Gennady Timchenko

Biography

Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko (also spelled Guennadi Timtchenko) (born 1952) is a Russian businessman and billionaire. He founded and owns the private investment group, Volga Group, which specializes in investments in energy, transport and infrastructure assets. Previously he was a co-owner of Gunvor Group. In 2014, Timchenko was ranked 62nd on the Forbes magazine billionaires list, with an estimated fortune of $15.3 billion USD. He is known for being the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kontinental Hockey League, and President of the SKA (St. Petersburg) ice hockey club. He is a citizen of Russia, Finland and Armenia. Gennady Timchenko was born in Leninakan (now Gyumri), Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (Soviet Union) in 1952. His father was in the Soviet military. He spent 6 years of his childhood (from 1959-1965) in the German Democratic Republic and learnt German and in the Ukrainian SSR. In 1976 he graduated from the Mechanical Institute of St. Petersburg, then named Leningrad, as an electrical engineer, according to a 2008 interview with the Wall Street Journal. In 1977, Timchenko started to work as an engineer for the Izhorsky plant near St. Petersburg, which specialized in building power generators. Since he spoke German, he was then moved to the trade department of this state-owned company. From 1982 to 1988 he worked as a senior engineer of the Ministry of Foreign Trade.

Research Interest

Focus on energy trading and raw materials