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Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index

⬅ # 61 Jeff Yass|# 63 Masayoshi Son ➡

# 62 Leonid Mikhelson 

$27.9B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 5/13/2024
$491 (0.00%)

# 62 Leonid Mikhelson 

$27.9B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 5/13/2024
$491 (0.00%)
OccupationChair and CEO, Novatek
Source of WealthGas, Chemicals
Age68
ResidenceMoscow, Russia
Marital StatusMarried
Children2
EducationMS in Engineering, Kuybyshev Engineering and Construction Institute
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$16.2B
Leonid Mikhelson
Leonid Mikhelson
Russia
Net worth: $27.9B

Self-Made Score 

Wealth History

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Biography

Overview

Leonid Viktorovich Mikhelson was born on August 11, 1955, in the Soviet Union and is a Russian-Israeli billionaire businessman.
He is the CEO, chairman, and major shareholder of the Russian gas company Novatek.
Mikhelson obtained a stake in a privatized pipeline construction company after the collapse of the Soviet Union, forming Novatek.
He is a business partner of Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko, a close confidante of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Early Career and Education

Born to an Ashkenazi Jewish family, Mikhelson graduated with a degree in Industrial Civil Engineering from the Samara Institute of Civil Engineering in 1977.
He started his career as a foreman at a construction and assembling company in Siberia, working on projects such as the Urengoi-Chelyabinsk gas pipeline.
In 1987, Mikhelson became General Director of Kuibishevtruboprovodstroy, one of the first companies to undergo privatization after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Professional Career

Mikhelson served as Managing Director at NOVA, later known as NOVATEK, until October 1994.
He became General Director of Novafinivest, later known as NOVATEK, and served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for OAO Stroytransgas and OOO Art Finance from 2008 to 2010.
He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of ZAO SIBUR and serves on the Supervisory Board of OAO Russian Regional Development Bank.
Mikhelson owns a 57.5% interest in SIBUR and a 25% stake in Novatek.

Notable Partnerships and Achievements

Mikhelson frequently partners with Gennady Timchenko on business and investment projects, being majority shareholders in Novatek and SIBUR.
In 2012, he was listed as the second-richest Russian, and Mikhelson and Novatek are main sponsors of the Russian Football Union.
He is a recipient of the Russian Federation's Order of the Badge of Honor.

Art and Philanthropy

Mikhelson has a strong interest in Russian and contemporary art.
He established the V-A-C Foundation, promoting contemporary Russian art with international ties to institutions such as the New Museum in New York and the Tate museums in the UK.
The foundation opened an exhibition space in Venice in 2017, and a major art center in Moscow is scheduled to open in 2021.

Personal Life

Mikhelson is married, has two children, and resides in Moscow.
His daughter Victoria studied art history at New York University and London's Courtauld Institute.
Mikhelson holds Israeli citizenship.

Sanctions

Mikhelson is among the Russian 'oligarchs' named in the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) signed into law in 2017.
He was sanctioned by the British government in 2022 in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

How long would it take you to become as rich as Leonid Mikhelson?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 44.01% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Leonid Mikhelson's net worth of $27.9B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 40.45% compared to 10.08% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

Enter data in all but one field below, then calculate the missing value

Leonid Mikhelson is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Leonid Mikhelson, Gas and Chemicals are the primary sources. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Edited by: Lee Bailey