Herman Gref: Sberbank CEO

Herman Gref was born on February 8, 1964, at Panfilovo, Pavlador Region in Russia. Hermann served in the Soviet Army from 1982 to 1984. Specializing in jurisprudence he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Omsk State University in 19990. Herman then took a postgraduate course at the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University from 1990 to 1993.

He was first legal adviser at the Committee for Economic Development and Property, Administration of Petrodvoretz, St. Petersburg from 1991 to 1992. Herman was appointed Head of Petrodvertz Regional Agency of the Municipal Property Committee, St Petersburg Mayor’s Office in 1992. He served as Chairman of the Property Committee and Deputy Head, Administration of Petrodvoretz from 1992 to 1994.

Herman continued his rise through the government bureaucracy he was appointed in 1994 as Deputy Chairman and later, First Deputy Chairman of the Municipal Property Committee, St Petersburg Mayor’s Office.  From 1997 to 1998 Herman was Vice Governor and Chairman of the Municipal  Property Committee of St Petersburg Mayor’s Office.

Then Herman’s career took an even bigger turn as he began to hold office at the national level. He held the post of First Deputy Minister of the State Property of Russia from 1998 to 2000. Then for more than seven years from May 2000 to September 2007, Herman was the Minister for Economic Development and Trade of Russia. This is a very high ranking position that raised his stock as an executive.

He was also considered an economic liberal who viewed that any business where profit is to be made should belong to the private sector.  Herman was a supporter of Russia’s entrance into the WTO.

Herman made the transition to the private sector becoming the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Serbank of Russia in November 2007. One of the things he wanted to do upon taking the posts was to ensure “maximum openness and transparency” in the bank’s decisions.

A stated by Serbank it accounts for around one-third of Russia’s banking system serving more than 110 million customers in Russia alone, which is more than half of the country’s population. 

Alexey Miller: Gazprom CEO

Alexey Borisovich Miller was born on January 31, 1962 in Leningrad (now Saint. Petersburg), Russia to a family of German ethnicity.  In 1989 he earned a PhD in Economics from the N.A. Voznesenkii Leningrad Finance and Economics Institute.

After graduating, Alexey began his professional career as an engineer-economist at the general planning division of the Leningrad Civil Construction Research and Design Institute (LenNIIproekt under the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council).

Alexey served with the Committee for External Relations of the Saint Petersburg Mayor’s Office under Vladimir Putin from 1991 to 1996.  He was Director for Development and Investments of the Port of Saint Petersburg from 1996 to 1999. Alexey then served as Director General of the Baltic Pipeline System from 1999 to 2000. He was appointed Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation in 2000.

Alexey became the Chairman of the Management Committee (CEO) of Gazprom in 2001.

Gazprom is Russia’s largest company and the biggest gas producer in the world accounting for around 13 percent of the world’s gas production. 

Robert Dudley: BP CEO

Robert “Bob” Dudley was born on September 14, 1955 in Queens, New York City. Bob grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In 1973 he graduated from Hinsdale Central High School in suburban Chicago. Bob earned a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois. He proceeded to earn a Master of International Management degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

In 1979 Bob joined Amoco. He worked in a number of positions including negotiating deals in the South China Sea. In what would be a defining development in his career Amoco had him work in Moscow from 1994 to 1997. Bob became a general manager for strategy for Amoco in 1997. In 1999 after the merger between BP and Amoco he was appointed to a similar role in BP.

Bob was executive assistant to the group chief executive between 1999 and 2000 after which he became group vice president for BP’s renewable and alternative energy activities. Bob became group vice president in 2002 responsible for BP’s upstream business in Russia, the Caspian region, Angola, Algeria and Egypt.

His exposure to Russia certainly played a big role in his becoming the president and chief executive of TNK-BP from 2003 to 2008. This was a joint venture between BP and a group of Russian billionaires known as AAR. Bob later had a falling out with AAR who accused him of favoring BP.  It reached a point where he had to leave Russia in haste because his visa was not renewed. After much difficulty in trying to run the business from outside Russia he resigned in December 2008.

Bob returned to BP in 2009 and was appointed to the BP board and responsible for the group’s activities in the Americas and Asia. He took on a crucial and sensitive job serving as president and executive officer between June 23 and September 2010 of BP’s Gulf Restoration Organization in the US after the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

This stint was short-lived as Bob took on a bigger role of becoming BP’s Group Chief Executive on October 10, 2010.

Love Him Or Hate Him: Mikhail Prokhorov

It’s hard not to miss Mikhail Prokhorov; he is a literal standout at 6 feet and 8 inches. Any one at that height will immediately think he should try his luck at basketball. He is involved in basketball and at the highest level-the NBA but as an owner. Which means he must have lots of money; he does being a bona fide billionaire. He’s tall, single, a noted playboy, and rich; someone to be envied.

The personal life of Prokhorov is not all that happy. He lost both of his parents within a year of each other due to heart related problems when Prokhorov was in his early twenties.  At that time he lived with his older sister who was divorced with one child. Prokhorov became the family bread winner.

He happened to be at the right place and at the right time. A graduate of the Moscow Finance Institute, he worked in a well connected bank which was given good favors by the government.  During Boris Yeltsin’s time Russia was undergoing change, privatization, and uncertainty. The bank he worked for became a government depository bank and auctioned government debt earning substantial profits.

Another bank he partnered with was able to acquire a former government own mineral company called Norilsk Nickel which was huge, producing 25% of the world’s nickel. From there he parlayed his wealth into other businesses earning more billions.

He has gained some sort of international acceptance by being allowed to buy the New Jersey Nets basketball teams. He has also voiced out his intention to run for Russian presidency most likely against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Love him or hate him, his intelligence, ambition, and cunning makes him who he is.