Oleg Deripaska

His paternal grandfather Timofey Deripaska (1918-1945) was killed in battle and buried in a mass grave in Austria — in his memory, Deripaska built a Russian Orthodox church in the town Laa an der Thaya.

Deripaska's first job was at the Ust-Labinsk plant where his mother worked.

At age 11, he became an electrician's apprentice doing maintenance on electrical motors.

Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska (Олег Владимирович Дерипаска; born 2 January 1968) is a Russian oligarch and billionaire.

Deripaska enriched himself on previously state-owned assets that were privatized in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He is the founder of Basic Element, one of Russia's largest industrial groups, and Volnoe Delo, Russia's largest charitable foundation.

His talent for math allowed him to enroll at the physics faculty of Moscow State University in 1985.

One year into his studies, he was conscripted into the armed forces and served in the Soviet Strategic Missile Forces in the Trans-Baikal district of Siberia from 1986 to 1989.

He has been characterized as a victor in the "aluminium wars" in Russia during the 1990s, which were frequently violent conflicts between businesspeople to obtain state-owned assets.

In 1993, Deripaska graduated with honors in physics from Moscow State University; however, the collapse of the Soviet Union greatly reduced academic funding, making it impossible for him to continue his studies as a theoretical physicist.

There were no available stipends or grants for students.

"We had no money. It was an urgent and practical question every day. How do I earn money to buy food and keep studying?"

he recalls.

In 1994, Deripaska became director general of the plant at the age of 26.

In 1996, he earned a master's degree from the Plekhanov University of Economics.

At the age of 25, teaming up with fellow physicists, engineers and rocket scientists, Deripaska set up his first metal trading company, VTK.

He adopted a systematic, scientific approach to commodity trading.

"I represented companies that were buying and selling raw materials", Deripaska said.

Deripaska undertook export arbitrage, buying metal at low Russian prices and selling it abroad at significantly higher international market prices.

Deripaska traded primarily through the Baltic state of Estonia, as the Russian system of export licenses was in disarray.

"I started my business at an unusual moment in history. The country in which I was born and raised had disappeared, although the new country was not fully formed. The first one gave me an excellent education; the second one gave me the chance of success", Deripaska recalled in an interview with Metal Bulletin.

He used nearly all his arbitrage and trading profits to acquire his initial package of shares in the Sayanogorsk aluminum smelter in Southern Siberia.

In 1997, he founded Sibirsky (Siberian) Aluminium Group, which in 2000 merged with Roman Abramovich's Millhouse Capital to create RUSAL.

Deripaska was named businessman of the year in 1999, 2006, and 2007 by Vedomosti, a Russian business daily.

In 2000, Deripaska founded Rusal, the result of a partnership between Sibirsky Aluminium and Roman Abramovich's Millhouse Capital.

In 2003, businesses led by Deripaska increased their stake in those companies under common management to 75% by acquiring half of the interest managed by Millhouse Capital.

In 2004, the consolidation of RUSAL's ownership by companies related to Deripaska was completed with the acquisition of the remaining 25% equity interest in RUSAL managed by Millhouse Capital.

In 2007, Rusal merged with SUAL Group and Glencore International AG to form UC Rusal, with Deripaska as chairman.

He was once Russia's richest man, but lost a substantial part of his fortune amid the 2007–08 financial crisis.

As of June 2022, his wealth was estimated by Forbes at $3.2 billion, making him the 920th richest person in the world.

Deripaska bought himself Cypriot citizenship (and therefore EU citizenship) in 2017.

He was the president of En+ Group, a Russian energy company, and headed United Company Rusal, the second-largest aluminum company in the world, until he quit both roles in 2018.

He was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2018 for reasons relating to the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia.

Deripaska was one of seven oligarchs sanctioned by the British government over the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, including asset freezes and travel bans.

Deripaska was born in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Soviet Russia and grew up in Ust-Labinsk, Krasnodar Krai.

His parents came from Kuban.

Deripaska grew up on the family's small farm, where from the age of 5 or 6, he learned how to live off the land from his grandparents, who primarily raised him after his widowed mother, an engineer, had to leave to find work.

Deripaska credits his grandparents for teaching him the discipline of hard work along with farming.

Both his grandfathers fought in the Second World War.

His maternal grandfather returned to Russia after the war ended.