Biography
Gennady Timchenko is one of the richest and most successful businessmen of Russia and Finland, the state of which at the beginning of 2021 is estimated at $ 21.7 billion. He is considered an influential person in the country's business industry, due to which Russian and foreign entrepreneurs are striving to cooperate with him. In assets based by the oligarch, the Volga Group, the shares of the largest transport, infrastructure and energy companies are launched. And next to the surname Timchenko, you can often see the prescription "Putin's friend".Childhood and youth
Gennady Nikolaevich Timchenko was born on November 9, 1952 in the Armenian city of Leninakan (Gyumri) in the House of Service of the Soviet Army. By the family of the Father's family, the family of the future billionaire often moved from the country to the country, so the boy spent part of the childhood in the GDR and Ukraine. He graduated from the middle school in the small town of Bolhrade Odessa region, but he received higher education in the Leningrad Military Institute.
From the walls of the university, the businessman came out with a diploma engineer-electromechanik, with whom he settled on the Izhora factory, specializing in the production of large electrical generators for atomic and power plants. Start in the career Timchenko came unexpectedly. The young man owned the German language, which made it possible to get a place in the shopping department of the enterprise, from where Gennady from the place of the Master of the shift was able to escape to the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR. Work at a new place of the senior engineer assumed frequent trips abroad, which could not not affect the worldview of Timchenko.
At the state service, Gennady Nikolayevich worked for 6 years, and after that, thanks to his own professionalism and purposefulness, it was fell into the oil business, having received the appointment of the Department of State Oil Refinery "Kirishineftekhimexport", which was included in the top three of the country's largest refinery.
In the Russian media, one time appeared information that Timchenko in the first period of the labor biography worked in the structure of the KGB of the USSR, but the entrepreneur itself was denied this information in an interview with 2008.
At the enterprise Gennady Timchenko began to communicate with Andrei Katkov and Evgeny Malov, who later became business partners. Since the export of oil abroad demanded coordination with closed state structures, friends agreed on projects from the KGB through the former service officer Andrei Pannikov. Thanks to the efforts of military partners, it was possible to enter Finnish colleagues and create URALS companies for foreign trade operations.
Timchenko built the first routes of exports of petroleum products from the USSR to the West, which made Gennady Nikolayevich leading oilman of the country.
Business
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Timchenko moved to Finland and soon headed the company Urals Finland Oy, renaming it at International Petroleum Products Oy. IPP specialized in imports of Russian oil to Europe. This company has become a procurer of the Kirishineftekhimexport plant products, at that time the future billionaire has yet been listed by his leader.In 1996, in the period of global privatization in Russia, Gennady Nikolayevich bought at the Kineshk State and at its base with the Swedish partner Torbjorn Tinckwist founded the GUNVOR oil reference company. Through this organization, exports were exported abroad for the Russian oil of the country's leading enterprises, including Rosneft, Gazprom, Surgutneftegaz and TNK-BP.
In 2007, Gunvor revenues reached $ 70 billion, and Timchenko decided to become the founder of his own holding without partners. Then VOLGA Group was "born", specializing in investment in the development of Russian business in promising industries - transport, energy and infrastructure.
The assets of the Group include shares of Russian enterprises: "NOVATEK", "STROYTRANSGAZ", "TRANSOYL", "SUDRODOL", "PETROMIR", "SIBUR HOLDING", "COLAMAR", "SAKHTRANS" AND BANK "RUSSIA". Also, the Volga Group has securities of the German insurance company Sovag AG and the Hartwall Arena sports complex in Helsinki.
In addition to the energy, banking, insurance, sports, cultural and transport direction, the billionaire invests in the development of the food sphere. Timchenko owns 100% of the shares of the drinking water producer "Akvanika". And in 2014, the group's assets portfolio replenished with shares of Al Al-Holding LLC, specializing in the wholesale trade in food and non-alcoholic beverages.
In the same year, Gennady Timchenko was headed by the Russian group of businessmen of the Russian-Chinese Business Council and declared readiness to invest in new projects in the Far East.
Also in 2014, he sold his own assets in the company Gunvor co-founder, which was made a day before the introduction of the US sanctions against Timchenko. A billionaire for himself considers the measures imposed against him the impact of high assessment, meaning a significant contribution to the development of the Russian economy. Gennady Nikolayevich painlessly translated funds to Russian banks, as it took care of this in advance.
At the end of 2018, the tabloids were again filled with the name Timchenko. The attention of the press was caused by the purchase of Winery "Divnomorskoye Manor" near the so-called Putin Palace in the Krasnodar Territory. Gennady Nikolaevich acquired an enterprise together with a businessman Vladimir Kolbin.
In October 2019, in the same Krasnodar Territory, the Food company "Alma Holding" acquired 1000 hectares to expand its apple gardens.
Personal life
Details of the personal life of Gennady Timchenko carefully hidden from the eyes of the public. The wife of the billionaire Elena Timchenko has been a permanent partner of the oligarch for several decades of the oligarch both in life and business.
Also, spouses lead overall charitable activities: the largest "Timchenko Foundation", whose activities are aimed at supporting families and children, elderly people, and the development of culture and sports, were established joint efforts. On the official website and account in the "Instagram" of the organization regularly appear reports on the work of the work, news of children's sports, notes on the holding of cultural events and the creation of new centers for supporting parents of adopted children.
In addition to the charity foundation, Gennady Timchenko is considered to be a Russian philanthropy, since from own funds allocates money for the construction and restoration of churches in the country.
The Timchenko family supports art in Russia. For the creation of a permanent exposition in Louvre and the support of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Gennady Nikolaevich received the Order of the Honorary Legion in 2013.
Gennady Timchenko has three children: daughters Natalia and Ksenia and Son Sergey, who were born in Finland. Natalia Timchenko received a higher education in Oxford, and Ksenia - in Edinburgh. Sergey graduated from school in Switzerland, but the university chose Russian. The heirs went at the footsteps of the Father, are engaged in business and charity.
It is known that the youngest daughter of Ksenia married Gleb Frank, a father-in-law with Sergei Frank - former transport minister and general director of the State Shipping Company "Sovcomflot". Today, the son-in-law Timchenko is a co-owner of the "Russian aquaculture" enterprise specializing in the breeding of "Red" fish.
As for the leisure of the billionaire, in the youth of Gennady fond of sports. Timchenko loves hockey, golf, skiing, tennis, and therefore provides serious sponsorship to Russian tennis players. The photo of the entrepreneur in the form regularly appears in the press. Timchenko participates in the games of the night hockey league together with other political and economic leaders of the country.
The shareholder is headed by Hockey Club SKA, is the vice president of the Russian Olympic Committee and the Chairman of the KHL Board of Directors, and was also one of the founders of the St. Petersburg Club on Judo "Javara-Neva", whose honorary president is Vladimir Putin.
With the Russian head of Gennady Nikolayevich binds a friendly relations. The president even presented Timchenko Romi - Putin's Putin's favorites Putin Koni. In an interview with ITAR-TASS, a businessman admitted that he met Vladimir Vladimirovich back in 1994. According to critics and competitors, among which the oppositionist Alexei Navalny, the billionaire owes its success story with a close deal with Putin.
State
In the list of "200 richest businessmen of Russia - 2020" Gennady Timchenko took the 6th place. According to Forbes, the state of a man at the beginning of 2021 is estimated at $ 21.7 billion. In the world ranking, the entrepreneur is at the 72nd position.In an interview with RBC 2019, Gennady Nikolayevich said:
"I'm neither oil, nor gas I do ... I have sanctions, what do I do? I'm sitting and waiting for me to give me dividends. That's all I do ... "Revenues of the famous oligarch continue to grow, in spite of any international limitations. Among his main partners "Forbes", Leonid Michelson, who has passed on the 3rd place in the list of the richest Russians.
Gennady Timchenko now
Now Gennady Timchenko, together with his family, lives in the former residence of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev - a big house on the sparrow mountains. Despite the fact that there is a ban on construction in the reserve, a helicopter platform and sports courts were erected on the territory of the mansion. Thanks to a unique location from panoramic windows of a luxury mansion, a magnificent view of the capital of Russia opens. The object of real estate Timchenko rents from the state.
Wealthy steam continues to support amateur sports. In 2021, the Charitable Foundation Elena and Gennady Timchenko began with the expansion of his good ice program. The organization helped to conduct a series of family events "I love dad, mother and hockey", which were held in 3 municipalities of Chuvashia.
In the summer of 2020, 2.9 billion rubles allocated on the fight against Coronavirus "Foundation Timchenko". The bulk of the amount was spent on the purchase of medical devices for healthcare facilities and social protection.
Gennady Nikolayevich builds big plans for the future and invests in various business projects. Among them is a ice palace in St. Petersburg for the SKA club. According to experts, the world's largest rink will be ready for 2023, and its cost will be about 20 billion rubles.