Viktor Pinchuk
Encyclopedia
Victor Pinchuk is a Jewish-Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist. Forbes
ranked him # 336 on the list of the wealthiest people in the world, with a fortune of $3.3 billion. Pinchuk is the founder and main owner of EastOne Group Ltd., an international investment advisory company based in London, and of Interpipe Group
, one of Ukraine's leading steel industry groups also working in other fields of economy. Pinchuk is the owner of four TV channels and a popular tabloid, Fakty i Kommentarii
. He has been a member of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada
, for two consecutive terms from 1998 to 2006. He is married to Elena Pinchuk, the daughter of former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma
.
Interpipe Corporation, whose customers include Gazprom and Rosneft, is a leading producer of seamless pipes and railway wheels. In 2006, Pinchuk founded an investment advisory company, EastOne www.eastonegroup.com. Its portfolio includes industrial assets such as production of pipes and tubes, railcar wheels, specialty steels and alloys, machinery, as well as media. In 2004, Interpipe became the first Ukrainian company member of the World Economic Forum. Interpipe is very active in fight against HIV/AIDS at the workplace and in 2004 became the first Eastern European company member of the Global Business Coalition against HIV/AIDS. Also in 2004 Pinchuk and Rinat Akhmetov
acquired the steelfactory Kryvorizhstal
for about $800 million in a 2004 tender. Later, in 2005, the first Tymoshenko Government
reversed this sale, and held a nationally-televised repeat auction that netted a record-breaking $4.8 billion.
Pinchuk served as a MP of the third (1998–2002) and fourth (2002–2006, for Labour Ukraine
) convocations of Parliament. At this point in time he abandoned politics since he believes Ukraine has reached a level of development when business and politics should be separated.
For more than ten years Pinchuk has been developing and supporting a number of philanthropic projects in Ukraine. In 2006, he consolidated these activities under the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, which is now considered the largest private Ukrainian philanthropic foundation.
Its numerous projects include the creation of a network of modern neonatal centres throughout Ukraine, cooperation programs with the Clinton Global Initiative, the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the ANTIAIDS Foundation of his wife Elena Pinchuk, the creation of the Kyiv School of Economics, a cooperation with the Aspen Institute, the opening of the first large scale contemporary art centre in Ukraine PinchukArtCentre
, the creation and development of the only Ukrainian private chamber orchestra, the production and promotion of a film with Steven Spielberg on the Holocaust in Ukraine, human rights projects with George Soros and support of local Jewish communities.
In 2004, he created the Yalta European Strategy (YES) - an international independent organization that is promoting Ukraine joining the European Union. Its annual summer meeting in Yalta has become the main high-level Ukraine-EU forum for debate and policy recommendations development. At the recent annual meetings among others, Bill Clinton, Stefan Fule, Paul Krugman, Alexei Kudrin, Shimon Peres, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Larry Summers and other political and business leaders were present to discuss Ukraine's European perspectives and global challenges. Pinchuk has long promoted closer ties between Ukraine and the EU.
Pinchuk serves as a member of the Board of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, of the International Advisory Council of Brookings Institution and of the Corporate Advisory Board of the Global Business Coalition against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
In June 2009 Pinchuk organized the Paul McCartney
free concert on the Maidan
Square in Kiev
in front of 500,000 people. As an initiative of the Pinchuk Art Center in Kiev
., in December 2009 Pinchuk announced a new $100,000 prize for artists under the age of 35. The Future Generation Art Prize is awarded every two years and is open to any young artist who applies online. The jury includes Elton John
, Eli Broad
, Richard Armstrong
, Glenn D. Lowry
and/or Miuccia Prada
. Damien Hirst
, Takashi Murakami
, Andreas Gursky
and Jeff Koons
, artists whose work Pinchuk collects, serve as mentors who support to the finalists and the winner. In December 2010, the main prize was awarded to Brazilian artist Cinthia Marcelle.
, the daughter of former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma
. Elena Pinchuk runs the ANTIAIDS Foundation
, which focuses on prevention and retroviral distribution and AIDS care in Ukraine. She and Victor Pinchuk are friends of singer Elton John
and former US PresidentBill Clinton
, whose 60th birthday Pinchuk attended in New York
. Victor Pinchuk has three daughters and a son.
ranked him # 336 on the list of the wealthiest people in the world in 2011, with a fortune of $3.3 billion. Pinchuk was listed as one of the "2010 Time 100 - The World's Most Influential People" in Time Magazine. He was ranked #1 on the ranking of promoters of Ukraine abroad by the Institute of World Policy and #37 on the Power 100 ranking of ArtReview in 2010.
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
ranked him # 336 on the list of the wealthiest people in the world, with a fortune of $3.3 billion. Pinchuk is the founder and main owner of EastOne Group Ltd., an international investment advisory company based in London, and of Interpipe Group
Interpipe Group
Interpipe Group, or simply Interpipe is the influential Ukrainian business group founded and mostly owned by local business oligarch Viktor Pinchuk. The group focuses on steel industry , although indirectly controlling assets in various fields of industry, services and media...
, one of Ukraine's leading steel industry groups also working in other fields of economy. Pinchuk is the owner of four TV channels and a popular tabloid, Fakty i Kommentarii
Fakty i Kommentarii
Fakty i Kommentarii , founded in 1997, is Ukraine's biggest selling Russian language tabloid newspaper, with a circulation of more than 1.1 million.Based in Kiev, the paper offers news events and interviews, but no analysis...
. He has been a member of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada
Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman...
, for two consecutive terms from 1998 to 2006. He is married to Elena Pinchuk, the daughter of former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Danylovych Kuchma was the second President of independent Ukraine from 19 July 1994, to 23 January 2005. Kuchma took office after winning the 1994 presidential election against his rival, incumbent Leonid Kravchuk...
.
Early life and career
Pinchuk was born in 1960 in Kiev to Jewish parents who moved to the industrial town of Dnipropetrovsk after being denied the right to study because he was Jewish in Kiev. He graduated from the Metallurgy institute of Dnipropetrovsk in 1983, 7 years later he founded Interpipe Company on the basis of his patented innovations which were successfully adopted by leading metallurgical factories in the USSR.Interpipe Corporation, whose customers include Gazprom and Rosneft, is a leading producer of seamless pipes and railway wheels. In 2006, Pinchuk founded an investment advisory company, EastOne www.eastonegroup.com. Its portfolio includes industrial assets such as production of pipes and tubes, railcar wheels, specialty steels and alloys, machinery, as well as media. In 2004, Interpipe became the first Ukrainian company member of the World Economic Forum. Interpipe is very active in fight against HIV/AIDS at the workplace and in 2004 became the first Eastern European company member of the Global Business Coalition against HIV/AIDS. Also in 2004 Pinchuk and Rinat Akhmetov
Rinat Akhmetov
Rinat Leonidovych Akhmetov is a Ukrainian businessman. He is the founder and President of System Capital Management, and is ranked among the wealthiest men in the nation. Akhmetov is also the owner and President of the Ukrainian football club Shakhtar Donetsk...
acquired the steelfactory Kryvorizhstal
Kryvorizhstal
Kryvorizhstal is Ukraine's largest integrated steel company located in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih.Bought in 2005 by Mittal Steel, the company is one of the most important businesses in Ukraine and a globally important steel producer. It is the largest steel manufacturer in Ukraine and...
for about $800 million in a 2004 tender. Later, in 2005, the first Tymoshenko Government
First Tymoshenko Government
The first Tymoshenko Government was appointed on February 4, 2005 by 373 Parliamentarians of the Verkhovna Rada . It was supported opposition factions' Parliamentarians, including three Communists, 18 Social Democratic Party of Ukraine members, 46 Regions faction members.September 8, 2005...
reversed this sale, and held a nationally-televised repeat auction that netted a record-breaking $4.8 billion.
Pinchuk served as a MP of the third (1998–2002) and fourth (2002–2006, for Labour Ukraine
Labour Ukraine
Strong Ukraine ; former Labour Party Ukraine , is a political party in Ukraine registered in August 1999. The party claims to have over 80,000 members as of mid-May 2010. It is currently negotiating a merge with the Party of Regions....
) convocations of Parliament. At this point in time he abandoned politics since he believes Ukraine has reached a level of development when business and politics should be separated.
For more than ten years Pinchuk has been developing and supporting a number of philanthropic projects in Ukraine. In 2006, he consolidated these activities under the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, which is now considered the largest private Ukrainian philanthropic foundation.
Its numerous projects include the creation of a network of modern neonatal centres throughout Ukraine, cooperation programs with the Clinton Global Initiative, the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the ANTIAIDS Foundation of his wife Elena Pinchuk, the creation of the Kyiv School of Economics, a cooperation with the Aspen Institute, the opening of the first large scale contemporary art centre in Ukraine PinchukArtCentre
PinchukArtCentre
PinchukArtCentre — the centre of contemporary art, located in Kiev. It was opened on September 16, 2006 by Victor Pinchuk Foundation.PinchukArtCentre is an international centre for contemporary art of the 21st century...
, the creation and development of the only Ukrainian private chamber orchestra, the production and promotion of a film with Steven Spielberg on the Holocaust in Ukraine, human rights projects with George Soros and support of local Jewish communities.
In 2004, he created the Yalta European Strategy (YES) - an international independent organization that is promoting Ukraine joining the European Union. Its annual summer meeting in Yalta has become the main high-level Ukraine-EU forum for debate and policy recommendations development. At the recent annual meetings among others, Bill Clinton, Stefan Fule, Paul Krugman, Alexei Kudrin, Shimon Peres, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Larry Summers and other political and business leaders were present to discuss Ukraine's European perspectives and global challenges. Pinchuk has long promoted closer ties between Ukraine and the EU
Pinchuk serves as a member of the Board of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, of the International Advisory Council of Brookings Institution and of the Corporate Advisory Board of the Global Business Coalition against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
In June 2009 Pinchuk organized the Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
free concert on the Maidan
Maidan Nezalezhnosti
Maidan Nezalezhnosti is the central square of Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine. One of the main city squares, it is located on the Khreschatyk Street...
Square in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
in front of 500,000 people. As an initiative of the Pinchuk Art Center in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
., in December 2009 Pinchuk announced a new $100,000 prize for artists under the age of 35. The Future Generation Art Prize is awarded every two years and is open to any young artist who applies online. The jury includes Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, Eli Broad
Eli Broad
Eli Broad is an American businessman from Detroit, Michigan who resides in Los Angeles, California.-Life and career:An only child, Broad was born in the Bronx to Lithuanian Jewish immigrant parents. His father was a housepainter, his mother was a dressmaker. His family moved to Detroit when he...
, Richard Armstrong
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
, Glenn D. Lowry
Glenn D. Lowry
Glenn D. Lowry is the current Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He became the sixth director of the Museum in 1995 and heads a staff of around 750 people...
and/or Miuccia Prada
Miuccia Prada
Miuccia Prada is an Italian fashion designer and entrepreneur. She also has a Ph.D. in Political Science.Prada was born in Milan, the youngest granddaughter of Mario Prada, founder of the company. According to: Forbes.com's The World's Richest People 2001: "She and her husband, Patrizio Bertelli,...
. Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
, Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami
is an internationally prolific contemporary Japanese artist. He works in fine arts media—such as painting and sculpture—as well as what is conventionally considered commercial media —fashion, merchandise, and animation— and is known for blurring the line between high and low art...
, Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky is a German visual artist known for his enormous architecture and landscape color photographs, often employing a high point of view...
and Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons
Jeffrey "Jeff" Koons is an American artist known for his reproductions of banal objects—such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces....
, artists whose work Pinchuk collects, serve as mentors who support to the finalists and the winner. In December 2010, the main prize was awarded to Brazilian artist Cinthia Marcelle.
Personal life
Victor Pinchuk is married to Elena PinchukElena Pinchuk
Elena Pinchuk is the daughter of Ukrainian second president Leonid Kuchma, founder of ANTIAIDS Foundation, Head of Directors Board in StarLightMedia.- Biography :...
, the daughter of former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Kuchma
Leonid Danylovych Kuchma was the second President of independent Ukraine from 19 July 1994, to 23 January 2005. Kuchma took office after winning the 1994 presidential election against his rival, incumbent Leonid Kravchuk...
. Elena Pinchuk runs the ANTIAIDS Foundation
ANTIAIDS Foundation
The Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation is the first and only charity foundation in Ukraine, that is functioning thank to private funds. Main aim of the Foundation is to control the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine.- History :...
, which focuses on prevention and retroviral distribution and AIDS care in Ukraine. She and Victor Pinchuk are friends of singer Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
and former US PresidentBill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, whose 60th birthday Pinchuk attended in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Victor Pinchuk has three daughters and a son.
Rankings
ForbesForbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
ranked him # 336 on the list of the wealthiest people in the world in 2011, with a fortune of $3.3 billion. Pinchuk was listed as one of the "2010 Time 100 - The World's Most Influential People" in Time Magazine. He was ranked #1 on the ranking of promoters of Ukraine abroad by the Institute of World Policy and #37 on the Power 100 ranking of ArtReview in 2010.
External links
- 2010 Pinchuk's profile at Forbes
- Victor Pinchuk Foundation:
- Biography of Victor Pinchuk:
- GlobalSecurity.org: Ukraine political parties; Carnegie Endowment assessment in 2004
- Our Ukraine Newsletter: reformist opponents of Pinchuk's party
- Build Ukraine Newsletter
- http://pinchukartcentre.org/pages/english/news.html
- Yalta European Strategy: