Although I think Forbes dropped this guy from the billionaire listing, he is another steel lad to keep track. Here is his bio and is a guy to watch.:
Alexander Lebedev was born to a family which was part of the Moscow intelligentsia. His father, Evgeny Nikolaevich Lebedev was a Professor at Bauman Moscow Highest Technical School and a retired athlete, a former member of the Soviet National Water polo team. Alexander's mother, Maria Sergeyevna, after graduating from Moscow Pedagogic Institute worked in a rural Sakhalin school, then taught English in a Moscow tertiary school.
In 1977, Alexander Lebedev entered the Department of Economics at Moscow State Institute of International Relations. After he graduated in 1982, Lebedev started work at the Institute of Economics of the World Socialist System doing research for his Kandidat (equal to Ph.D.) dissertation The problems of debt and the challenges of globalization.
However he soon transferred to the First Chief Directorate (Foreign Intelligence) of KGB. He worked there and at its successor Foreign Intelligence Service until 1992.[4] In London he had the diplomatic cover of an economics attaché.[5] According to Lebedev's personal site his assignments included fighting capital flight from the Russian Federation.[4] The Sunday Express stated that he “spent more time studying finance and the City than British secrets”.[2]
Lebedev continues his research in Economics, obtaining his Kandidat (Ph.D.) degree for his dissertation Problems of the Russian Foreign Debt (Global and Regional Aspects) (2000) and his Dr. Sci degree for the dissertation Financial Globalization in the context of the Global, Regional and National (Russian) development.[4]
Business career
Lebedev with then President of Russia Vladimir Putin on 7 May 2002.
After retirement as Lieutenant Colonel Lebedev created his first company: the Russian Investment-Finance Company (Русская инвестиционно-финансовая компания). In 1995, the company bought a small and troubled bank named National Reserve Bank that soon grew to become one of the largest Russian banks.[4] The National Reserve Bank and Alfa Bank were the only two out of the ten largest Russian banks that survived the 1998 Russian financial crisis and following this it went on to become one of the largest banks in Russia.
Among bank's assets are:
30% of the main Russian national airline Aeroflot (the largest private stock holder);
44% of the Ilyushin Finance Co, that owns a significant share of Russian aircraft-building industry;
significant parts of Sberbank, Gazprom, Unified Energy System.
The bank is the core of the National Reserve Corporation, that according to Lebedev's personal site owns around US$2 billion of assets.[4] Forbes estimates Lebedev's fortune higher as US$3.5 billion.[1]
The National Reserve Corporation included National Meat Company, National Mortgage Company (Национальная Ипотечная Компания), construction companies as well as daughter structures in textiles, telecommunications, trams and trolleybuses, electrical power, chemical and tourist industries. They own a large tourist hotel network in the Crimea (Ukraine) and plan to create the National Reserve Park that will manage diverse tourist enterprises in Russia, Ukraine and France. According to his website Lebedev was one of the first prominent businessmen with interests in Russian technology and socially-oriented business rather than the simple exploitation of the country's natural resources.
In 21 January, 2009, Lebedev and his company Evening Press, part of Lebedev Holdings, brought approximately a 75.1% of share in the Evening Standard newspaper for £1. The previous owners, the Daily Mail and General Trust, continue to hold 24.9% in the company in the new firm, named Evening Standard Ltd. Lebedev has he will not interfere with the editorial running of the paper. Lebedev commented that during his time as a spy in London, he used the Evening Standard to find information.[3] Paul Dacre, the editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard at the time of the sale said: "It's a very sad day for the paper, it's a very sad day for the Rothermeres. We are very sorry that it leaked out, we had no control over that. Everyone's been working very hard and there's a lot of hope for the future of the Evening Standard."[6]
Political career
In 2003, Lebedev stood as a candidate for elections to the Mayoralty of Moscow and the State Duma. He received 13% in the Mayoral elections, losing to the incumbent Yuriy Luzhkov, but won a seat in the State Duma on the Rodina party list (he was actually number one on the Moscow regional list of the party). In Duma, he initially moved from conservative "Rodina" to the pro-Government United Russia fraction, but after Rodina was merged into the larger socialist coalition Fair Russia, he made his return and now is one of the party leaders.
Lebedev was formerly the Vice-Chairman of Duma's committee on the Commonwealth of Independent States; the coordinator of Duma's group on interactions with Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the coordinator of the State Duma group dealing with the city.[4]
Lebedev, together with the former President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, is the owner of 49% of Novaya Gazeta, one of the most vocal newspapers critical of the current Russian Government.[7]
After the assassination of a prominent Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya Lebedev wrote an article praising the talents of Politkovskaya and suggesting that the assassins were actually trying to target the good names of her opponents.[8] He pledged 25 million Russian rubles (around US$1mln) for the information leading to catching the assassins.[8] This is largely due to his moderate political views.
Lebedev is a founder and the President of the National Investment Council, a non-political and non-Government organization working to improve the investment sentiments in Russia, protecting interests of the Russian business abroad and fighting the negative sentiments towards Russian business.[4]
In September 2008, Russian politician Mikhail Gorbachev has announced he is going to make a comeback to Russian politics along with Alexander Lebedev.[9] Their party will be called the Independent Democratic Party of Russia.
In March 2009 Lebedev announced that he would be running for mayor of Sochi, the city that will host the 2014 Olympics
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