Businessman and manager Gennady Nikolaevich Timchenko. One of the largest oil traders in Russia
Many people remember the Soviet Union as an ideal utopia, although in fact they only remember a couple of years of the existence of this state, or have even heard about it from the memories of their parents.
The equality of people in society, the exaltation of the working person and working profession, salaries that in theory allow you to buy a lot - both pensioners and young people who never lived in the USSR are nostalgic for all this to this day.
However, it was the collapse of this state that allowed truly talented and enterprising people, whose potential capabilities were constrained, to leave the general system of equalization.
In this article you will get acquainted with the biography of a brilliant man, a native of the system, who was able to maximize his abilities and enter the hundred richest people on the Forbes list.
Gennady Timchenko was born on November 9, 1952 in the city of Gyumri, in the then Armenian USSR. It’s very difficult to call Gennady Nikolaevich’s childhood childhood.
So, from 1959 to 1965, Timchenko lived with his parents in the GDR, a now defunct state.
Then the family moved to a more native environment, namely Ukraine. The future businessman and investor graduated from school in the city of Bolgrad, Odessa region, after which the family moved back to Russia.
Gennady Nikolaevich Timchenko had a mathematical mindset, so after graduating from school, out of all professions, the choice fell on an engineer. Timchenko entered the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute to major in electrical engineering.
I studied fruitfully, so my career started very quickly. Immediately after graduating from the institute, he began working as a foreman at the Izhora plant, where he was engaged in the manufacture and production of electric generators for nuclear power plants.
After five years of work at the plant, he was promoted and became a civil servant. From 1982 to 1988, he held the responsible position of senior engineer at the USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade.
Then he became the deputy director of the Kirishineftekhimexport association, which was one of the three leaders in oil refining and export in Russia.
In 1991, Timchenko received a job offer from Urals Finland Oy, which was located in Finland. It is worth noting that he initially held the position of deputy director of the company, and then general director.
In 1997, together with his partner, he founded the company Gunvor. It is worth noting that Gunvor became one of the largest suppliers of oil, and companies such as Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Surgutneftegaz and so on purchased oil from Timchenko.
Own business
In 2007, Gennady Nikolaevich Timchenko founded the private investment fund Volga Group.
It is worth noting that the fund completely duplicates Timchenko’s investment views, namely, the stock portfolio contains shares of the largest oil and gas refining companies, construction companies, coal mining companies, as well as companies that are in one way or another connected with the processing of raw materials from Russia. Thanks to sensitive management, the fund carried out profitable activities for more than seven years, gradually increasing its assets.
Recently, the fund's interests have expanded significantly and investors' money began to be invested in real estate and financial sector facilities.
In 2014, US President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Gunvor and personally on Gennady Nikolaevich Timchenko.
Therefore, Gennady Nikolaevich hastily sold a controlling stake, and also began to withdraw money from European and American banks in order to avoid being subject to a complete blocking of assets.
Gennady Timchenko devotes no small role to charitable activities; his foundation of the same name finances charitable projects in sports and the social sphere.
Today, Timchenko's fortune is estimated at 10 billion US dollars, which he earned through his successful career as an oil trader and his company Gunvor. A person was able to earn a huge fortune virtually from scratch, which was practically impossible to do under the conditions of the USSR.