A former partner of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, Guryev helped expand Phosagro OAO into Europe’s largest maker of phosphate fertilizers, and did so while sitting in the upper house of parliament for more than a decade.
Guryev controls a fortune valued at $4.5 billion. Khodorkovsky, the former main owner of Yukos Oil Co., was convicted of tax evasion, money laundering and oil embezzlement in 2005. He has maintained his innocence, saying the charges against him were retribution for financing political parties that opposed Putin, an allegation the government denies. He spent a decade in prison and now lives in exile in Switzerland.
Guryev declined to comment. Olga Pispanen, a spokeswoman for Khodorkovsky, said he declined to comment.
Passing Control
Guryev quit politics in 2013 as a series of measures designed to force officials to repatriate overseas assets was being debated and passed control of his London-listed company to his son, Andrey Guryev Jr., appointing him to be its chief executive officer. To ensure a smooth transition, Guryev, 55, became deputy chairman to oversee the company’s strategy.
“I talk with my father very often,” Guryev Jr., 33, who graduated from University of Greenwich in London, said in an interview. “It would be difficult for me if he didn’t supervise the company’s management.”
David Yakobachvili is taking a similar approach. The 58- year-old businessman sold a majority stake he held with three partners in juice producer Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods to PepsiCo in 2010 for $3.8 billion. His son, Mikhail, moved back to Moscow after graduating from New York University last year to learn the nuances of investing from his dad.
Real Life
“The university of real life is the most useful,” Yakobachvili said. “The more my son sees, the better.”
He said his son helped negotiate the sale of 49 percent of his energy company, Petrocas Energy Group, to state-run Rosneft for $144 million last December.