Potanin Vladimir Olegovich

Date of Birth

January 3, 1961

Place of Birth

Moscow city

Position

Deputy Chairman of the MGIMO Board of Trustees

Potanin Vladimir Olegovich - Russian businessman, statesman and public figure.

Contents
Biography, education, family
Beginning of a career
Interros holding projects
Government work
Community activities and charity
Private life

Biography, education, family

Born on January 3, 1961 in Moscow in the family of an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR Oleg Romanovich Potanin and his wife Tamara Ananyevna, a doctor by education. He was the only child in the family, his parents provided his son with ample opportunities for development. He studied well, was fond of studying foreign languages (later he mastered English and French perfectly), went in for sports, including martial arts.

He graduated from school with a gold medal. Without difficulty, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations entered the economic specialty. As a student, he showed leadership qualities: he was the head of the lecture group of the faculty, he knew how to negotiate with everyone, during trips to collective farms he was always trusted to lead the team. Despite the formal status of the representative of the "golden youth", he worked as an ice cream loader.

He did his undergraduate practice in Morocco, in a phosphate company that belonged to the king of this state. I studied Western corporate culture and economic reports with interest.

Beginning of a career

When Vladimir Olegovich Potanin graduated from the university in 1983, he faced a choice: to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or in the Ministry of Foreign Trade. He decided to follow in his father's footsteps and chose a career in the Ministry of Foreign Trade.

After receiving a diploma and until 1990, he worked as a senior engineer in the firms of the All-Union Association for the Export of Industrial Equipment.

In Soviet times, only the state could conduct all trade operations with foreign partners. And when this opportunity appeared for citizens, they, as a rule, did not know where to start and how to conduct such activities correctly. Potanin, as a professional, could share such knowledge. So in 1990, the foreign economic association "Interros" appeared. Vladimir Potanin became its president. The key principles of the company's work, in addition to profitability and the development of new business areas, were issues of social responsibility and public benefit.

Interros holding projects

The first project was MFK Bank, created in partnership with Mikhail Prokhorov in 1992. A year later, Potanin is already the president of the export-import JSCB "ONEXIM Bank" and at the same time the chairman of the board of directors of the IFC bank. Over the four years of its existence, Interros has become a major financial holding.

In 1995, Vladimir Potanin, among a number of representatives of business and government, initiated the introduction of loans-for-shares auctions - one of the privatization mechanisms. At that time, people already appeared in the country who were ready to invest in the development of industry. The government gave the green light to the idea. During the auctions, ONEXIM Bank received a 51% stake in Norilsk Nickel, companies controlled by Potanin acquired shares in the oil company SIDANKO, OAO Novoship", almost 15% of NLMK shares.

In the fall of 1997, the Prof-Media holding was created to manage the controlled media. At various times, it included such publications as Izvestia, Komsomolskaya Pravda and Afisha.

In the early 2000s, the head of the Interros company began construction and development of ski slopes in Sochi (now the holding owns the Rosa Khutor resort and plans to develop another tourist cluster).

In 2003, he acquired a group of banks OVK, STB-Card, Inkahran.

In the spring of 2022, Interros announced the purchase of a 35% stake in TCS Group, the parent company of the bank "Tinkoff". Experts consider this a serious bid for the holding's leadership in the M&A market in the banking sector.

Government work

In the mid-90s, a budget crisis flared up in the country, the financial system was in a fever. The government needed not just officials, but competent economists. In 1996, Boris Yeltsin, who won the presidential election, chose a new vector of economic development. In this situation, the Russian businessman Potanin becomes deputy chairman for economic issues. However, after seven months in government, he returned to business.

Community activities and charity

In 1999, Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation was established. It implements projects in the field of sports, education, development of non-profit organizations, museums and cinema, and supports socially significant initiatives. Over the years of the foundation's work, a huge number of participants in various programs have received support in the form of grants. So, all students know the Potanin Prize, established for talented undergraduates.

In 2006, Potanin Vladimir Olegovich was elected to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, where he headed the Commission for the Development of Charity, Mercy and Volunteering. Later, for two years, he supervised the work to improve the legislation on non-profit organizations.

Since 2003, he has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of one of the largest museums in the world, the State Hermitage.

Since 2006, Deputy Chairman of the MGIMO Board of Trustees.