Oleg Deripaska
International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Experience
Oleg V. Deripaska is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian Aluminium, set up in the autumn of 2000 as a result of the amalgamation of assets belonging to Sibirsky Aluminium and the Russian oil company Sibneft. This company is rated number three in the world in terms of output. The company accounts for 75% of primary aluminium in Russia and it makes up over 10% of the world's primary aluminium. In 2001, Mr. Deripaska founded Basic Element, which has grown to become one of the largest private equity investment funds in Russia with the assets exceeding $ 10 billion. It is focuses on strategic investments in companies representing promising sectors of the Russian economy. Basic Element’s assets concentrated in various sectors of the economy: non-ferrous metallurgy, mining, automotive production, energy, timber, construction, financial services and others. In 2004 President of Russia Vladimir Putin appointed Mr. Deripaska to represent the Russian Federation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council. Mr. Deripaska is the Vice President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Chairman of the Executive Board of Russian National Committee of International Chamber of Commerce, the World Business Organization, and sits on the Trusteeship Council of the National Military Foundation, a member of the Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship Council and one of the founders of the charitable National Science Support Foundation, National Medicine Fund. In 1997, Mr. Deripaska became the driving force behind the first vertically integrated industrial concern in post-Soviet Russia, Sibirsky Aluminium, the nucleus of which was the Sayansky Aluminum Smelter. This holding structure subsequently came to include a number of Russia's leading aluminium plants, which continue to turn out a broad array of aluminium products and alloys. Within three years Sibirsky Aluminium was ranked among the world's top 10 aluminium producers. Mr. Deripaska became the head of one of Russia's largest aluminium plants in the eastern Siberian city of Sayanogorsk (Republic of Khakasia) in 1994. Under his leadership the nation's third largest electrolysis factory came to be ranked as the best in the industry in terms of profit margins, technological development, product quality and environmental safety record. By the end of 1998 Sayansky Aluminum Smelter was named among 20 leading companies of the Russian Federation by one of the most reputable Russian business magazines – Expert.. In 1999 by the Presidential decree Mr. Deripaska was awarded the Order of Friendship (State award). He was named businessman of the year in 1999 by Vedomosti, a respected business newspaper published in partnership with The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. Kompania, a weekly periodical, named him “Best Manager 2000” among Russia’s metallurgical sector. He has two university degrees: he was an honour student at the Physics Department of the Moscow State University, and the Plekhanov Economics Academy.
