Khan German

Khan German

German Khan is a Russian entrepreneur who has led TNK-BP since its founding in 2003. He is one of the founders of Alfa Group Consortium and a member of its Supervisory Board, and sits on the boards of directors of Slavneft Oil and Gas Company, Alfa Finance Holdings (oil and financial assets) and ABH Holdings (holding company of Alfa-Bank Banking group).

Assets

He is a major shareholder of Alfa Group and the partner of Mikhail Fridman. He is now responsible for the group’s fuel activities.

Status

Ranked 13th in the Russian Forbes rating of "The Richest Businessmen of Russia — 2011"^[1]. German Khan's fortune is estimated at $9.6 billion.

Biography

Education

Graduated from an industrial and pedagogical technical school with honors in 1982. In 1988 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys, in the ferrous metal casting faculty.

Career

After leaving school in 1978 he worked as amechanic at the Kyiv Experimental and Development Plant for Non-Standard Equipment.

In the late eighties the cooperative era began, and in 1988 Khan went to work at the Kosmos (‘Space’) cooperative, which rented its premises in TsUM and was involved in the wholesale of a wide range of garments, footwear and jewelry. In 1989 he created the Alexandrina cooperative which specialized in tailoring.

From 1990 to 1992 he held the post of Chief of Wholesale at Alfa Eco, a major trading company and part of Alfa Group.

During the period from 1992 to 1998 he held different executive positions in the Alfa Group Consortium. From 1995–1998 he worked as the Director of Raw Materials at Alfa Eco.

In the beginning of 1998 he was made Senior Vice President of Tyumen Oil Company (TNK).

From 2000 to 2003 he held the post of Deputy Chairman of the Board of TNK.

2019: Founding of Wintershall Dea

In April 2019 it was announced that the German company Wintershall (a subsidiary of the BASF concern) and DEA (Deutsche Erdoel AG), owned by Mikhail Fridman, had completed a merger. Wintershall Dea was founded as a result, becoming the largest independent producer of gas and oil in Europe.

As a result of the transaction BASF, the owner of Wintershall, received 67% of Wintershall Dea, and LetterOne owners Fridman, German Khan and Alexey Kuzmichev, who controlled DEA, received the remaining 33%. See Wintershall Dea for details.

Public activity

He is a member of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress and provides considerable support to the European Jewish Fund, a non-governmental organization contributing to the development of European Jewry and promoting ideas of tolerance in Europe.

He co-founded the Genesis Philanthropy Group alongside Stan Polovets, Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and Alexander Knaster in order to promote Jewish identity worldwide. Other initiatives in this area include the creation of a memorial at Babi Yar, where Nazi Germany carried out a series of massacres against Jewish people.

He is also an active supporter of the Life Line charitable foundation, which provides drugs and medical care for seriously ill children across Russia.

Family

• Spouse: Angelika Khan.
• Son: Jakob Khan.
• Daughter: Eleonora Khan.
• Daughter: Eva Khan.
• Son: Lev Khan.
• Son-in-law: Alex van der Zwaan.

In December, 2020 the departing US President Donald Trump pardoned the son-in-law of German Khan, who in 2018 became the first person to be convicted in a case concerning Russian election interference, which was investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The lawyer Alex van der Zwaan confessed in 2018 to lying to the commission of Special Counsel Mueller, who was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. Van der Zwaan lied about his connection to Rick Gates, the deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump, and was the first to be sentenced as a result of Mueller's investigation. On April 3, 2018, he was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a fine of $20,000. The lawyer served his sentence in a federal prison in Pennsylvania before being deported to the Netherlands.

Petr Aven admitted that he tried to establish relations with the Trump administration in the interests of Alfa Group, but not on behalf of the Russian authorities. He was unsuccessful in establishing contact, as their counterparts were `afraid of talking` to the Russian businessmen.

Interesting facts

German Khan met his wife on a Transaero flight to Israel in 1991^[2]. One of the stewardesses ended up marrying him two years later. She is ten years Khan’s junior.

Примечания