German Oskarovich has been president and chairman of the board of Sberbank of Russia since the fall of 2007, the former Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, is one of the most famous and highly paid top managers in Russia.

Childhood and school years

Born on February 8, 1964 in the village of Panfilovo, Pavlodar region in Kazakhstan, where his family was exiled during the war years. Father, Oscar Fedorovich, worked as a simple engineer, and mother, Emilia Filipovna, worked as an economist in the village council. There were three children in the family (Herman is the youngest son), so the parents worked tirelessly. At the age of one and a half years, the boy lost his father, then his grandmother came to the aid of his mother - it was she who brought up in her grandchildren such qualities as restraint and modesty.

He studied well, distinguished by exemplary behavior. He didn’t particularly like exact sciences, but he enjoyed playing sports and was even the captain of the school basketball team.

Education and army years

In 1982, he was drafted into the army, where he served for two years.

After demobilization, he entered the law faculty at Omsk State University. Having received a diploma in law in 1990, he entered the graduate school of the law faculty of Leningrad State University.

In 2011, already being the head of Sberbank, he defended his dissertation at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation.

Labor activity

In 1991-1998, he worked at the St. Petersburg City Hall, where he rose from the legal adviser of the Petrodvorets Administration Committee for Economic Development and Property to Vice Governor, Chairman of the City Property Management Committee of the city administration.

Video:

Later, he met the future Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Center for Strategic Research (CSR), under his leadership, prepared Putin's economic program when he ran for his first presidential term in 2000.

Heading the CSR, in 1998-2000 he also served as Deputy Minister of State Property.

After Putin's victory in the first presidential election, he was invited to head the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. In the first half of the 2000s, it was one of the most powerful ministries in the government.

In the fall of 2007, he became president and chairman of the board of Sberbank, and Elvira Nabiullina, the current chairman of the Bank of Russia, was appointed to his post at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

As head of Sberbank, he announced a radical reform aimed at making the bank a modern client-oriented credit institution. He outlined this goal as follows: “We must prove that elephants can dance!”

Hobbies

Enjoys running. Before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he participated in the final stage of the Olympic torch relay.

After joining Sberbank, he obliged top management to visit the corporate sports hall and swimming pool before meetings on Saturdays and resumed the tradition of holding corporate sports days - savings days - that was fading in the company.

Family

At the moment, he is married with a second marriage, his wife, Yana, is the founder of the Khoroshevskaya gymnasium, which includes a kindergarten and an elementary school. She is a designer by training.

The couple was remembered for a very beautiful and magnificent wedding ceremony in April 2004, for which the Grand Palace was rented in Peterhof.

He has three children. Eldest son from first marriage.

Biographies of family members

Yana Vladimirovna (wife)

She was born on August 5, 1975. Maiden name - Golovina, after her first husband - Glumova. According to Yana herself, she received an economic education and worked for some time in her specialty.

Family

German Gref is married for the second time. His wife Yana Golovina- designer. Their wedding took place in the throne room at Peterhof. A daughter was born from this marriage in 2006, and a second child in 2008.

Since 2008, the mother of Gref's wife, Tatyana Golovina, has been running the Rus sanatorium in Gelendzhik, owned by a state-owned company. "Transneft". Since 2008, the sanatorium "Rus" has transferred its accounts to Sberbank.

Gref's son from his first marriage Oleg, who graduated from Moscow State University in 2004, works as vice president of a consulting company accredited by Sberbank "NEO Center", which was seen in a number of corporate conflicts of Sberbank.

Older brother Evgeny Gref- a businessman in Omsk, co-owner of the Technosophy, Sibir-keramika chain stores, Geomart and Letur shopping centers. In 2008, Sberbank issued him a loan in the amount of 500 million rubles.

Older sister of German Gref Elena Peredriy after graduating from the pedagogical institute, she married Sergei Peredriy, and moved to live in Nakhodka. Owns a large stake in the bank "Primorye" family owned Sergei Darkin, who has been the Governor of Primorsky Krai since 2001, and since 2012 - Deputy Minister of Regional Development of the Russian Federation.

Daughter of Herman Gref's sister, Olga Tyshchenko works as the chief specialist of the HR department of Sberbank. Niece (brother's daughter) Evgenia Gref has been with the company since 2009 Krasnov design serving Sberbank. The owner of the company - Boris Krasnov in 2011 was involved in a criminal case - racketeering, a number of the accused in this criminal case were arrested.

Parents: Oscar Gref and Emilia Gref (dev.Koch). The family of G. Gref's father was exiled to Kazakhstan in 1941 from Donbass, the mother's family was expelled from Leningrad. Gref's father was an engineer, he developed the power supply system for his village. He died when Herman was only one and a half years old. The grandmother helped raise the children. Mother worked in the village council as an economist, was considered a good specialist and organizer. According to some reports, her father, a professor of philology, came to Russia at the beginning of the century to St. Petersburg to teach Greek philosophy.

Biography

German Gref was born on February 8, 1964 in the village of Panfilovo, Irtysh district, Pavlodar region, Kazakh SSR, in a family of ethnic Germans. He studied at school for threes and fours, he didn’t particularly shine with talents.

In 1981-1982 he worked as a legal adviser to the district agricultural department of the Irtysh district of Pavlodar region.

In 1982-1984 he served in the Armed Forces of the USSR, in parts of the special forces of the internal troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Having benefits after the army, he entered Omsk State University.

In 1990 - graduated from the Faculty of Law of Omsk State University with a degree in jurisprudence. One of Herman's teachers was Burbulis.

In 1990 he moved to St. Petersburg, where in 1990-1993 he studied at the graduate school of the Faculty of Law Leningrad University, but did not defend his dissertation in those years. He defended himself in 2011 in Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation on the topic: "Development and Prospects for Structural Institutional Reforms in the Russian Economy". In the 90s, Herman met the mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak And Vladimir Putin who worked at City Hall.

1991: Served as legal adviser to the Administration's Economic Development and Property Committee Petrodvorets(Saint Petersburg).

In 1992, he worked as the head of the Petrodvorets regional agency of the Property Management Committee of the Administration of the City of St. Petersburg, Chairman of the Property Management Committee - Deputy Head of the Administration of the Petrodvorets District of St. Petersburg.

1994 - Deputy Chairman - Director of the Department of Real Estate, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the Management of City Property of the Administration (KUGI) of St. Petersburg. Activities in the KUGI (from 1994 to 1997) were severely criticized by the opposition media. He was accused of the failure of the reform of housing and communal services in St. Petersburg, a sharp increase in rents and the illegal privatization of historical sites in the city.

In 1997, he became vice-governor, chairman of the City Property Management Committee of the Administration (KUGI) of St. Petersburg, member of the board of directors JSC "Lenenergo".

1998 Works as a member of the Board of the Ministry of State Property of the Russian Federation, First Deputy Minister of State Property Russian Federation.

1999 - Member of the Board of the Federal Commission for the Securities Market, Head "Center for Strategic Research". During the formation of the Cabinet, German Gref was invited to the post of Minister of Economic Development created especially for him.

This ministry arose through the merger of the Ministry of Trade of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation. German Gref lobbied for Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization ( WTO). He was a member of the board of directors of many state-owned companies ( "Gazprom", "Svyazinvest" and etc.).

On February 24, 2004, the Kasyanov government was dismissed, Gref also resigned from the post of minister. As a minister, Gref served on the boards of directors and supervisory boards of a number of companies with state participation as a representative of the state.

On July 3, 2000, he was appointed manager from the Russian Federation in European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

In early March 2004, a government was formed Fradkov, in which German Oskarovich again headed the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation. On May 7, just two months later, this government resigned. newly elected V.Putin appointed Mikhail Fradkov as Prime Minister again, and in Fradkov's second government, German Gref retained his portfolio.

Minister of Economy and Trade German Gref was considered one of the brightest representatives liberal wing in the government. He was a supporter of radical market reforms and the withdrawal of the state from business.

It was for the implementation of these ideas that V. Putin invited him to the government. In the government, however, Gref had to maneuver between various power groups more than other liberals. He has been called the most controversial figure in the liberal government.

In the field of economics, among his merits is the creation free economic zones, consistent support for electricity reform and tax reform (for example, before leaving his ministerial post, German Gref predicted a target VAT rate of 15% instead of the current 18%).

Gref's confrontation with, who suggested not rushing into tax reform, is known, but ex-premier Kasyanov pushed Gref towards greater radicalism.

The conflict of interest sometimes escalated so much that Gref, despite the special confidence of the president, resigned more than once, but the president refused him.

As a minister, Gref actively participated in the promotion Sochi as the venue for the 2014 Olympics. Under him, the Ministry of Economic Development oversaw the federal target program "Development of the city of Sochi as a mountain-climatic resort until 2014", which was later transferred to the Ministry of Regional Development.

On September 12, 2007, Prime Minister Fradkov asked Vladimir Putin to resign the government. The president accepted the resignation of the government and together with the government Gref also resigned.

From October 2007 to the present German Gref - Chairman of the Board Sberbank of Russia. former head of the bank Andrey Kazmin was transferred to work in Russian Post, which caused dissatisfaction with the leading managers of the bank, who voted against Gref.

The costly rebranding of Sberbank, carried out by Gref in the conditions of the economic crisis, caused a wave of indignation in the media. In addition, being a supporter of the idea of ​​privatizing state-owned banks, G. Gref is in favor of reducing the share CB in the authorized capital of the bank up to 50% + 1 share from the current 57.6%. However, while the Russian government is in no hurry to privatize Sberbank.

In October 2011, German Gref was noted by Forbes magazine as one of the nine most unusual Russian businessmen - crazy people, eccentrics and eccentrics.

2014: at a meeting in Public Chamber on energy issues, Gref stated: " Sanctions added to the negative, but let's not blame everything on the sanctions. We have a lot of our own problems, we would have had either zero or negative growth next year without any sanctions. Therefore, the question is in us, not in sanctions".

German Gref denied the information that appeared on the Internet about speculation allegedly carried out by his bank in the foreign exchange market. He assured that twice a day he sends to the Central Bank a complete detailed report on his operations in the international interbank Forex market, where large banks buy currency for their needs.

Thus, he came into conflict with the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Alexey Ulyukaev who stated: " All participants in the foreign exchange market speculate. One way or another, they open currency positions in order to earn money. I guess it's called speculation".

On August 10, 2015, the Government Office redirected the deputy's request Vyacheslav Tetekin() V Ministry of Finance of Russia.

Earlier, on August 4, the deputy sent a letter to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev in connection with the refusal of the head of the Russian Sberbank German Gref to recognize Crimea part of Russia.

"According to media reports, the head of the Russian Sberbank, German Gref, in an interview with the German radio station WDR 5, said that the department he heads did not plan and does not plan to enter the Crimean peninsula while it is part of the Russian Federation. In particular, when asked by the moderator why there are no representative offices of the Russian Sberbank in Crimea, Mr. Gref replied: “Because Crimea is the territory of Ukraine, from the point of view of the international financial sector, and we adhere to this position. Sberbank Crimea is not Russia", - wrote Tetyokin.

German Gref is equally fluent in Russian and German, loves Goethe and the German Expressionists.

Income

In May-June 2010, it became known that Gref became the owner of 0.0007% of ordinary shares OJSC "Sberbank of Russia", while its share in the authorized capital of the bank amounted to 0.0006%. Previously, G. Gref did not own the bank's shares. In October 2011, he increased his share of ordinary shares to 0.003%, and his participation in the bank's authorized capital to 0.0031%.

In 2013, he entered the top 5 of the Forbes list (5th place) of the most expensive managers in Russia. His income over the past year amounted to $ 15 million. The share of shares of Sberbank of Russia, owned by G. O. Gref: 0.003096% (package price - $ 2.19 million).

Scandals, rumors

While still the head of the State Property of St. Petersburg, German Oskarovich was involved in four criminal cases at once. Moreover, all these cases were associated with millions of dollars: In one case, Gref was suspected of illegally privatizing the palace Prince Gorchakov, in the materials of another - they were accused of taking a bribe, but the criminal case was closed, since the only witness was killed. The third criminal case was connected with Gref's interference in the activities of the joint-stock company, and, finally, the fourth - with the "black" redistribution in the real estate market of St. Petersburg.

The media wrote a lot about a strange story: a week before the resignation of the Fradkov government, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, still headed by Gref, invested in a project for the production of integrated circuits at one of the factories near Moscow. The project itself is ordinary, but the amount is amazing - one billion euros, and the fact that the project was approved in just a week.

According to a number of media outlets, German Gref is associated with "close business relations" with the recipients of the money, so a billion euros was considered a "severance pay" for the minister.

Many scandals arose already when Gref was a banker. So, the electronic system of Sberbank installed last year - the most expensive and largest in Russia - fell several times. Moreover, the latest failure coincided with the launch of new and widely advertised software. The reason was an extremely expensive, and at the same time, incompatible product from different manufacturers.

In 2008–2009, the entrepreneur Vachevsky received a number of loans from Sberbank totaling more than 700 million rubles. The money was not returned on time and the accounts payable were recognized as a "problem asset". The problem was entrusted to the appropriate department of the Central Russian Bank of Sberbank.

In the summer of 2012, an intermediary came out on the Vachevsky - Denis Vasekha, who said that he had serious connections in Sberbank and offered him to "settle" the debt for 100 million rubles. Vachevsky agreed for the sake of appearances, but he turned to FSB with an extortion claim. Further conversations with Vasyakha and Sberbank employees were under the control of operatives and were recorded. Upon receiving a copy of the payment for the transfer of the first tranche of 60 million rubles, the extortionist was detained right at the head office of Sberbank on Vavilov Street in Moscow. Later, his accomplices, bank managers, were also arrested.

Formally, Sberbank took a neutral position in the case of the detention of its managers. But, according to some reports, he gave them tacit support. At the end of last year, the head of Sberbank German Gref appealed to the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the metropolitan police with a statement about initiating a criminal case against Konstantin Vachevsky for embezzling 700 million rubles, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to initiate a case. As a result, the management of Sberbank was forced to admit that the credit institution was harmed by the actions of its own regional managers.

According to experts, the problems of Sberbank of Russia are caused not so much by low-quality software, or scammers in regional branches, but by the complete incompetence of top management.

As you know, German Gref, not an economist by education, and before his appointment did not work in banking structures for a single day, but he changed all the top managers in the bank. Instead, business partners, or simply Gref's relatives, were appointed to responsible positions in the bank or its affiliated structures.

All close relatives of German Oskarovich are very well arranged: his wife, Yana Golovina, conducts a joint business with her ex-wife and top manager of the corporation AFK Sistema. His sister is a business partner of the ex-governor of Primorsky Krai Sergei Darkin. Her husband was vice governor of Primorsky Krai, but resigned in 2006 in connection with a housing finance audit scandal. It turned out that utility bills received from the population of the region were transferred to the accounts of the governor's wife Larisa Belobrova, Vice Governor Sergei Peredria and his wife Elena Peredriy.

Gref's older brother is one of the largest retailers in Omsk, having loans from Sberbank for any amount and on the most favorable terms. The niece organizes corporate parties at exorbitant prices for bank employees, and even the mother-in-law at one time entered into a working conflict with the daughter of the Saratov governor Pavel Ipatov.

German Gref's son Oleg is a co-owner of the NEO Center consulting company, which is a partner appraiser at Sberbank. A number of high-profile scandals are connected with this firm, first of all, with the deliberate underestimation of the value of pledged assets by NEO Center and their sale for next to nothing in favor of the Gref family. All these schemes, unlike ATM software, work flawlessly.

Gref is often charged with non-traditional sexual orientation.

"The head of the Savings Bank of Russia Gref is a person of homosexual orientation", - the leader of Gay Pride said about him Nikolay Alekseev.

In January 2016, a whole socio-political campaign was launched against German Gref.

Speaking at the Gaidar Forum, Gref made a sharp criticism of the domestic economy and called Russia a "technically enslaved country" and a "downshifter country." Gref's statement immediately caused a wide resonance.

A number of politicians accused Gref of being Russophobic and refusing to admit his own mistakes in the past. In The Other Russia, Gref was called a "liberal dwarf" and demanded that he be dismissed.

Member of the Federation Council Igor Morozov generally called the head of Sberbank German Gref a "washed cattle."

The head of Sberbank, the main credit institution of the Russian Federation, German Oskarovich Gref has gone from a lawyer in a remote village of the Kazakh SSR to key positions in leading national enterprises and government agencies. Among them, Lukoil, Yandex, Transneft, Gazprom, the Center for Strategic Research and the chair of the head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

As Minister of Economic Development and Trade, he became famous for developing conceptual ideas. Among Gref's initiatives, a prominent place was occupied by the creation of free economic zones, the reform of the electric power industry, and the sphere of taxation.

Having headed Sberbank, Gref was included in the Forbes magazine list of the nine most unusual Russian businessmen who act non-standard and, at first glance, strange and reckless, among them Evgeny Chichvarkin, founder of Euroset, Pavel Durov, creator of the VKontakte social network, Oleg Tinkov , the owner of the Tinkoff brand and others.

Childhood and youth of German Gref

The future chief "strategist" and banker of the country was born on February 8, 1964 in the village. Panfilovo, Irtysh district, Pavlodar region, in a family of German exiles. Therefore, their children - Eugene, Elena and his youngest son - were taught by their parents to speak two languages ​​at once, their ancestors and their homeland, German and Russian.

The head of the family, Oscar Fedorovich, worked as an engineer responsible for the power supply of the village, mother, Emilia Filippovna, worked as an economist in the village council. When Herman was only one and a half years old, his father died, he died. His grandmother helped raise the children of his mother.

Gref was an obedient and tidy child, he studied well at school, but not brilliantly, he was persistent and able to achieve his goals thanks to his inherited pedantry.

Having received secondary education, he worked as a legal adviser in the district agricultural department. Since 1982 he served in the Soviet army (special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs). Its part was stationed in the Kuibyshev region.

Then the young man entered the law faculty of Omsk State University. F.M. Dostoevsky. After receiving higher education in 1990, Gref was left at his university to teach. At the same time, German became a graduate student at Leningrad University, but according to the results of his studies, he did not defend his Ph.D. thesis (Gref passed his Ph.D.

Herman Gref's career in Leningrad

Herman's scientific adviser in graduate school was the mayor of the Northern capital, a well-known political figure Anatoly Sobchak. He introduced Herman, who clearly has professional and personal potential, into the administration of the Petrodvortsovsky district of the city.

Since 1991, his rapid promotion through the ranks began. He held a number of senior positions - head of the property management committee, legal adviser, head of department, deputy chairman, head of the KUGI.

Working in the power structures of the Northern capital, Gref was familiar with Vladimir Putin, as well as with other iconic officials, in particular, Dmitry Medvedev.

German Gref in government agencies

In 1998, German Oskarovich joined the collegium of the Ministry of State Property, was the first deputy head of this department.

German Gref in the Pozner program

The next year was no less busy with appointments to key positions for the young politician. Among them, membership in the board of the Federal Commission for the Securities Market, election to the board of directors of Gazprom, Svyazinvest, management of the Center for Strategic Research.

After Putin's victory in the election of the country's leader, Gref was invited to the government as the head of the newly created Ministry of Economic Development and Trade under him (by merging separately existing departments). He retained his position even during the change of executive power, gaining recognition in "political universality".

German Gref and Sberbank

On the recommendation of the Supervisory Board of the main financial institution of the Russian Federation, in 2007 German Oskarovich was elected its president and chairman of the board.

His team has expanded the circle of clients conducting payment transactions via the Internet, involved pensioners in the progress of the mass development of plastic cards and other advanced technologies, and introduced a private banking service for wealthy citizens.

Gref ordered his top managers to visit the corporate gym and swimming pool, and resumed the previously existing tradition of organizing savings bank events.

Personal life of German Gref

The first wife of the financier was Elena Velikanova, the first beauty of his school. Young people got married immediately after receiving secondary education. Soon their son Oleg was born, but the marriage did not last long.

The banker's current wife, Yana (nee Golovina, Glumov's previous marriage), works as a designer. Their wedding celebration in 2004 was held in one of the halls of Peterhof. In 2006, they had a daughter, two years later - the second child.

Gref is a Catholic, loves the German expressionists (Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde and others), and also reread the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

German Gref now

At the annual meeting of shareholders held in May 2015, Gref's powers as the head of the country's main credit institution were extended until 2019.

During the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (June 2015), at the first panel session "Economy: Honest Answers to Topical Questions", Gref critically assessed the work of the government. In his opinion, the crisis in the economy is always the result of poor management, therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers does not make new decisions quickly enough and does not respond promptly to changes in the economic situation.

In the summer of 2015, German Oskarovich demonstrated his human qualities from the best side. The financier adequately got out of the situation in connection with an open letter to him from the writer Samuil Lurie, who suffers from cancer and is undergoing treatment in the United States. The appeal from across the ocean dealt with an incident that occurred with the writer's sister, who was not given the pension due to Lurie at the Sberbank of St. Petersburg according to a power of attorney certified by the consulate.

German Gref on macroeconomics and sanctions

Gref replied to Samuil Aronovich that his pension had been issued to his sister and, despite the presence in the received message of some harshness towards the employees of the bank he headed, he apologized to the writer for the misunderstanding, deserving universal respect for his act.