Russia, the world’s largest country is also one of the wealthiest nations in regards its natural resources, with large deposits of oil, gas, coal, timber, iron ore, nickel, copper, diamonds and many more.
These abundant resources, coupled with a fledgling economy in the early 1990’s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, provided plenty of business and opportunities for wealth creation for those who dared.
A regular feature in the top five countries with the most billionaires, behind these statistics, are businessmen who have built some of the world’s largest and most successful and influential companies in their respective industries, despite not necessarily all being household names.
Roman Abramovich – Evraz
If asked to think of a Russian businessman, chances are your first thoughts will be Roman Abramovich. The popular owner of Chelsea Football Club, whose business acumen and investment ushered in the Mourinho era and has catapulted the club into the footballing stratosphere.
But before his foray into football, Abramovich was already one of Russia’s most successful businessmen. Coming from humble beginnings, he started his career as a street trader and was among the first to take advantage of Perestroika, running an import business from his Moscow apartment. His portfolio has included foods, toys and timber but most notably, what has brought him the wealth he is known for, have been his ventures in energy and natural resources; Sibneft, of which he sold a 73% stake to state-run Gazprom in 2005 and Evraz, a vertically integrated steel and mining holding company that has close to 70,000 employees.
The privatization opportunities that presented in the 1990’s allowed him to legitimize his old businesses, albeit as best he could in the wild west of the Russian business climate.
While the companies under Abramovich today are world-leaders in their industries, British newspaper, The Times reported in 2008 on court papers that allegedly showed Abramovich admitting he paid billions of dollars in political favors and protection fees to officials and associates in exchange for shares of the country’s oil and aluminum assets.
The definition of an oligarch personified; a wealthy businessman with close political ties and ambitions, Abramovich has long been a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, after being one of the first to recommend Putin as a suitable candidate for President to outgoing President Boris Yeltsin. In his 2005 book, Chris Hutchins suggested that such was his influence, he personally interviewed every potential Cabinet nominee before their appointments were approved. Such allegations are likely why he was one of several prominent Russian’s who were added to Donald Trump’s Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) that was signed into law in 2017.
Vitaly Orlov – Norebo
Based in Murmansk, Vitaly Orlov sits astride a global fishing enterprise providing sustainable white fish to some of the world’s biggest brands. Norebo operates one of the world’s biggest fleets of trawlers, fishing for cod, haddock and pollack in Russia’s territorial waters, the North Atlantic and beyond. Norebo supplies McDonalds, Bird’s Eye and Tesco, among many other household names across Russia, the UK, Europe and beyond.
In a recent profile with Yahoo Finance, Orlov stressed the company’s role in supporting fisheries to achieve MSC certification, “The whole fishery needs to work together if vulnerable habitats are to be protected. It is no good saying we won’t trawl in a given area if another trawler is going to do so instead. So, it’s important to come together as an industry and follow the latest scientific advice.”
Norebo was borne out of a changing business climate in Russia in the mid-2000s, in response to the implementation of a Russian Federal law on de-offshorisation. Orlov had the desire to establish a world-class company, which he still runs today from its headquarters in Murmansk. The company’s success has been to combine its Russian identity with a global outlook, meeting and setting international standards. The business landscape in Russia during the 1990s and early 2000s was a rough ground of corruption, bribes and kickbacks, however, a newly established Norebo, independent to any of Orlov’s previous fishing ventures with others, proved to be a turning point for the industry. Orlov demonstrated that adopting transparent internationally recognized best-practice was a catalyst towards success on a global scale. The company led the industry in adopting IFRS accounting standards and today, is one of the leading fisheries enterprises that places an emphasis on constantly improving standards on efficiency, sustainability and traceability in fishing practices.
Alexey Mordashov – Severstal
The son of two steel workers, Alexey Mordashov is the majority shareholder and Chairman of Severstal, a steel and mining company listed on the Moscow Stock Exchange. The company, which has facilities across Europe and Africa, employs 50,000 people and last year generated more than USD $6.7 billion in revenue.
Mordashov graduated from the Leningrad Engineering-Economical Institute before later going on to study for an MBA in the UK. He started his career, as an economist, joining the same steel mill his parents had both worked in Cherepovets. Within four years, he had become the company’s finance director, again just before the company was privatised, much like many others at the time. By 1996, following some very shrewd and successful financial decisions which kept the company out of foreign hands, he was appointed CEO.
Under his leadership, the company grew as a conglomerate, acquiring extraction companies and went by the name Severstal. As part of this expansion, Mordashov started investing in the dying U.S. steel industry, before selling all the U.S. assets by 2014 for more than USD $2.3 billion.
Mordashov, like Vitaly Orlov, is another businessman who has sought to embed sustainable practices in his businesses, publishing annual CSR and sustainability reports since 2010. The company joined the UN Global Impact in 2018 and was one of the first to pilot the World Steel Association’s program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Leonid Mikhelson – Novatek & SIBUR
Leonid Mikhelson is another of the Russian businessmen who benefited from the opportunities of the early 1990’s. After graduating from the Samara Institute of Civil Engineering in 1977, his first job was as a foreman for a construction company that was tasked with building a gas pipeline in the country’s Tyumen region. His career progressed steadily and after a decade in business, he was appointed as the General Director of Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy in 1987. In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy was one of the first companies to privatize, with Mikhelson at the helm. By this time, he was Managing Director of the company, which is today known as Novatek. Today, the company, which boasts almost 16,000 employees, is the largest non-state owned natural gas provider in the country and among the top seven publicly traded global companies by its production volume.
He currently also owns a majority stake in SIBUR and sits as Chairman of the Board. SIBUR is an industry-leading petrochemicals company headquartered in Moscow and engages in the energy, construction, chemical and automotive industries. The company, which employs more than 26,000 people, operates production sites across Russia that service more than 1,400 international customers from 70 countries worldwide.
