Brothers Kovalchuk: biography

Scientists, and now businessmen Kovalchuk brothers are also well-known personalities in the country. They often become a subject of interest to the press, moreover, they write about everything: compromising evidence, and, on the contrary, enthusiastic and grateful articles. So what is caused to their people of such interest? What are the businessmen doing with the brothers Kovalchuk? Further in the article we will try to present to your attention the biography, as well as the career path of these two extraordinary personalities. I think you will be interested.

Yuriy Valentinovich Kovalchuk: Biography

Today he is known as a large Russian businessman, the head of the bank "Russia". Yuri Valentinovich was born in 1951 in Leningrad (today St. Petersburg). His father VM Kovalchuk was a famous Soviet scientist, historian. In his childhood, Yuri showed mathematical abilities, and after graduation he entered the Physics Department of Leningrad State University. After receiving the diploma, he began to study in graduate school, and then defended first the Ph.D., and then the doctoral dissertation. In 1987 he was appointed to the post of first deputy director of the Institute. Joff Zhores Alferov. Then he was only 36 years old. Over the years of work at the Institute (1987-1991), he wrote more than 100 scientific papers and various inventions, for which in 1988 he received a state award in the field of science and technology.

New time - new perspectives

In 1991, Yuri Kovalchuk - Doctor of Physical Sciences - suddenly gave up science in order to do business. Why did this happen? Once the young deputies of Zhores Ivanovich - Yu. Kovalchuk and A. Fursenko - made an innovative proposal: to split their institute into two parts. In the first life will go as it always does, but the second will deal with patenting and selling innovative ideas. At the same time, Yuri Valentinovich claimed to be the head of the commercial department. However, Alferov did not want to change anything in his institute, and then both deputies decided to go on a free voyage. After that, Kovalchuk headed the Center for Advanced Development and Technology. During this period, he met with the future president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, and between them a friendship was established. In 1996, Yuri Valentinovich, the dacha cooperative "Lake" was founded near Priozersk. Gradually, his capital grew, and he more and more moved away from science, plunging into business.

Millennium and new successes

By 2000, Yuri Valentinovich Kovalchuk was already one of the most successful businessmen in Russia. At the same time, he became chairman of the board of the public fund "North-West", as well as the "Center for Strategic Research" (St. Petersburg). In the summer of 2005 - a new and very responsible appointment. The press is full of headlines, now Kovalchuk Yuri Valentinovich will be the new chairman of the board of directors of one of the major financial organizations of the country. "Bank Russia" will henceforth act under his leadership. By the way, according to the reports, Kovalchuk became the deputy board of directors of the bank in 1992. The business empire, the Rossiya Bank, took control of Gazprombank, as well as Sibur and Gazprom Media. In 2009 Yury Valentinovich became a member of the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation on "modernization and development of technologies for the purpose of economic growth." In 2008 Forbes magazine included Kovalchuk for the first time in the number of Russian billionaires, and his fortune was estimated at 1.9 billion dollars.

Media projects

In 2008, Kovalchuk and his partners create the National Media Group, which includes several channels, including REN-TV, Channel One, Izvestia, Channel 5 and others. In the same period, he becomes an honorary Consul General of the Kingdom of Thailand in the northern capital. The King of Thailand, as a token of friendship, awarded him the Order of the Crown of the 3rd degree. According to the newspaper Vedomosti, the business of Yuri Kovalchuk by this time is colossal, and he owns commercial real estate in Moscow on Tverskaya Street. In the spring of 2015, the NMG acquired a 25% stake in the Sport Express company, which included a television channel and a newspaper of the same name. The CTC and Tele2 channels are added to the group's assets.

Is Holding Profmedia connected with the Kovalchuk family? But first let's understand what this organization is. This is a Russian media holding, which was founded in 1997. Its headquarters is in the Russian capital. If you look at the history of the development of this corporation, you can see that the NMG bought Expert magazine from ProfMedia, in 2005 Gazprom Media Holding, also part of the National Media Group, acquired the newspaper Izvestiya. As you can see, the activity of these two media concerns is constantly intertwined.

Sanctions

March 20, 2014 was unsuccessful for the owner of Bank of Russia. He falls under the visa and financial sanctions of the United States against Russian citizens who were involved in the Crimean crisis. As an argument in the US Treasury, the businessman was included in the circle of "approximate" Russian president and is "personal cashier" of Putin. By the way, the "bank Russia" also fell under these sanctions.

Charity

In 2012, Yuri Kovlchuk, learning about the impending bankruptcy of the oldest Russian bookshop in Paris - Librairie Du Globe - gave him a round sum to help him and saved him from actual death. As a consequence, the magazine "Euromag" called it "Person of the Month". By the way, the owner of the store before appealed to various cultural and public organizations, and only the president of the bank "Russia" has responded to this call for help. French bank employees were pleasantly surprised, as they had a stereotype about Russian bankers-oligarchs, who only know how to buy and sell valuables, real estate, etc.

Hobbies and interests

Yuri Kovalchuk is a very interesting person. He has many hobbies. The last ten years he had a hobby - collecting rare cars. His other passion is ping-pong. He can play table tennis for hours.

A family

Wife Kovalchuk Yuri Valentinovich is a philologist. They married in 1976, and a year later they had a son, Boris, who is now a major businessman and politician. In the spring of 2006, he was appointed director of the department under the staff of the Government of the Russian Federation and was engaged in the implementation of the most priority national projects. A year later he was appointed deputy director of Rosatom, and a year later - head of the company Inter RAO UES, engaged in the export-import of electricity.

The elder brother of Yuri Valentinovich is a famous scientist, physicist Mikhail Valentinovich Kovalchuk. "Kurchatov Institute" today is under his leadership. Several years ago, tens of billions of dollars were allocated for its financing from the state budget ... not dollars, rubles. There are rumors in the press that M. Kovalchuk allegedly put forward the idea of reforming the RAS in retaliation for rejecting several times when he was elected to full members of the Academy of Sciences, and also voted against his appointment as director of the Institute of Crystallography. And here he, taking advantage of his brother's position under the Russian "court", that is, the friendship between Yuri and Vladimir Vladimirovich, insisted on carrying out this reform. This version was supported by an excerpt from an interview with Mikhail Kovalchuk, where he as a prophet predicts the future of the RAS: "The death of the Russian Academy of Sciences is inevitable." At the same time he compares it with the Roman Empire. Is it really that he touched the attitude of academicians to his person, and today he wants to show them what Kovalchuk Mikhail Valentinovich is capable of doing. Kurchatov Institute today is his favorite child, and here he is a sovereign master. Mikhail Valentinovich today is engaged in science, is a specialist in X-ray physics and crystallography.

As you can see, Kovalchuk brothers, whose biography and personal life are described in this article, did not follow in the footsteps of the humanistic father, but engaged in exact sciences. Parents say that it was the influence of Mikhail that helped Yuri to choose the physics faculty of Leningrad State University. However, in later life everything changed, and now the younger brother has a great influence on Michael and supports him in every possible way. Further in the article we will tell you the biography of the elder brother of a well-known banker.

M.V. Kovalchuk: biography, career

The future scientist was born in 1946 in Leningrad, as you already know, in the family of a historian, Valentin Kovalchuk, who was studying the blockade of Leningrad. Their mother, Miriam Abramovna, was also a historian and worked at the Faculty of History of Leningrad State University. In 1965, he enrolled in the physics department of the Leningrad University, where 4 years later filed papers Yuri. As you can see, the brothers Kovalchuk did not follow in the footsteps of their parents, but chose a different fate. During the defense of the thesis, his work was so interesting and useful that he was offered to stay at the university and study in graduate school. However, for family reasons, he could not accept the offer and went to Moscow. In the capital, he was appointed research fellow at the Institute of Crystallography at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, a year later he was already a staff member of the Institute.

Career

In Moscow, he entered graduate school and graduated in 1978. After 10 years of work at the institute in 1987, he became the head of the laboratory. In 1988 he finished working on his doctoral dissertation, but before the defense he received a sharply negative response from Academician AM Afanasyev. In 2007 he was appointed to the post of vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, in order to enter this position, he must be an academician, that is, a full member. However, the vote of the academicians was not in his favor. Since 2010, he received membership in the Council of the Skolkovo Foundation, and two years later he was appointed dean of the Physics Department of SPbSU. Ten years later, he was awarded the title of professor. In the same year he was elected director of the Institute of Crystallography at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Then in 2005, Mikhail Valentinovich Kovalchuk received a new appointment. Kurchatov Institute has since become his most beloved child. Until 2015, he was its director, and only on the eve of the new year 2016 he became its president. Before that, he was invited to a meeting with Vladimir Putin. The press writes that it was thanks to the friendship of the president with Yuri Valentinovich that in 2015 Mikhail Valentinovich was appointed President of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute".

The science

The research of Mikhail Kovalchuk was a breakthrough in science. His new method allowed us to begin to study the structure of matter from a completely different angle, thanks to the method of standing x-ray waves. This is of paramount importance for the study of nanosystems. It is thanks to him that nanotechnology develops in Russia. Evil tongues continue to say that he also owes these successes to his brother, or rather his friendship with the president. However, what does it matter when his intellect contributes to the emergence of domestic science to a whole new level. It was thanks to his efforts that Kurchatov's only source of synchrotron radiation was put into operation.

Media projects

Mikhail Kovalchuk was the founder and editor-in-chief of the scientific and technical journal "Crystallography", as well as deputy. Editor-in-chief of the journal Surface. Once he heard about his brother's desire to become the host of the television program, Yuri Kovalchuk ordered the creation of the popular science television program "A Story from the Future", which was to take place at the "Fifth Channel".

Mikhail Kovalchuk: The Family

The scientist's wife, Elena Y. Polyakova, is a specialist in the history of Ireland. As you can see, despite the fact that the Kovalchuk brothers did not follow in the footsteps of their parents, but the eldest of them chose a historian's wife. In December of 1968, Mikhail Valentinovich and Elena Yuryevna had a son, Cyril. Today he is chairman of the National Media Group, created by his uncle.

The brothers Kovalchuk for their services to the fatherland received not one government award. Michael has two orders with this name - Third and Fourth degree. There are also many prizes, certificates, certificates, etc. He is also called Putin's favorite scientist. And Yuri, as already noted, has not only domestic, but also foreign awards.