Mikhail Prokhorov

A self-established billionaire with a net worth of approximately US$8.9 billion, Mikhail Prokhorov is one of the wealthiest individuals as well as one of the most eligible bachelors in the world. He is a kickboxing, snow skiing, and jet skiing enthusiast, heads the Russian Biathlon Federation, maintains his own website, and is good at playing the guitar.

Mikhail Prokhorov was born on 3 May 1965, in Moscow to Dmitri and Tamara Prokhorov. Dmitri Prokhorov was a lawyer who headed the ‘Soviet Committee of Physical Culture and Sport’ while Mikhail’s mother, Tamara, was employed as a materials engineer at the Institute for Chemical Materials. Mikhail has one elder sister Irina

Dmitri Prokhorov, despite hailing from a rich kulak family, had an impoverished upbringing as parents were persecuted as class enemies under the Bolsheviks and again under Stalin.

Mikhail Prokhorov lost his parents during his youth when both of them succumbed to heart disease when they were in their late 50s.

He was extraordinarily passionate about work and establishing himself—a trait that had been instilled in him by his family. He had also developed a strong affinity for sports in his early years and became a member of the Soviet Youth organization, Komsomo.l when he was in his teens.

In 1983, he was conscripted into the army as an 18 year old and served in the elite missile corps for two full years following which he enlisted in the Communist Party of Soviet Union. Mikhail lived in his parents’ flat along with his sister and her daughter while attending Moscow Financial Institute.

Mikhail Prokhorov’s association with Vladimir Potanin proved to be very momentous in the long run as their business partnerships enabled both of them to become billionaires.

In 1992, he collaborated with Vladimir Potanin to establish ‘Interros’, a holding company that they transformed into a conglomerate having stakes in several infrastructural sectors.

Mikhail Prokhorov and Potanin later on became joint stockholders at MFK Bank with the former chairing the corporation’s board. They used Interros as an investment trust to purchase a 25% stake in Norilsk Nickel—one of the world’s largest palladium and nickel mining and extraction corporations.

Following the balkanization of USSR in December 26, 1991, an unbridled privatization drive ensued, facilitating Potanin and Prokhorov to acquire a major stake in Norilsk Nickel at a throwaway price. Owning a substantial chunk of Norilsk shares, they became de facto owners of the mining company.

He first tasted financial success, when he was the Chairman of the Board at the MFK Bank (International Finance Company) from 1992 to 1993. The bank became a depository institution for the government and acquired Soviet assets to the tune of US$300 to US$400 million.

After Onexim Bank gained administrative control of Norilsk Nickel, Mikhail Prokhorov proceeded to streamline the operations of the mining firm by selling its non-mining acquisitions. He wanted to restructure and rationalize the intensely complicated operations of the mining behemoth and make the business profitable which he eventually did.

His restructuring measures included retrenching the workforce, and introducing performance-oriented incentive programs to improve overall operational efficiency. He also took bold steps to curb pollution by investing hugely in pollution control technology as Norilsk’s emission of sulfur dioxide exceeded that of all the industries of France put together.

As Norilsk Nickel became a profit-making enterprise under Prokhorov’s stewardship, he channelized bulk of the profits—a whopping US$8.5 million—into establishing Polyus Gold, Russia’s biggest gold producer as a spinoff from Norilsk. He stepped down as Norilsk’s CEO in 2007 as he was looking forward to purchase a power supply company.

Numerous observers alleged that Potanin decided to call off his partnership with Mikhail in Interros, the holding company for Norilsk, because of the latter’s scandalous arrangement of prostitutes for rich guests in a French alpine resort. Both of them entered into long-drawn negotiations to set apart their stakes in Interros.