Potanin Norilsk Nickel Biography

St. Petersburg 2nd Krasnoarmeyskaya St. Throughout his life, he boldly took up any business - in a year, for example, he fell into politics, but quickly disappointed in it. Potanin sat down at the negotiating table with the first persons of the state, argued with the richest businessmen of the planet and always defended his opinion. Entrepreneur Vladimir Potanin is often attributed to him the idea of ​​collateral auctions and large -scale privatization of state enterprises that started at the end of the 10ths.

Potanin has given great importance to the support of culture, education and social sphere, sacrificing billions of rubles to his personalized fund. He is one of the few Russian oligarchs who stated that he was ready to leave the heirs without money, as he intends to give a fortune to charity. Childhood and family Vladimir Potanin was born in Moscow on January 3 of the year in a very wealthy and high -ranking family.

Vladimir’s mother worked as a doctor in a clinic for employees of the highest echelons of power. Parents did not refuse anything to their son. Even then, Vladimir was a real “golden youth”. But Potanin did not cause any problems with his behavior. Because of my parents, I often visited my childhood, ”said Potanin. Vladimir studied well, and in the year he became a Komsomol member.

At school, he was engaged in foreign languages ​​and sports with great interest, but intended to become an economist, taking an example from his father. Potanin graduated from the school with a gold medal and easily entered the Faculty of International Economic Relations of MGIMO in the year. Vladimir Potanin in his youth after graduating from a university in the year, he got a job thanks to his father’s connections.

At the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Potanin worked as an economist, and then a senior engineer of several agricultural films. Business at the end of the Soviet era Vladimir chose to focus on private business. In the year, he created the Foreign Economic Association "Interros". The investment company actually undertook part of the functions of the Ministry of Hands of the Soviet Union-the company provided support for large transactions and carried out financial and consulting instructions.

In the same period, a sign in his fate was also a meeting: Potanin opened an invoice at the International Bank for Economic Cooperation of the Ministry ofBesses, where he met the head of one of the departments of the bank Mikhail Prokhorov. A random meeting quickly grew into a business dating, and then into a partnership. During the year, Vladimir was listed in the organization, first by the vice president, and then the president.

Businessmen founded this commercial structure by enlisting the support of the first persons of the state - Viktor Chernomyrdin and Anatoly Chubais, who at that time held the positions of the Prime Minister and the deputy chairman, respectively. And although Potanin received the post of president of the bank, and Prokhorov - the chairman of the board, it was assumed that they had the same influence on the company.

It was Vladimir Potanin who initiated the idea of ​​collateral auctions. In the year, at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, the businessman offered the Russian government an unprecedented loan of 9 trillion rubles. As a collateral, he chose stakes in various joint -stock companies. An interview with Vladimir Potanin was understandable - for example, Norilsk Nickel was acquired for only a million dollars, while the turnover was incomparably higher.

In the year, Potanin took the place of a member of the board of directors of the company. In the same period, the Minister of Economy of Russia Yevgeny Yasin criticized the idea of ​​collateral auctions. After 4 years, the Prosecutor General’s Office demanded that Potanin compensate the damage, considering the receipt of the Norilsk Nickel illegal. The businessman was proposed to transfer another million dollars, but the case was eventually shut.

The initiative of Potanin led to the fact that in the years the state lost control of the country's largest companies - from Yukos to Lukoil. And the businessman himself was jokingly nicknamed the Father of the Razereban. On behalf of the company, he took part in a meeting with President Boris Yeltsin along with other famous politicians and bankers - from Vladimir Gusinsky to Boris Berezovsky.

A few months later, Yeltsin personally thanked Potanin for supporting his election campaign. In this position, the businessman was engaged in monitoring the work of the Ministry of Economy of the country. He also oversee the processes of the Antimonopoly Committee, monitored the work of the State Property Management and the Securities Market Commission.

Being a politician, Potanin tried to initiate AvtoVAZ bankruptcy, for which the head of the board of directors of the plant Vladimir Kadannikov directly stated that the Deputy Prime Minister was engaged in a redistribution of ownership. In addition, he became a suspect in the criminal case: it was assumed that through the banking structures of Potanin, funds from the tranche to the production of aircraft and their export to India passed.

Some sources claimed that during this period the entrepreneur reflected on the nomination of his candidacy in the next presidential election. But instead, he became interested in the media business. Potanin did not remember politics, moreover, the government began to criticize the actions of the government.He was especially outraged by the organization of social protection in the country.

I don’t understand how the people tolerate all the bullying of themselves, ”he reasoned in an interview. Vladimir Potanin at the end of the X economic crisis, which fell on the country in the year, Potanin survived quite easily. He was able to even benefit for himself by acquiring the Bank “Independence” later was renamed Rosbank. At the beginning of the zero, he was one of the first to appreciate the investment attractiveness of Sochi and began to build ski routes there.

At that time, it was the largest absorption by the financial holding of a similar company in the history of the country. In the year, Potanin began to appear in the list of richest businessmen of the world according to Forbes, taking 89 place there. In Russia, he took 9th line. And the next year he had already risen to 38 and 4 places, respectively. Potanin was dissatisfied with the loud detention of Prokhorov in Curshel.

Prokhorov was arrested on suspicion of organizing a prostitution network. All accusations were removed, but Potanin’s “Dincowed reputation” of a friend made it possible to initiate a section of business assets. The process dragged on for several years. Potanin was able to conquer a stake in Interros. But he missed the gold mining company Pole Gold - in the year the businessman got rid of its shares, selling them to the firms of Suleiman Kerimov.

The most serious battle broke out for Norilskell. Prokhorov refused to transfer shares to the former business partner and sold them in the year of the united company Rusal Oleg Deripaska. Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska a few months later Mikhail filed a lawsuit against Potanin about the protection of business reputation. The reason was the businessman’s words about the partner for The Moscow Times.

Vladimir called Prokhorov "showman, or Vladimir Zhirinovsky from business." Subsequently, by the court decision, a refutation of the words of Potanin was published.

Charity activity has always occupied a huge place in the life of an oligarch. Back in the year, he founded the “Potanin charity foundation”, which considered his goal to support projects in education and culture. The businessman’s fund was engaged in the issuance of scholarships to gifted university students. The organization also held seminars and lectures to introduce as many people as possible in the country with the work of NPOs.

In addition, in the year Potanin became the head of the board of trustees of the Hermitage. In total, the oligarch spent about 6.5 billion rubles to support educational and cultural initiatives. How the charity fund V. Billionaire has paid attention to the support of churches and temples. In the year, he founded the Fund of Unity of Orthodox Peoples, and later became part of the Fund for the Support of the Construction of Temples of Moscow.

In the year, Potanin said that he was not going to leave capital to children, but intended to send its entire amount to charity during his lifetime. In this decision, he was guided by the example of Western businessmen Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. I want to protect children from the responsibility that the possession of a major condition imposes, ”Potanin explained. Public activity in the year the businessman was in the first composition of the Public Chamber of Russia.

He headed a commission that resolved the development of charity, mercy and volunteering. At work in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, Potanin began to improve the legislation on NPOs - this process was conducted up to a year. During this time, the businessman has ensured that part of the services and income of non -profit organizations is exempted from taxes.

Important concessions were also adopted to disseminate social advertising. Vladimir Potanin became the main private investor in the construction of Olympic facilities in Sochi by the year. Let this be a little pathetic, but for me personally this is a very important indicator of what I need at all, ”the oligarch explained his participation in the project. In the press he was dubbed the Corporate War.

The largest shareholders could not agree on the tactics of doing business: Potanin insisted on increasing investments in the development of Norilsk Nickel, and Deripaska demanded to increase the size of dividends. The third oligarch - Roman Abramovich, who initiated a settlement agreement for a period of 5 years in the year, according to which he also became the holder of shares of the enterprise, volunteered to reconcile them.

After this contract in the year, the struggle of shareholders increased with renewed vigor. Potanin's structures announced the desire to buy stocks belonging to Abramovich, and the party of Deripaska blocked the deal in court. The situation was heated in May, when a large -scale technogenic accident occurred near Norilsk. On one of the objects of Norilsk Nickel, a tank with a diesel engine was depressurized - 60 tons of fuel flowed.

The largest spill of hundreds of thousands of tons of oil products was recognized as an environmental disaster. The waters of local rivers stained red, which was noticeable even from satellite images. The fuel spill in the satellite picture of the oligarch was proposed to be removed from the Norilsk Nickel management, it was also reported about numerous violations due to wear of equipment at the enterprise that Potanin ignored.In an effort to avoid the consequences, Potanin hastily proposed to smooth out the environmental damage inflicted by the Arctic zone, which experts estimated at about billion rubles.

In June, Vladimir Potanin was reprimanded from Vladimir Putin. In March, Norilsk Nickel paid compensation in the amount of record, 2 billion rubles to the budget. The first wife of Vladimir Potanin’s personal life, Natalia Varlamov, met the future oligarch as a child - they studied in the same class, drew attention to each other at the age of 16. The novel did not stop in his student years, and in the year young people got married.