Leonid mikhelson bio

Leonid Viktorovich Mikhelson was born on August 11, 1955, in the Soviet Union and is a Russian-Israeli billionaire businessman.

He is the CEO, chairman, and major shareholder of the Russian gas company Novatek.

Mikhelson obtained a stake in a privatized pipeline construction company after the collapse of the Soviet Union, forming Novatek.

He is a business partner of Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko, a close confidante of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Born to an Ashkenazi Jewish family, Mikhelson graduated with a degree in Industrial Civil Engineering from the Samara Institute of Civil Engineering in 1977.

He started his career as a foreman at a construction and assembling company in Siberia, working on projects such as the Urengoi-Chelyabinsk gas pipeline.

In 1987, Mikhelson became General Director of Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy, one of the first companies to undergo privatization after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Mikhelson served as Managing Director at NOV Leonid Mikhelson - Grizzly Bulls Billionaire Index NOWU