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Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich

Zakhar Smushkin is one of the richest Russian businessmen, representing the largest timber industry enterprise in Russia. Zakhar Davidovich is a shareholder and chairman of the board of directors of the Ilim Group, which today produces a significant part of all not only Russian but also European cardboard and cellulose.

First name: Zahar Last name: Smushkin Middle name: Davidovich Post: Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ilim Group

Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich was born on January 23, 1962 in St. Petersburg. Smushkin’s childhood was held in St. Petersburg, where he studied in high school and studied at the university. In his youth, the future businessman was an example for many peers, differing in the cultural manner of communication, responsibility and extraordinary purposefulness. Zakhar Smushkin studied perfectly, not bringing problems to parents.

Zakhar Smushkin’s biography is a good example of how a man from an ordinary family, thanks to

patience and intellect, reached extraordinary heights in his life. Smushkin’s main achievements are impressive:

He founded Ilim Pulp Company, holds the position of chairman of the board of directors, is a member of the presidium of the Russian business community, is an honorary doctor of the St. Petersburg State Forestry University named after SM Kirov, is an honorary professor at the St. Petersburg State Technological University of Plant Polymers. ranking of the most successful businessmen. By the size of the capital, it is located at 52 positions.

Education

There were many alternatives to choose the future profession, but Smushkin Zakhar Davydovich stopped his choice at the Institute of Pulp and Paper Industry.

As a result, Zakhar Smushkin went to file documents. Training in this university predetermined the choice of future work. Smushkin was a capable student, so in 1984, after completing his studies, he decided to continue his studies in graduate school, which he graduated in the status of candidate of technical sciences.

It was during the training that Zakhar Smushkin received

his first experience in the paper industry, since he combined postgraduate studies with activities in the NGO Hydrolyzprom, where he was a research fellow. In the early nineties he began to move up the career ladder in the Soviet-Swedish company “Tekhnoferm-Engineering”, which was the impetus for his further success.

Business

Zakhar Smushkin’s biography, as an entrepreneur, was launched in 1992 when, at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, he established the firm Ilim Pulp Enterprise in the company of his classmates Mikhail and Boris Zingarevich, specializing in the export of paper products abroad.

The strategy was successful and soon Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich earned his first capital by investing in the development of his small enterprise at the time. Subsequently, he managed to make a large timber holding company out of it, to which thirty domestic companies engaged in logging gradually entered. During the first eight years, the entrepreneur was the head of the Kotlas Pulp and Paper Mill, the Ust-Ilimsky Forest Industry Concern and the Bratsk Timber Industry Complex. Due to his professional qualities and diligence these enterprises began to develop rapidly. Over time, the tycoon became a member of the Bureau of the Board of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists of the Russian Federation, where he manages the commission on forestry in Russia.

However, Smushkin did not stop at the creation of the largest timber industry corporation in the country. Therefore, the talented entrepreneur simultaneously decided to try himself and in the commercial sphere, having created in St. Petersburg a chain of supermarkets “Domovoy”, which sells small household appliances and household goods.

In addition to the forest industry, Zakhar Smushkin also specializes in construction. He runs the enterprise Start Development, which is currently engaged in the construction of the satellite city “Southern” in St. Petersburg. The buildings are located on 5.3 million square kilometers of the area, four million of which will be diverted to residential buildings for 134,000 people.

A key achievement of Zakhar Davidovich as a businessman was the stable development of the Ilim Pulp Holding, which managed to maintain the scale of production despite the economic crisis. At the end of 2015, the corporation received revenue of two billion.

In 1996-1998, Zakhar Smushkin was a member of the supervisory board of VTB. In 1997, he received a seat on the board of directors:

Bratsk timber complex; Forestry Concern in Ust-Ilimsk.

In addition, he chaired the BCCC, and since 2001 – also in the Ilim Group. In 2004, Zakhar Davidovich was elected to the leadership of the RUIE, and in 2007 he became the head of the board of directors of the Ilim Group.

Like any prominent figure, a businessman has competitors. For several years he competes with Oleg Deripaska, not yielding to his rating. Nevertheless, the competition did not prevent Smushkin from taking the right course of government and moving his company to the right path of development, which has a beneficial effect on the Russian economy. At the moment, OJSC Ilim Group is not only the largest Russian association of forest industry enterprises, but also the most technically developed and environmentally oriented.

How the state of the billionaire changed in 2016

Zakhar Smushkin is given an honorable 6th place in the “Russian billionaire rating 2016”. His fortune is estimated at 108 billion rubles.

The businessman owns the assets:

Group “Ilim” “Start Development” Trade network “Domovoy”

Future plans

His key areas of activity Smushkin considers optimization of control over companies, improving their financial performance. Also Zakhar Davidovich plans to restructure the holding, bringing it to the stock market. All these ideas include the preservation of openness and transparency. Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich firmly believes that the future of his companies in reliable hands, and their appointment within the country – globally and substantially. The rapid exit of the enterprise to the stock market will help to achieve new goals and is a very cost-effective prospect. Today, we have already managed to prepare a plan for further development, which will lead to new changes in the company.

Zakhar Smushkin believes that the holding expects a reorientation from the geographical principle to product lines. In addition, the entrepreneur continues to develop all important directions, planning to buy some European trading companies. A huge number of goods are sent to Asian countries, so it is possible that subsidiaries will be opened there.

Charity

Zakhar Smushkin successfully established cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund. In 2012, his company concluded an agreement with the fund, according to which the company “Ilim Pulp” voluntarily refused to harvest wood in unique forest areas, the number of which on the planet is rapidly declining. The parties to the treaty initially stipulated the boundaries of the territory. Today the company rents these lands. However, before the expiry of the agreement, a ban on deforestation in these places was introduced.

Personal life

In addition to the development of the timber industry in the Russian Federation, Zakhar Davidovich is fond of intellectual games, such as chess. In addition, he really likes tennis.
Zakhar Smushkin’s passion for painting is also known. He owns a collection of the late XIX-early XX centuries of famous artists, among which the entrepreneur highlights Mikhail Vrubel. In 2016, in the rating of the Forbes edition, the businessman was on the 114th place among the richest domestic entrepreneurs. The state of Zakhar Davidovich is estimated at $ 750 million.