineering Institute when he was younger.
He worked as an engineer and research manager for a pump company after college.
Vekselberg saw an opportunity to sponsor NPO Komvek when Gorbachev’s administration enabled private businesses to participate in his new agenda of Perestroika and Glasnost.
He established a company that worked for the Irkuksk Aluminum Plant. He co-founded Renova Group with his undergraduate classmate Leonard Blavatnik a few years later.
Renova was held by KomVek for 67 percent and Blavatnik’s company, Access Industries, for the remaining 27 percent.
Following that, Vekselberg gained handsomely from Russia’s privatization of the aluminum business.
Viktor Vekselberg Net Worth: How much does he have?
Viktor Vekselberg is a Russian billionaire with a net worth of $15 billion USD, making him one of the country’s wealthiest persons. Viktor Vekselberg was born in the Soviet Union’s Ukrainian SSR and graduated from the Moscow Transportation Engineering Institute in the late 1970s.
He worked for the state for many years, conducting research in a lab. In the early 1990s, he changed his concentration to business and swiftly established himself.
He made his money in the copper and aluminum smelting industries before moving on to oil extraction.
Viktor Vekselberg Career
Viktor Vekselberg started his career with the help of a merger between the Ural and Irkutsk Aluminum Plants, he co-founded the Siberian-Urals Aluminium Company (SUAL) during the following period.
With the proceeds from his aluminum firm, he purchased a minority stake in Tyumen Oil, one of Russia’s largest oil and gas corporations (TNK).
He became a member of the Board of Directors after acquiring a controlling interest in Tyumen, and he served as Chairman of the Board a few years later.
In the early 2000s, his company announced a joint venture with Leonard Blavatnik’s Access Industry and the Alfa Group, which is owned by Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, and Alexei Kuzmichov. This is how the AAR consortium was born.
In the same year, AAR and British Petroleum’s Russian oil assets formed TNK-BP, a 50-50 joint venture. The deal marked Russia’s largest private transaction in history.
Vekselberg is currently directing a massive restructuring of his assets, including his partnership with Leonard Blavatnik.
Aside from his profession as a businessman, he is an ardent art collector with an extraordinary collection that includes nine Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs that he purchased for $100 million from the Forbes publishing family.
With the acquisition, he became the world’s largest owner of Fabergé eggs, with 15 of them.
Viktor Vekselberg Age: How old is he?
Viktor Vekselberg Age is 65 years, born on April 14, 1957 in Drohobych, Ukraine. Viktor Vekselberg was born in Drohobych, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1957 to a Ukrainian-Jewish father and a Russian mother (although some reports state that he was born in Lviv).
He earned his bachelor’s degree in transportation engineering from the Moscow Transportation Engineering Institute in 1979.
After that, he worked for a state-owned pump manufacturing as an engineer and research manager.
Viktor Vekselberg Wife: Marina Vekselberg
Viktor Vekselberg is married to Marina Vekselberg. In Moscow, he met his wife, Marina Dobrynina, when they were both in college. Dobrynina is the founder of the “Good Century” charity, which assists persons suffering from mental diseases.
Irina and Alexander, the couple’s children, were born in 1979 and 1988, respectively. Vekselberg’s children, like other members of Russia’s ruling elite, educated in the West, and both attended Yale University.