Petr Aven

Petr Olegovich Aven
Petr Aven speaking in New York, 2015
Born March 16, 1955 (1955-03-16) (age 63)
Moscow, Russia
Nationality  Russian
Education Moscow State University
Occupation International businessman
Known for Alfa-Bank
Net worth US$4.6 billion
(August 2018)[1]
Children two

Petr Olegovich Aven (also transliterated Pyotr Aven; Russian: Пëтр Олегович Авен; born March 16, 1955) is an International businessman, economist and politician. He heads Alfa-Bank, Russia's largest commercial bank. He is a member of the Board of Directors at LetterOne Group. L1 Group was established in 2013 to invest in international projects in energy, telecommunications and technology.

Petr Aven is also the author of some scientific papers and articles on economic and trade issues and is quoted in the financial and trade press on matters related to the Russian economy and trade policy. In 2015 Petr Aven and Alfred Kokh published Gaidar’s Revolution: The Inside Account of the Economic Transformation of Russia, drawing on their experience of the Russian Government and the former First Minister for the Economy, Yegor Gaidar.[2] In his review of the book, John Lloyd of the Financial Times called it “an illuminating study of the reformers who sought to revive Russia’s post- Soviet economy.”[3]

In 2015 he was named number 301 in the richest people in the world, with a worth of around $5.1 billion.[4]

Early life and education

Born in Moscow, his father, professor of computer science Oleg Aven (Russian: Олег Иванович Авен), was half Latvian and half Russian[5][6] and his mother was from a Jewish family.[7] His paternal grandfather Janis Aven or Jānis Avens (lv) was a Latvian rifleman.[5]

Petr Aven graduated from Moscow State University in 1977 and holds a PhD in Economics (1980).

Career

After graduation from university, Aven was a senior researcher at the All-Union Institute for Systems Studies at the USSR Academy of Sciences and then spent time at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria (1989–1991).

Concerning Russian economic reform in the early 1990s, he and other reformer colleagues had consulted with foreign academics by 1990 on trying to find a new system. When Boris Yeltsin became president, he appointed Aven with the task of making the ruble convertible and finding a solution to foreign debt.[8] Aven went on to become the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations for the Russian Federation (1991–1992), serving as Russia's representative to the Group of Seven and conducting a number of high-level trade and economic missions to Western capitals. In 1993 he joined the Russia's Choice movement and was a candidate for State Duma.

In October 1994, Aven met Alfa Group's Mikhail Fridman, and soon became an Alfa Bank shareholder serving as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Alfa Group Consortium. From 1994 until June 2011, he served as the President of Alfa-Bank Russia. Currently Aven is a Member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Board of Directors of ABH Holdings S.A.[9] Aven is also Chairman of the Board of Directors at AlfaStrakhovanie Group, Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of CTC Media, Inc.[10] In 2012, the Alfa Group together with Viktor Vekselberg of Renova Group and Leonard Blavatnik of Access Industries sold their aggregate 50% stake in TNK-BP to state-owned Rosneft for $28 billion.[1] In 2013, Aven joined the Board of LetterOne Group, an international investment business founded by Mikhail Fridman and focused on the telecoms, technology and energy sectors. The L1 Group owns companies – and has equity investments in companies – with operations in 32 countries around the world.

LetterOne acquired assets from German utility business E. ON in October 2015, in a deal worth $1.6bn, that saw the Luxembourg-based group gain Norwegian oil and gas resources.[11] In the following month, LetterOne also announced their intention to deal with Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA, and boost their presence in the mobile phone sector there.[12]

In 2005, a United States district court in Washington, D.C. dismissed a 2000 libel suit by Aven and fellow Alfa Bank owner Mikhail Fridman against the Center for Public Integrity over an online article which included a suggestion that they had been involved in drug-running and organized crime; the federal judge ruled that there was no evidence of actual malice on the part of the publication and that Fridman and Aven were limited public figures regarding the public controversy involving corruption in post-Soviet Russia.[13][14][15][16]

In May 2017 Aven, along with fellow Alfa Bank owners Mikhail Fridman and German Khan, filed a defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed for publishing the unverified Donald Trump–Russia dossier,[17][18][19] which alleges financial ties and collusion between Putin, Trump, and the three bank owners.[20][21] In October 2017 Aven, Fridman, and Khan also filed a libel suit against the private-investigation firm Fusion GPS and its founder Glenn Simpson, who had commissioned former MI6 agent Christopher Steele to compile the dossier, for circulating the dossier among journalists and allowing it to be published.[13] In April 2018 Aven, Fridman, and Khan filed a libel suit against Steele in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia,[22][23] but the suit was dismissed with prejudice the following August.[24]

Public activities

Petr Aven holds a number of public facing positions:

Since April 2006, Petr Aven has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

In 2007, Mr. Aven became Chairman of the Russia-Latvian Business Council.

Mr. Aven has acted as a guest professor and lecturer at some universities, including Yale University, Bar-Elan University (Israel), and the University of Glasgow and has published two books on econometrics and on economic reform and numerous articles in Russian and international journals, including in Communist Economies and Economic Transformation in Economic Policy. Yale University Press and the Kiel Institute of World Economics, and other scientific and academic institutes have published Mr. Aven's monographs.[31] Aven is a visitor to Western capitals where he gives lectures on economic developments in Russia.

He has received a number of international awards, including the best manager in the financial services sector in Russia in 2004 by Institutional Investor.[32]

Petr Aven is a supporter of the arts and theatre in Russia. Aven along with Stan Polovets and three fellow Russian Jewish billionaires, Mikhail Fridman, Alexander Knaster, and German Khan, founded the Genesis Philanthropy Group whose purpose is to develop and enhance Jewish identity among Russian-speaking Jews worldwide.[33][34][7]

Aven is also a recognised art collector. His first art purchase was a still life by Pavel Kuznetsov in 1993, and afterwards he began collecting mostly pre-Soviet Russian art, as well as art by artists of other nationalities.[35] Works from his collection have been lent to the Jewish Museum in Moscow, the Tate in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and recently the Royal Academy.[35] In May 2015, pieces from Aven’s private collection were put on display at New York’s Neue Galerie in an exhibition examining early twentieth century Russian art and its relationship with German art of the time.[36]

On 3 November 2015, Petr Aven received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship in recognition of his contribution to corporate and public service to U.S.-Russia relations, at the 2015 Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Awards Dinner. The award was given to Mr Aven in recognition of his many achievements in building understanding between Russians and Americans during his career.[37]

References

  1. 1 2 Forbes: The World's Billionaires - Pyotr Aven March 2014
  2. ↑ "Exclusive "No Tie" Interview With Head Of The Alfa Banking Holding, Petr Aven On Business, Childhood And Friends".
  3. ↑ "'Gaidar's Revolution', by Petr Aven and Alfred Kokh".
  4. ↑ "The Forbes World's Billionaires list is the definitive list of the world's wealthiest people, profiling and ranking billionaires from 70 countries by their estimated net worth". Forbes. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  5. 1 2 National Historical Encyclopedia, Biography of P. O. Aven by N. Zenkovich, 2004
  6. ↑ Interview with P. Aven May, 2010
  7. 1 2 Jerusalem Post: "The world's 50 Richest Jews: 41-50" September 7, 2010
  8. ↑ https://news.yale.edu/2017/11/13/aven-offers-inside-account-making-modern-russia
  9. ↑ Petr Aven profile. Alfa-Bank Board of Directors. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
  10. ↑ https://people.forbes.com/profile/peter-aven/24447 Petr Aven profile. Forbes.
  11. ↑ "E.ON agrees 1 billion pound sale of North Sea assets to Fridman". Reuters.
  12. ↑ "Fridman Offers $4 Billion to Merge Brazil Carriers Oi, Tim". Bloomberg.
  13. 1 2 Gerstein, Josh (4 October 2017). "3 Russians named in Trump dossier sue Fusion GPS for libel". Politico. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  14. ↑ "Libel case over mafia-Halliburton link dismissed". Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. 4 October 2005. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  15. ↑ "Alfa Loses Libel Suit in U.S. Court". The Moscow Times. 29 September 2005. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  16. ↑ Fortescue, Stephen (2006). Russia's Oil Barons and Metal Magnates: Oligarchs and the State in Transition. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 69.
  17. ↑ Porter, Tom (27 May 2017). "Russian Bankers Sue BuzzFeed Over Publication Of Unverified Trump Dossier". Newsweek. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  18. ↑ Gerstein, Josh (26 May 2017). "Russian bank owners sue BuzzFeed over Trump dossier publication". Politico. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  19. ↑ "Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, and German Khan v. Buzzfeed, Inc. - Summons and Complaint" (PDF). May 26, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018 – via Politico.
  20. ↑ Smith, Geoffrey (11 January 2017). "Here's Why Russian Intelligence Bombshell on Donald Trump Might Be Believable". Fortune. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  21. ↑ Sommer, Allison Kaplan (11 January 2017). "Controversial Dossier on Trump Alleges That Russia Targets Jewish-American Businessmen". Haaretz. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  22. ↑ Polantz, Katelyn (20 April 2018). "3 Russian oligarchs sue Christopher Steele". CNN. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  23. ↑ "Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, and German Khan v. Orbis Business Intelligence Limited and Christopher Steele" (PDF). April 16, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018 – via CNN.
  24. ↑ "Russia's Alfa Bank fails in lawsuit over Steele's Trump dossier". MSNBC (video). The Rachel Maddow Show. August 20, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  25. ↑ Endowment Foundation Board of Trustees. New Economic School. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  26. ↑ CERP Trustees. CERP. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  27. ↑ Council of Trustees. Archived 2008-10-13 at the Wayback Machine. Russian Olympians Foundation. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  28. ↑ Petr Aven profile. HSE. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  29. ↑ "President's Council on International Activities". Yale University.
  30. ↑ "RIAC Presidium".
  31. ↑ Petr Aven profile Businessweek.com. Retrieved 14 November 2011
  32. ↑ Petr Aven profile. Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine. Skolkovo Experts and Lecturers. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  33. ↑ New York Times: "Russians Join Israel to Start Jewish Prize of $1 Million" by David M. Herszenhorn June 26, 2012
  34. ↑ Yad Vashem: "Ceremony Marking the Cooperation between Yad Vashem and the Genesis Philanthrophy Group" June 12, 2009
  35. 1 2 https://www.ft.com/content/f328a740-6233-11e7-8814-0ac7eb84e5f1?mhq5j=e5
  36. ↑ "From The Director". Neue Galerie.
  37. ↑ "Petr Aven receives Woodrow Wilson Award in Washington".
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