Russian Forbes. It was his photo that appeared on the cover of the magazine, released in April 2004. The article about the businessman was written by editor-in-chief Paul Khlebnikov himself. Mordashov followed a direct path to wealth, focusing on metallurgy. The basis of his fortune is the shares of the Severstal group, whose base enterprise is the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant (ChMK), where Soviet times his parents worked.
Mordashov was born and spent most of his life in Cherepovets. He received his education in the northern capital, graduated with honors from the Leningrad Engineering and Economic Institute, and after studying he returned to small homeland and went to work at ChMK. The plant's general director, Yuri Lipukhin, immediately liked the young economist. Just four years later, in 1992, the 27-year-old specialist became director of finance and economics, and was entrusted with sales of products. After the collapse of the USSR, the plant practically stopped supplying the domestic market, and Mordashov, who completed an internship in Austria, began concluding contracts with traders who sent steel for export.
In 1993, Lipukhin instructed him to deal with the privatization of Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant. Mordashov bought it in secret from the director controlling interest, removed him from management and headed the plant himself. In 2001, he bought the share from Lipukhin at a price six times lower than the market, as the offended “red director” claimed. Over the past three years alone, Mordashov received $3.5 billion in dividends from Severstal. Part of these funds was invested in one of the world's largest travel companies, TUI, with a capitalization of almost $6 billion. The businessman owns 25% of the company's shares.
Mordashov knows how to choose friends. He was friends with Anatoly Chubais, who taught at his institute. Chubais introduced him to the club of young reformers who later became members of the government of Boris Yeltsin. Friendship with the St. Petersburg financier brought him closer to Vladimir Putin. In 2003, Mordashov became a co-owner of Rossiya Bank, whose largest shareholder is a longtime friend of Putin. In 2008, Mordashov, Surgutneftegaz and Rossiya Bank created the National Media Group, which now owns stakes in TV channels (First, Fifth, REN TV, STS, 78), newspapers ( Izvestia", "Metro-Petersburg", "Sport-Express"). In 2013, Mordashov and Kovalchuk acquired a 50% stake in the mobile operator Tele2.
The authorities love Mordashov for his exemplary behavior. In February 2018, during a meeting between a businessman and the president at his residence in Novo-Ogarevo, Severstal was promised a stable flow of government orders.
First business In 1992, he was appointed director of finance and economics at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant (ChMK). He entered into the first contracts with traders who sold metal to the West. Having bought a controlling stake in ChMK, he removed director Yuri Lipukhin.
Capital Severstal (76.4%), TUI (25%), Nordgold, Power Machines.
Partners Together with Yuri Kovalchuk, he owns shares in Rossiya Bank, which is under sanctions, the National Media Group and Tele2.
Sanctions In January 2018, Power Machines came under US sanctions due to the supply of Siemens turbines to Crimea.
Transactions In 2017, he sold part of the Severstal stake (2.15%) for $270 million. In 2018, he sold another 0.6% stake for $80 million.
Brands TUI is one of the largest travel companies in the world with a capitalization of almost $6 billion, and the Utkonos online grocery store.
Detail Mordashov will transfer to his sons Kirill (19 years old) and Nikita (18 years old) 65% of the shares of the gold mining company Nordgold, which will allow them to enter the Forbes list.
Number The Mordashov-owned Sveza plant, the world leader in the birch plywood market, sells its products in 70 countries. The German company Schmitz Cargobull uses Sveza plywood to make floors in its trailers.
Articles on the topic
03.03.2020 12:50
Billionaire Mordashov spoke about preparations for transferring the business to children
Billionaire Alexei Mordashov faces a non-trivial task - how to transfer his fortune to children without harming a huge business, Bloomberg writes. Mordashov himself said that he is already developing a plan for how his children will inherit his fortune. There have been no precedents for inheriting such capital in the country, the expert says29.01.2020 18:03
A representative of billionaire Mordashov denied information about his illness
Information about the illness of billionaire Alexei Mordashov is “absolutely untrue” and is “slanderous,” said a representative of the businessman. In relation to the Nezygar Telegram channel that disseminated the information, he promised to take “measures in accordance with the law”Alexei Mordashov's wife Larisa is the third in the biography of the head of Severstal. They first started appearing together almost thirteen years ago, and the young brunette of model appearance produced strong impression on others. Alexey Alexandrovich tries to hide his personal life from others, so it is impossible to find a photo of his latest beloved on the Internet. When they started dating, Larisa was about twenty years old, and Mordashov was thirty-nine. This age difference brought a certain flavor to the relationship between the oligarch and his chosen one, against which she seemed very young.
In the photo - Mordashov's first wife
Mordashov’s first two wives are a thing of the past, and it is unknown whether he was still married when he started dating Larisa. The oligarch's first wife, Elena, on the contrary, was older than Alexei Mordashov. They met while studying at the Leningrad Institute of Civil Engineering - Mordashov was a nineteen-year-old sophomore, and his chosen one was a fifth-year student. However, the family life of Elena and Alexei began to deteriorate after the birth of Mordashov’s first child, the son of Ilya. The ex-wife says that the rapid career husband and the power and money that followed him.
In the photo - Alexey Alexandrovich with his second wife
He allowed himself to have affairs, and this offended Elena. In addition, Mordashov tried to make his wife understand that by forcing him to marry herself, she ruined his whole life. However, Elena forgave her husband everything, and when he said that he was leaving the family after twelve years together, it came as a real shock to her.
With the second wife of Alexei Alexandrovich Mordashov, who was also named Elena, something happened love affair at work- She worked as an accountant at a company where he was the financial director. A year after leaving his first family, Mordashov married for the second time, in 1999 his second son, Kirill, was born, and two years later his third, Nikita. The oligarch constantly said that family never came first for him; business was always the oligarch’s priority.
Alexey Mordashov, like a rocket, burst into the Closed club Russian oligarchs. Shifted from leading positions and. Mordashov was called " iron boy”, paying tribute to the stranglehold of the “newest oligarch”.
General Director of one of the largest metallurgical enterprises in Russia. Media tycoon who controls the media in the Vologda region. One of richest people Russia.
Childhood and youth
Alexey Alexandrovich Mordashov was born on September 26, 1965 in the city of Cherepovets, Vologda region. Nationality Russian. The family of the future oligarch has a centuries-old history of working as “Fedoseevsky wood-toy makers” from the Volga region. The works of the Mordashev family are exhibited at the Museum of Folk Toys in Sergiev Posad.
Alexey's father, Alexander Mordashov, was the only one of the three brothers in the family who did not continue the family business. After graduating from the Gorky Polytechnic Institute, dad worked as an electrical engineer at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant. Alexey’s mother, Maria Fedorovna, worked there, in the equipment department.
He studied well at school and loved exact sciences. According to former teachers, he is diligent and assiduous. Mordashov was set as an example to other students, for which the guys nicknamed the boy “Template”. After graduating from school, he successfully entered the Leningrad Engineering and Economic Institute. Graduated with honors. I went to lectures taught at the same institute. He remembers the “young reformer” with gratitude about the knowledge he gained about economic mechanisms.
The scientific career of the young graduate was not attractive; he did not enroll in graduate school. Since Mordashov did not have any acquaintances in the Northern capital for patronage for a good job, after graduating from the institute he returned to his native Cherepovets. He went to work at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, where his parents’ connections and good name allowed him to take the position of senior economist in the labor organization department.
In 1988, Mordashov left the plant for an internship in Austria for three months. ChMK director Yuri Lipukhin noticed the savvy economist. In 1992, Alexey Mordashov became the plant's financial director. The appointment caused a negative reaction from the workers, but Lipukhin quickly suppressed discontent with his authority.
Severstal
At this time, privatization began in Russia. Lipukhin entrusted Mordashov with the task of dealing with a new unfamiliar phenomenon. The young economist set to work with zeal. He began buying vouchers and shares from factory workers. He was so successful that in the end the management of the plant was left with nothing.
The scheme was simple: they created the Severstal-invest structure (86% of the shares belonged to Mordashov personally), which bought vouchers and shares of the plant from workers. Severstal-Invest earned money to buy shares by reselling metal to the West. Severstal-invest, in turn, bought the metal for pennies from the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant. To make workers more compliant when selling vouchers, the plant did not pay wages for six months. The result of privatization was Mordashov’s ownership of 83% of the shares of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant.
Former director Lipukhin considers Alexei Mordashov, despite the “virtuoso trick” of his former subordinate, to be a good owner of the plant. Severstal is one of the leaders in ferrous metallurgy.
As General Director of Severstal, Mordashov began reforming the plant. He brought new specialists. Got rid of the ballast of unprofitable enterprises on the balance sheet of Severstal. Reduced the number of employees from 50 to 37 thousand people. I didn’t restore the obsolete one - I closed it. Launched modern technological lines. I followed the demand of the world market. Increased the share of exports.
In December 2004, Severstal bought the Ford steel plant Rouge Industries lnc., which it saved from bankruptcy and returned the production to a strong place in the industry. The Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, the Izhora Pipe Plant in St. Petersburg, Karelsky Okatysh, and the Olene-Gorsky Mining and Processing Plant were acquired.
Personal life
Alexey Mordashov got married for the first time in his second year at the institute. The reason for the early marriage was the news of the bride's pregnancy. The wife's name was Lena. She was a 5th year student, a native of Irkutsk. In 1985, son Ilya was born. The young family lived a difficult life, the child was sick. Alexey worked part-time at the department and wrote term papers for students.
The marriage broke up in 1996. The reason was Mordashov’s work and frequent betrayals. After the divorce, the wife and son received a three-room apartment in Cherepovets, a car, monthly alimony in the amount of $1,000 and annual $6,000 for health improvement.
In 2002, Elena filed a lawsuit against her ex-husband demanding the division of property and the recovery of alimony from Mordashov in the amount of $20 million, considering that this was reasonable compensation for 10 years of family life. There were rumors in the press that Mordashov's business competitors were behind the lawsuit by the oligarch's ex-wife: Iskander Makhmudov and.
The first court decision seized the shares of Severstal; later, due to the intervention of influential officials, the court decision was overturned. Alexey Mordashov was ordered to pay his son alimony in the amount of 10,600 rubles monthly.
Elena Mordashova received a lawsuit to recover court fees in the amount of 213 million 790 thousand rubles. As a penalty, Elena's apartment in Moscow was seized. After the trial, Mordashov stated:
“I will not allow anyone to interfere with production. Shares are not just pieces of paper, they are an opportunity to influence a process on which the lives of thousands of people depend.”
Ilya had no contact with his father for many years. Took my mother's maiden name.
The “Iron King” entered into his second marriage in June 1997 with an economist at the Chelyabinsk plant, also, coincidentally, Elena. Born in 1971, graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Textile Industry. Married to Mordashov, children were born: Kirill (1999) and Nikita (2000).
Alexey Mordashov now
News appeared in the press that Mordashov has a new wife, whose name is Larisa. According to rumors, he already has six children in total. The oligarch himself does not hide:
“Family has never been the main thing for me. I am the person for whom business comes first.”
Alexey Mordashov is a member of the Bolshoi Theater Board of Trustees and leads a public life. Supports sports and does charity work. In June 2016, the President of Russia awarded Alexey Mordashov the insignia “For Good Deeds,” noting his contribution to charity. The document is presented on the official website of legal information.
State
The billionaire from the Vologda region is tight-fisted. He does not own a yacht, flies on a Severstal Yak-40 plane, wears cheap watches by the standards of rich people, and drives a production car. At the same time, as of 2014, Alexey Mordashov ranks 12th in the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia.
In 2016, he was named the richest man in Russia by Bloomberg.
Serves as CEO and founder of:
- Joint Stock Company "Severstal Management"
- CJSC Severgroup
- LLC "Algorithm"
- LLC "Capital"
- Regul LLC
- LLC "Holding Mining Company"
$21.2 billion
ALEXEY MORDASHOV
Alexei Mordashov
The history of the Mordashov family is rooted in the Volga region. Here, rich in forests, but little suitable for Agriculture lands, the timber, “clumsy” trade was born. Entire families were engaged in making wooden spoons, dishes, furniture and funny toys. The Mordashov family comes from the ancient Nizhny Novgorod village of Fedoseevo, which was famous for its wood-toy makers.
Each Fedoseev family specialized in its own type of this folk craft. The Mordashovs made horses. The older men carved them out of wood, and the rest of the family primed them, painted them, and sold them at markets and fairs. The current owner of the country's metallurgical giant, the Severstal company, Alexey Mordashov, not without pride, says that Mordashov's wooden horses are exhibited at the Museum of Folk Toys in Sergiev Posad.
The ancestor of the current Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov, Ivan Mordashov, more than a hundred years ago made a miniature spoon workshop, in which four pairs of small spoons, placed under a gable canopy, reproduced all the technological processes of real production: sawing, hewing, chopping and carving spoons. The figures were set in motion by rotating the shaft. It was not a shame to give such toys even at the royal court!
Funny wooden figures were carved by both Alexei Mordashov’s great-grandfather and his grandfather….
Mordashov’s father began the metallurgical chapter in the history of the family. He was the only one of the three brothers who did not become a nesting doll maker, but graduated from the Gorky Polytechnic Institute with a degree in electrical engineering and moved to Cherepovets in the early 1960s. There, at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, he met Mordashov’s future mother, who worked in the equipment department. It was a classic Soviet industrial romance: with awkward smiles when meeting, secret dates after work, a long period of courtship - and a rapid transition to some very solid and artless family life. The wedding took place right in the hostel, fitting almost twenty guests into one room. And the next morning, Alexander Mordashov already went on shift.
Alexey was born in Cherepovets on September 26, 1965. In early childhood, he was diagnosed with a serious congenital injury, and, by his own admission, he already knew for sure that he would neither be a pilot nor an astronaut. However, his capabilities and desires very soon coincided. The parents were not diligent in raising their son: they did not have time for this, and the boy did not cause concern. A calm, independent child, Lesha was not afraid to be alone at home when his parents were at work. Noisy games and dangerous boyish games did not arouse his interest.
At school, Mordashov, in his own words, was a good boy; his classmates unanimously elected him class leader. The class teacher so often cited Lesha as an example and urged the students to emulate Mordashov that at some point Lesha was jokingly nicknamed Template.
He wasn't the ringleader,” his former history teacher recalls about Alexei Mordashov. – But the boy was responsible and diligent, he tried to be the best in everything, although he had no humanitarian inclinations.
Freed from physical education lessons, Lesha Mordashov could thoughtfully prepare his homework or look dreamily out the window. Perhaps as a result of these dreams, Mordashov decided to become an economist. And he pushed him to this... Karl Marx. The creator of Capital did not throw bombs at the Tsar, did not hold a rifle in his hands, did not cross seas and deserts in search of truth, yet his ideas had such a powerful impact on the world that few things could compare. By the end of school, Mordashov was confident in the basics of economic theory.
Having received secondary education, Alexey Mordashov went to enter the Leningrad Engineering and Economic Institute, considering that it was less theoretical than similar Moscow universities, closer to production and practice. Anatoly Chubais once studied and then taught at the same institute. Mordashov still remembers the times when, in the early 90s, the club of “young reformers” led by Anatoly Borisovich often met on the top floor of the institute. Mordashov still speaks of Chubais with great student gratitude, recalling that Anatoly Borisovich gave him a lot of knowledge about economic mechanisms, rare at that time, and introduced him to the works of Yegor Gaidar for the first time.
Student life became a real breakthrough for Mordashov into another life. It was as if wings had grown behind his back. There is a feeling of self-confidence, clarity in understanding the surrounding world and own life. In the official biography of Mordashov, edited by him, this period in the life of the future oligarch is stated as follows: At the institute, Alexey Mordashov was an excellent student, a Lenin scholarship recipient and a Komsomol leader. The women of the university remember him with warmth and affectionately pronounce his simple Russian surname. He was remembered as polite, unarrogant, pleasant young man- a real man. Alexey was polite to everyone and spoke in the same tone with both the cleaning lady and the rector of the institute.
These heartfelt memories are not disputed even by Mordashov’s first wife, Elena, with whom the loudest scandal in the oligarch’s biography is associated.
Alexey Mordashov met his first love in his second year, right in the corridor of the institute. Lena Mityukova was a touching creature, from whom socialist realist artists were just right to paint pictures: a round-faced, ruddy, smiling girl radiated optimism and health. This cheerful, wide-eyed straight-A student was called Sunshine by her classmates. It was the Sun that blinded Lesha Mordashov in the spring of 1985.
Sophomore Mordashov was not embarrassed by the fact that Lena was almost three years older. He spoke to her, bumping into her at the door of the auditorium, and immediately invited her for a walk. After classes they went for a walk around spring Leningrad. The sun was shining brightly. The young gentleman shone with intelligence and erudition. They went to cafes and drank coffee and cakes. She was interested in talking with him and pleased to walk along the spring streets next to such an intelligent and prominent young man. Lena fell in love with Alexei Mordashov, if not at first sight, then from the first meeting. From that day on, Lena’s friends and roommates only heard about how smart, handsome, and gallant Lesha was...
What happened next? Elena Mityukova later commented on her relationship with Alyosha Mordashov at that time: “We met, met and... met.” Despite her maturity, Lena demonstrated amazing frivolity. She discovered that she was pregnant only in June, when she went home to Irkutsk. She went to see a gynecologist, and the stern doctor interrogated her: “Does the man know? Did you tell him you're pregnant? No? Need to say. So that there are no reproaches later - they say, she got rid of the child, which means I am not needed. And in general, go and think carefully about whether to keep the child or not.”
While Lena was thinking, all the deadlines had passed. The young man, having learned about the pregnancy of his beloved girl, did not jump with happiness and did not rush to circle with his beloved in his arms. He closed himself off and went away to think about the situation. Mordashov thought about it for so long that Lena and Lesha’s institute friends became worried. Before their eyes, a beautiful love story threatened to turn into a rather ugly drama. Her dorm friends pestered Lena with endless questions: “How are you doing?” Lena just waved it off: “Guys, don’t pester us, everything is fine with us.” Several more months passed, and everyone at the institute already knew that Lena was expecting a child. Alyosha Mordashov thought. Finally, after the November holidays, he made up his mind and proposed to Lena: “Marry me.”
On January 15, 1986, Alexey and Elena Mordashov had a son, Ilya. It was soon discovered that the boy was seriously ill. The birth of a child forced Mordashov to look at things from a practical point of view. Mordashov lived with his wife and son in the same room in a student dormitory. The scholarship, even the increased one, was barely enough to make ends meet. Advancement up the scientific ladder within the walls of the institute did not promise either money or any clear prospects. Mordashov had not yet managed to make connections that would allow him to get a good position in Leningrad. In an attempt to somehow earn money, Mordashov got a job as an assistant at the department, writing for money term papers for students... But all this did not solve the problems that arose.
Alexey Mordashov did not enter graduate school. He says he didn't do it intelligently. A scientific career did not appeal to him, and life circumstances required decisive and active action, and not sitting in scientific libraries and at the department... Over time, Mordashov only became stronger in the correctness of his choice. In his opinion, the MBA degree he received in England, at Newcastle University, in modern world is valued more than the dubious authority of a doctor of economic sciences.
Having thought about his prospects in St. Petersburg after graduating from university, Mordashov came to the conclusion that nothing was in store for him. He returned to Cherepovets with his wife and little son. good name and the acquaintances of his parents, who gave their whole lives to the plant, allowed Alexey in August 1988 to become a senior economist in the labor organization bureau of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant.
The young specialist stood out from the general mass of employees because, when faced with difficulties, he did not get lost, and dealt with them like a tank. In 1988, the plant received an order from the Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy: it was necessary to send a specialist with higher education and good knowledge of German. There were five of these throughout Severstal. Four refused, explaining that they did not speak well enough German language. And Mordashov went because, with his characteristic self-confidence, he said: “I translate fluently with a dictionary.” And four years later, at the age of 27, Mordashov became director of economics and finance.
Mordashov's career was almost ruined by one phone call. The then Minister of Ferrous Metallurgy Serafim Kolpakov demanded that the director of Severstal, Yuri Lipukhin, immediately remove the young promoter. The reason for this hostility of the minister was that Mordashov beat his son, who also had an internship in Austria.
Mordashov recalls this story with a characteristic cheeky laugh: Well, yes, it was like that. He wanted to relax, and I wanted to study. And he complained to his father.
How this story could have ended for the future owner of Severstal, if not for Lipukhin’s intercession, only God knows. Yuri Lipukhin tried to smooth out the situation and, promising to deal with Mordashov, gradually defended his subordinate. Lipukhin attributed the incident to Mordashov’s youth. However, subsequently Mordashov repeatedly demonstrated toughness in his relationships with people.
In 1992, he nevertheless became director of economics and finance. The appointment was met with mixed reactions. There were dissatisfied conversations among the management and workers: Mordashov was very young, and his attitude towards metallurgy was very mediocre - in those years there was a special distrust among the people towards economists. But Lipukhin enjoyed enormous authority at the plant, and passions soon subsided.
Yuri Lipukhin was already 60 years old at that time. He was not a frail old man, but he understood that he was tired of leading work. Therefore, he began searching for a person who could be trusted to manage the plant. This was a common practice of Soviet directors: to prepare a successor for themselves. The active and serious Mordashov was suitable for this role, and Lipukhin wanted to take a closer look at him. Mordashov lived up to Lipukhin's expectations. Being proactive and independent, he was nevertheless a conscientious performer, an obedient student who showed respect for his mentor.
It is not surprising that Lipukhin entrusted Mordashov with the task of privatizing the plant. For the Soviet director, privatization was generally an incomprehensible and frightening phenomenon. Many had the feeling that, before it had yet reached its completion, privatization would end with all its instigators and participants being sent to trample the zone. It is unlikely that Lipukhin wanted to insure himself by entrusting a risky and dangerous line of work to a person who could be sacrificed if something happened... Lipukhin’s further frivolity simply does not give reason to suspect him of such foresight. Lipukhin simply decided that the educated and clever Mordashov would definitely figure out what to do with this privatization that had fallen out of nowhere... And Mordashov met his mentor’s expectations and even exceeded them. Under his leadership, a structure was created that was engaged in purchasing vouchers and then shares from workers.
This is how the Severstal-Invest company appeared, which was aptly nicknamed “Severstal-Incest” by the people for its too piquant closeness to the plant itself. Twenty-four percent of the shares of this new structure belonged to Severstal, and the rest belonged to Mordashov.
To buy back shares, the plant needed a lot of money. To earn them, Severstal-Invest resorted to the usual tactics of that time - it became an intermediary between the plant and metal buyers. This diagram looked like this: The Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant sold its metal to Severstal-Invest at a minimal price. And she, in turn, resold the metal to Western consumers at a large profit. The profit received was deposited in Severstal-Invest. This money could be used to buy shares from workers.
Buying shares from workers was not difficult. The workers did not attach much value to the “pieces of paper” that suddenly appeared in their hands. And besides, few people believed that the plant could survive. Built at the behest of Stalin, Severstal was located thousands of kilometers from the ore and coal deposits necessary for metal production. The country was in a fever economic reforms and inflation... The plant itself was economically entirely dependent on Severstal-Invest. To convince workers to quickly sell their shares, the company did not pay wages for months. As a result, Mordashov collected 83% of the shares of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant.
The successful completion of privatization, carried out under the leadership of Mordashov, coincided with the release of the law on joint stock companies. This law prohibited combining the positions of general director and chairman of the board of directors. As a result, Lipukhin invited his already trusted successor to take the place of director of Severstal.
However, the working class of the plant interpreted such a step by the “experienced” director in its own way at that time. They said that Lipukhin decided to wait out the incomprehensible market off-season, assigning Mordashov the trivial role of the central chairman.
But Yuri Lipukhin could not even imagine that by that moment the position of the pieces on the chessboard, which he considered his own, had changed. And in the most radical way. While working on the privatization of Severstal, Mordashov acquired some shares for the enterprise, but mostly for himself. By the beginning of 1996, a controlling stake in Severstal's shares ended up in the Severstal-Invest company led by Mordashov. That is, de jure Alexey Mordashov became the owner of the plant. And in response to the offer to become director, Mordashov brought this new information to the attention of management.
Eyewitnesses recount the circumstances of these events in different ways. They say that Mordashov did not stand on ceremony with the old management of the plant, but directly said: “I am the owner now. Anyone who is not satisfied with this can look for another place of work.” Mordashov perceives such stories in his characteristic manner - widening his eyes in surprise and bursting into cheerful laughter: What do you find so special about this? I didn’t do this illegally, it was approved by the council of the labor collective, so it wasn’t an initiative.
Really, what's wrong with that? On the contrary, we must give Alexey Alexandrovich his due: he managed to privatize one of the largest metallurgical plants in the country without unnecessary noise, blood and shooting, as often happened then.
Having changed his position at the plant, Mordashov decided to change his family life. In 1996, he officially divorced his wife. Son Ilya was 10 years old at that time. This is exactly what it took for Alexey Mordashov to make his way from a poor student to the owner of one of the most powerful and profitable metallurgical enterprises in Russia. Outwardly, these ten years were not marked by any unexpected events or dangerous turns. But this is only an appearance. Severstal was the center of confrontation between the main forces dividing the market.
At the end of 1992, Vladimir Lisin arrived in Cherepovets, who at that time represented the interests of the Trans World Group, which was pursuing a policy of aggressive expansion in the Russian metallurgical industry. Lisin arrived ostensibly to discuss a certain project related to Moscow real estate, but his mission was more of an intelligence one. Following him, the head of TWG, Mikhail Chernoy, came to the plant with proposals to organize trade financing and offshore schemes for Severstal. Lipukhin refused Cherny, but this was not the end of TWG’s attempts to “enter” the plant. On behalf of TWG, Iskander Makhmudov and Oleg Deripaska visited Severstal at regular intervals. However, they also left with nothing. Severstal was saved from the violent attacks of TWG, one might say, by a happy coincidence of circumstances. “TWG” at that time was fighting on several fronts - and it was unwise to open another one.
There were many objects for which there was a struggle, and we simply were not given due attention, Mordashov explains the reason that he managed to survive the era of property redistribution without shocks. But there is some guile in this explanation. In addition to TWG, other players in the metallurgical market, dubious international businessmen, and local criminal gangs showed interest in the plant.
Mordashov somehow miraculously managed to avoid clashes with groups interested in controlling the plant. Sometimes, knowing that representatives of one or another large group were calling him to invite him to Moscow for negotiations, he simply did not pick up the phone. This silence could last for weeks. It was necessary to have strong nerves to withstand such a game of silence. However, in addition to the external circle of interests, there was another, much more significant and subtle one - the circle of internal confrontation. The young director of Severstal, in fact, was in a hostile environment and, well aware of this, played his own game, which was aimed at conquering and strengthening his power and destroying the influence of the old leadership. So the ten-year period of Mordashov’s formation as the owner of the plant was a period of internal degeneration.
I became arrogant, cynical, tougher and more confident, says Mordashov about what happened to him in these “quiet” years. – My moral qualities are definitely deteriorating. But, probably, if I had been modest and delicate, I would not have been a director, and Severstal would not have been Severstal..
First comes power, then money, and after that comes permissiveness., - Elena Mordashova explained the reasons for the divorce several years after she broke up with her husband. – The most dangerous thing for a novice businessman is “caisson disease”. This is when it flew upside down and looked around: everything was possible. And we will – that’s it! My husband got a company car and a personal secretary. Well, right away – he’s young, handsome – girls started hanging on him. Once there was a celebration at the plant, we came together, but the whole evening Alyosha frolicked before my eyes with a young dancer. It was terribly disappointing. And then he stopped taking me with him altogether.
One day Elena returned home from her dacha and found traces of a stranger’s presence in the apartment. I asked my husband: “Who was it?” - “Secretary Olya.” - "What they were doing?" - “We drank tea.” There were no scenes of jealousy, well, maybe only one.
This is when my husband, right before my eyes, began to arrange a date with one woman, – Elena recalls. – In that situation, the family was saved by the mother-in-law, she told her son: “If anything happens, I will choose Lena and Ilya”...
But that didn't help either.
The husband experienced several more novels and loves. I guessed what was eating him. All the years he made me understand that I ruined his life, that I forced him to marry me. In fact, I didn’t drag Alexei along with me like a calf on a leash. We had everything - love and family...
Every day Elena woke up with the hope of a miracle that would return love, tenderness and trust to their relationship. Every day for several years she was faced with severe disappointment. My husband didn't spend the night at home. Or he attacked his wife with rudeness and reproaches.
Soon Alexey Mordashov moved to live with one of Severstal’s secretaries, ironically also Elena. And after the divorce, he brought an agreement on the division of property for his ex-wife to sign: a three-room apartment and a “nine” car would become her property. Shares, shares and bank accounts remained at the disposal of the spouse. According to the second agreement - on alimony - ex-wife and the son were to receive a monthly amount equal to approximately six hundred dollars, plus another six thousand dollars a year for treatment and recreation. At that time, by the standards of Cherepovets, this was a huge amount. But Elena understood that in comparison with her husband’s income, this money was a beggarly and humiliating handout, especially considering her son’s serious illness and the fact that Elena, forced to take care of the child, did not work. When, according to Elena, she tried to challenge some points of the contract, her husband said: “I earned it all...”
Elena didn’t make any noise. After the divorce, she lived quietly in Cherepovets, jealously watching the successes of her ex-husband. In 2001, through one of central newspapers Elena Mordashova spoke with an “Open Letter to All Women.” She wrote:
Many years ago I married a student Alyosha Mordashov. Our son was born and life was very difficult for us. The child was seriously ill, everything fell on my shoulders - home, family, caring for my husband. During the day I nursed my son, and in the evenings I worked as a cleaner. I still have college behind me and a diploma with honors. Life gave me a choice - either family, or graduate school and career. Of course, the health of the son and the peace of mind of the husband were more important. Working as a cleaner, I earned money for our apartment..
The whole country read with ecstasy the sad story of the oligarch's ex-wife, abandoned by her husband and left without a livelihood.
…My 15-year-old Ilya recently told me: “I don’t want to be like you. You are kind, you forgive everyone everything. That’s why your life is complicated and difficult. And only bastards like my dad achieve success.”
Elena Mordashova’s next step after the letter was to go to court demanding the division of property and the collection of alimony from her ex-husband in the amount of... 20 million dollars. Elena managed not only to draw public attention to her situation, but also to achieve the arrest of a large block of shares in one of the leading enterprises in Russia - Severstal.
Elena explained her decision to apply to the court to review the old alimony agreement as follows: I knocked on Alexei’s soul, but I realized that there was no heart there. to my ex-husband the categories of the soul are unknown. He is indifferent to the fate of his own son. I thought Alexei’s father would awaken, but that didn’t happen. He could go weeks without seeing Ilya. He was not interested in his son's health. I just felt bad for my son. And then I decided to protect him.
Soon after the scandal broke out, the details of which splashed out in the press and on television, in narrow circles they started talking about what open letter and the competitors of Alexei Mordashov, in particular Iskander Makhmudov and Oleg Deripaska, who provided financial and legal support to the abandoned wife, went to court. However, Elena Mordashova’s claims against her ex-husband were soon rejected in court. In 2002, the chairman of the board of directors of Severstal, Alexey Mordashov, defended his right to pay his son from a previous marriage no more than 10,600 rubles a month. Mordashov was pleased with the result of the court decision and, without any embarrassment, gave very direct and detailed comments. Their essence was that he had nothing to be ashamed of. Mordashov emphasized that everything he achieved, he achieved himself, and his wife has no right to demand from him even the money that he generously gives her, much less shares in the enterprise: I won't allow anyone to interfere with production. Shares are not just pieces of paper, they are an opportunity to influence a process on which the lives of thousands of people depend..
After the scandalous trial, Mordashov became even more embittered with his wife for causing her son to get into quarrels with his father. Alexey Mordashov does not see his guilt in what happened. In one of the interviews, the journalist’s question about whether he believed that over time his son would be able to forgive him caused Alexei Mordashov sincere bewilderment. Will forgive or not forgive... This is not the main thing at all“,” Mordashov answered and moved on to discuss the successes of Severstal.
Another person to whom Mordashov “has nothing to apologize for,” former general director Lipukhin, speaks of Mordashov with a mixture of bitter resentment and... undisguised respect. You can hate and despise Mordashov as a person, but as an owner and manager he was able to achieve a lot. Severstal is one of the most profitable enterprises in the industry. The former director of Severstal admits this not without pride.
In 2003, Forbes magazine ranked Alexey Mordashov in 348th place in its ranking of the richest people on the planet. He took ninth place in the list of Russian billionaires. Experts estimated his fortune at $1.2 billion. Over the next four years, Mordashov increased his fortune more than ninefold. In 2007, according to Forbes, Mordashov's fortune totaled $11.2 billion, making him one of the ten richest people in Russia.
Having become the owner of Severstal, Mordashov decisively set out to bring the plant out of the crisis and reform its activities. First of all, he brought in Western consultants and began the fight to reduce costs. He sold non-core assets belonging to the plant, such as a furniture factory, and began reducing the number of employees. Before Mordashov arrived, more than fifty thousand people worked at the plant. Mordashov reduced his staff to 37 thousand people.
Outdated production facilities were closed without delay. Instead of patching holes, Mordashov began to develop new technological lines for the production of goods that are in great demand on the market. The plant began producing steel for pipes and galvanized metal for the automotive industry. Having started to cooperate with Western partners, Mordashov increased exports. As a result of such a thoughtful and unyielding policy, the plant quickly began to rise to its feet. Even the crisis that broke out in 1998 played into Mordashov’s hands. As a result of the crisis, the dollar rose against the ruble and exports became more profitable.
At the Cherepovets plant, Mordashov created a unique system for stimulating employee activity. At each site of the enterprise there is a person responsible for reviewing initiatives. The employee must be rewarded for a sensible proposal. This could be a bonus, or it could be a promotion or appointment as the head of a working group.
Mordashov also deals decisively with those who work poorly: It’s better to fire them right away, because production doesn’t need people like that. They say that when, during an inspection in the purchasing service, several people were caught in the act of putting part of the amount from the order into their pockets, the general director fired the entire department.
One day, Mordashov and a number of other Russian businessmen were invited to America for an economic forum. At one of the conferences dedicated to cooperation with Russia, the Americans unloaded a whole range of negative arguments: they say that people steal in Russia and the like. As a sign of protest, Russian businessmen began to leave the hall. One of them later said:
We were standing outside the doors, and suddenly we heard the hall explode with laughter. Then we found out why. After listening to the reasoning of American businessmen, Mordashov stood up and indignantly declared: “Who steals? Where do they steal? Are they stealing from us? What nonsense? At my factory, I cordoned off a nickel warehouse with barbed wire, stationed machine gunners - and no one steals!”
In 2004, Americans no longer laughed at Alexei Mordashov. In December, Severstal acquired the seventh-largest American steel mill in terms of production volume, Rouge Industries Inc. This company was founded by Henry Ford to provide steel for his own car factories. In 2003, the company actually went bankrupt. Mordashov promised the Americans that he would do for the company what he once did for Severstal. Much to the surprise of the Americans, the use of Severstal’s experience on their territory made it possible to bring the “jewel in Henry Ford’s crown” out of the crisis and return the company to its lost positions.
Mordashov and his team claim that they can make any enterprise profitable. Over the past few years, he has become the owner of the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, the Izhora Pipe Plant in St. Petersburg, joint stock company Karelsky Okatysh, Olenegorsk Mining and Processing Plant, etc. Severstal has its own airline, television center, newspapers, and under its control is the radio of the Vologda region.
Not stopping there, Mordashov even began an attack on the timber processing industry. Back in 1997, he acquired the Ust-Izhora plywood mill. Subsequently, he created a joint production with the Finnish company UPM. Alexey Mordashov’s plans include the development of sawmill production in Vologda and the construction of a pulp and paper mill.
In 2003, Alexey Mordashov became Vladimir Putin’s confidant at the upcoming presidential elections. Since that time, observers have not ceased to make forecasts regarding Mordashov’s future position in the “political configuration.”
There were rumors that Alexey Mordashov was considered by the federal authorities as a candidate for the post of one of the deputy prime ministers. Probably, the reason for this was Valentina Matvienko’s visit to Severstal in 2004. She was pleased with what she saw and in one of her interviews said that there was a potential member of the government in Cherepovets. Such conversations make Mordashov laugh.
At least outwardly, the oligarch Mordashov demonstrates his devotion to Cherepovets, which he is not ready to exchange for anything. Mordashov admits that Moscow suppresses and frightens him and he could not live here. In one of his interviews, Alexey Mordashov emotionally told how, on one of his rare visits to Moscow, he was amazed at how Moscow realities did not correspond to life in other Russian cities. Mordashov was especially struck by the abundance of expensive jewelry stores.
I just don’t understand where all this comes from in a rather poor country, he was perplexed.
The Vologda billionaire has a reputation for being, if not stingy, then a very frugal person. The Yak-40 aircraft on which the oligarch flies does not have an exclusive interior design and belongs to the Severstal company. Mordashov does not have his own yacht. Even the Swiss “Frank Muller” watches that he prefers are not something outstanding by the standards of the Russian financial elite: they cost about 30 thousand dollars. When choosing cars, Mordashov also adheres to very modest requirements, giving preference to production cars. For a long time, Mordashov drove a Volvo. One day, journalists witnessed how, at the capital’s airport, Alexey Mordashov very persistently demanded monetary compensation for a buckle torn from the bag of one of the girls who accompanied the businessman on the trip. Mordashov prefers to give inexpensive gifts to foreign business partners, for example, Russian nesting dolls that are dear to his heart. Mordashov is a fierce critic of the gap between rich and poor in Russia. But the oligarch’s concerns about social inequality do not find a response in the hearts of the proletariat. For the workers of the American plant that Severstal bought, the Russian oligarch’s thriftiness resulted in a significant reduction in their “unreasonably high” salaries.
But, being thrifty, Alexey Mordashov tries to live up to the idea of himself as a socially responsible representative big business. Mordashov is on the board of trustees of the Bolshoi Theater, supports sports, and participates in social activities.
Despite his Vologda origin, Mordashov is considered a member of the “St. Petersburg team.” He is one of the oligarchs of the North-West who showed up in Moscow after Putin’s inauguration. Alexei Mordashov was brought closer to Vladimir Putin by his friendship with the St. Petersburg oligarch Vladimir Kogan. At one time, Vladimir Kogan laid claim to a controlling stake in Severstal. However, Kogan did not have enough resources to purchase the plant. He limited himself to Severstal Bank - Metallurgical Commercial Bank.
As they say, Kogan got the bank for almost nothing. You could even say that Mordashov gave it to him, leaving himself a purely nominal percentage of the shares. According to experts, Mordashov thereby demonstrated his loyalty to the “St. Petersburg group.” Whether this is true or not, in the list of “second wave oligarchs” who replaced the adventurous figures of the era of wild capitalism, Mordashov occupies a strong position as a state-minded businessman.
Detailed biographies of the builders of oligarchic capitalism in Russia will not be written anytime soon. Historians still have to work with archives and newspaper periodicals of that time in order to answer the exciting question: how and why people who did not have a legal fortune suddenly became owners of huge enterprises, mines, ports... These questions will be asked more than once not only ordinary people, journalists, but also the state.
And then, probably, many of the elderly Russian oligarchs will wake up in their beds at night. They would pay dearly for everyone to forget about the skeletons in their closets. Or by that time, the current oligarchs will be replaced by those who were brought up on the example of their ruthlessness, composure and uncompromisingness - their own children and the children of those who were thrown overboard the ship of modernity, which in the early 90s headed for capitalism?
In 2004, the first Russian issue of Forbes magazine chose Alexei Mordashov as the main character of the issue. An article was dedicated to him under the telling title “ steel grip" The magazine reconstructed the history of Alexey Mordashov's entry into business and spoke in detail about all the mechanisms that allowed him to gain control over the metallurgical giant. A week later, the Cherepovets newspaper Rech, financed by Mordashov, reprinted the Forbes material on its pages. But when comparing these two texts, it became clear that the material published in Rech was noticeably different from the article in Forbes. The reprinted article was thoroughly edited: someone's caring hand cut out from the article the most painful moments for Alexey Mordashov concerning the privatization of Severstal and his relationship with the old management of the plant...
With history, alas, such things do not happen. Although the time to draw conclusions as to whether the ninth wave of Russian capitalism turned out to be evil or good for Russia is still very early. There is too much personal in assessments of the lives and activities of Russian billionaires. However, the personal goes further and further every year.
Elena Mordashova, the ex-wife of the “steel king”, lives in Moscow. Today she works in a commercial company and does not want to discuss the fate and actions of her husband. She considers her attempt six years ago to take revenge for her ruined life and abandoned son to be stupid and naive. She is not going to repeat it. The one who has more money is right, she is sure.
Mordashov’s son, Ilya, did not want to take his father’s surname and took his mother’s surname. Ilya studies at the institute, where he is known not as the exiled heir to the steel empire, but as a taciturn and reserved guy. Ilya doesn’t tell anyone about the father he met last time more than seven years ago.
The former general director of Severstal, Yuri Lipukhin, after his “overthrow” from the post of general director of the plant, gave only one long interview. Lipukhin's children and relatives protect their elderly father from the obsessive attention of the press and those who are trying to use the former head of the plant to attack Mordashov. Most of the time Lipukhin lives in Sochi, reading books and tending to the garden.
In his new marriage, Alexei Mordashov had three children...
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Mordashov Alexey Alexandrovich- Russian entrepreneur and manager, billionaire. Owner (77%), Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director (from 2006 to 2014 PJSC Severstal (until December 1, 2014 - OJSC Severstal), General Director of CJSC Severgroup, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC Power Machines ", member of the Board of Directors of Nord Gold N.V. and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sveza CJSC.
Biography
Mordashov Alexey Alexandrovich, born on September 26, 1965, native of Cherepovets, Vologda Region.
Relatives. Mother: Mordashova Maria Fedorovna, born on June 8, 1936, pensioner. She worked at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant from its founding.
Wife (former): Mordashova ( maiden name Novitskaya) Elena Grigorievna, born on December 6, 1962, got married while they were students. In recent years, they have not actually lived together. Elena Mordashova initiated a high-profile divorce process, which, however, she lost.
Wife: Elena Vladimirovna Mordashova, born September 20, 1971, economist by training. I met Mordashov when I worked in the accounting department of Severstal.
Son: Ilya Alekseevich Mordashov, born January 15, 1986, currently permanently resides in Moscow. Maintains an occasional relationship with his father.
Awards. Order of Alexander Nevsky. Order of Honor. Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”, 1st class. Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”, II degree. Insignia "For good deeds". Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow, III degree. Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. Cross of Recognition, III degree. Winner of the national business reputation award "Darin" Russian Academy business and entrepreneurship in 2002. Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology. Certificate of honor from the Ministry of Economy. Certificate of honor from the Governor of the Vologda region. Awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Cherepovets.”
State. As of 2014, Alexey Mordashov ranks 12th in the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia. As of 2016, he was recognized as the richest man in Russia according to Bloomberg. In the 2017 Forbes ranking, it took second place in Russia and 51 in the world with a capital of $17.5 billion. In July 2017, he took second place in the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia. In 2018, according to the Forbes ranking of “200 richest businessmen in Russia,” Mordashov also took second position with a fortune of $18.7 billion.
Hobbies. He is interested in poetry, painting, and enjoys active winter sports.
Education
- In 1988, he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Leningrad Engineering and Economic Institute named after P. Togliatti.
- In 2001, he received an MBA degree from Northumbria University Business School (Newcastle, UK).
Labor activity
- After graduating from university, he worked at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, where he successively held the positions of senior economist, head of the bureau of economics and labor organization of mechanical repair shop No. 1 and deputy head of the plant's planning department. He completed a six-month internship in Austria.
- In 1992, A. A. Mordashov became director of economics and finance at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant, which was soon transformed into Severstal OJSC.
- In the same year, during the privatization of the plant, he created a subsidiary company, Severstal-invest (24% of the shares belonged to Severstal, and 76% to him personally), then buying up shares of Severstal. Having thus gained control over the enterprise, he became the general director and owner of Severstal OJSC.
- Currently he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of OJSC Severstal, General Director of CJSC Severgroup, Chairman of the Board of Directors of OJSC Power Machines, member of the Board of Directors of Nord Gold N.V. and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sveza CJSC.
- He also owns a 26% stake in the German travel company TUI Group.
Connections/Partners
But Mordashov was not going to give up. At that time in Ukraine there was another election campaign turned into the “Orange Revolution”. Alexey Alexandrovich supported the presidential candidate Victor Yushchenko, who outlined one of his first steps to review the privatization of Krivorozhstal. True, when reprivatization began in 2005, Severstal refused to participate.
But the Ukrainian fiasco did not really upset Alexey Alexandrovich, who had already firmly established himself as one of the richest people in the world according to Forbes, and in Russia was even considered one of the richest people. Moreover, even without Ukraine on the world market, Mordashov was doing well. Thus, he acquired a metallurgical concern in the USA, as well as a 70% stake in the Italian steel manufacturer Lucchini.
But Alexey Alexandrovich was able to truly reach a high international level in 2006, when Severstal planned to merge with the largest steel corporation Arcelor. This opportunity arose due to the threat of Arcelor being taken over by the world leader in the industry, the metallurgical group Mittal Steel. But the corporation's shareholders did not want to get involved with a little-known Russian oligarch and chose Mittal Steel. In Russia at that time this was perceived as restraining Russian business on the world market.
Mordashov’s love for the media business gradually reached a new level. In July 2005, Severstal Group acquired a 70% stake in the REN-TV television channel from RAO UES. Perhaps this was done in order to make amends for supporting Yushchenko to the Russian authorities. After all, REN-TV remained the last federal opposition channel, and Alexey Alexandrovich was ready to “reformat” it in the right direction.
Meanwhile, Mordashov’s hot temper made itself felt from time to time. For example, Alexey Alexandrovich caused a scandal to the employees of the business terminal of the Vnukovo-3 airport, which he used for his flights along with Yuri Luzhkov and Anatoly Chubais. The oligarch was indignant that one of his “girlfriends”, who accompanied him on the flight, had a torn buckle on her lady’s backpack. Because of this buckle, the “steel king” scolded the airport staff, demanding to pay “a few bucks” for the damage.
In 2008, Mordashev, as a businessman, reached his peak. According to Forbes, his fortune was estimated at $21.2 billion, and he was ranked eighteenth in the ranking of the richest people in the world. However, the global financial crisis that began at that time soon somewhat spoiled these indicators, and already in 2009 the Russian oligarch occupied only 122nd place in the same ranking, with $4.3 billion.
In 2014, the name Lipukhin unexpectedly surfaced. Moreover, it was not the ex-director of Severstal Yuri Lipukhin, who died of a heart attack in Canada in 2011, just two months short of his seventy-fifth birthday, but his son Victor, who permanently resides overseas. The Department of Justice and the US Internal Revenue Service accused Lipukhin Jr. of concealing assets worth between $4 million and $7.5 million. The US Department of Justice claimed that Viktor Lipukhin was the president of Severstal's American subsidiary, Severstal Inc. Severstal denied this information. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether Mordashov really sheltered Lipukhin’s son in his corporation, and then disowned him in time, or whether Viktor Yuryevich actually had nothing to do with Severstal, but was assigned to it “out of old memory.”
Currently, Alexey Alexandrovich is not involved in the operational management of the corporation, having transferred the post of General Director to his deputy Vadim Larin, remaining only the chairman of the board of directors. But at the same time he owns 79.2 percent of Severstal shares.
Alexey Alexandrovich Mordashov is a talented manager who is not afraid to make non-standard decisions. His tenacity came in very handy in the conditions of the emerging market economy and helped him enter the cohort of masters of the new Russia. It was through the efforts of Mordashov that Severstal turned into one of the world's largest steel and mining companies. However, at the same time, Alexey Alexandrovich literally “went over the heads” of the people closest to him. Thus, Yuri Lipukhin, who became for Mordashov not only a “godfather” in managerial activities, but also an actual godfather at baptism, he simply dropped out of business, taking sole possession of the corporation. He also acted rudely with his family, who supported him in difficult times, and whom he abandoned as soon as his business took off. Of course, in the fight against other oligarchs there is such unscrupulousness " to the king of steel“only helped, but it’s unlikely that his conscience can be calm.