Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich: biography

Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich, whose biography is described in this article, is the chairman of the board of directors, founder and main shareholder of the Ilim Group company. He has membership in the Presidium of the Russian Union of Businessmen and Entrepreneurs, the Confederation of Timber Industrialists of the North-West Region, and the Board of Trustees of St. Petersburg Technological University. In the ranking of the most influential businessmen is in 37th place. In terms of the size of its controlled capital, it is 52nd in the top 100.

Childhood

The businessman was born in January 1962 in Leningrad. His childhood, his youthful years, his studies, and his whole subsequent life are connected with the city on the Neva. Observing the large-scale successes of Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich (photos are presented below in the article), is it worth talking about diligence and student skills of the future millionaire. If his knowledge were not serious, but his mind was grasping, he would not have entered the institute and graduate school. And would not have made such a dizzying career.

Education

After leaving school, Zakhar Smushkin entered the Leningrad Technological Institute of the Pulp and Paper Industry. As it turned out later, the right direction of all further activities was chosen - the pulp and paper industry. At the age of 20, Zakhar Smushkin graduated from the institute, transferred to the specialized Research Institute "Hydrolysis" in distribution, and combined work with studies in graduate school.

Career

Smushkin combined his postgraduate studies with the work of a research fellow at the Hydrolysprom NGO, where he was sent for distribution after graduation. In 1990, he headed the technical department of the Swedish-Soviet company Technoferm-Engineering.

Joint own business

In the spring of 1992, Smushkin decided to organize his own business. Together with Boris and Mikhail Zingarevich, he organized and registered Ilim Pulp Enterprise CJSC (IPE for short). Exactly half of the shares belonged to Technoferm-Engineering, 40 percent of one of the Swiss companies and 10% of Ust-Ilimsk timber processing complex. The company was small and exported paper products. From 1992 to 2001, Smushkin Zakhar was the CEO of Ilim Pulp Enterprise CJSC. But the owners of the company quickly realized that you won’t make a lot of money from this, and set about creating a forestry holding. And as a result, after a few years, the company already owned 30 small companies involved in the manufacture of timber.

In the period from 1996 to 1998. He was a member of the VTB Supervisory Board. Since 1997, he became a member of the board of directors of Bratsk Timber Industry Complex and Ust-Ilimsk Timber Industry Concern, as well as chairman of the Kotlas Pulp and Paper Mill. Since 2011, he chaired the Ilim Group OJSC. Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich in the same year became a member of the expert council on economic development and investment in the North-West Russian District. In 2004, he was elected to the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and since 2007 he headed the board of directors of Ilim Group.

The main competitors in business

Ilim did not escape corporate wars. In 2002, its co-owners lost control over the key assets of the company - the Bratsk Timber Mill and the Kotlas Pulp and Paper Mill.At the suit of minority shareholders, significant blocks of shares of these plants were returned to the state, and the Russian Federal Property Fund resold them to the Basic Element group of Oleg Deripaska.

The control of Ilim was restored two years later through the court, but the blocking blocks remained with Bazel and were later exchanged by Deripaska for 20% in the Arkhangelsk PPM, the property of Vladimir Kogan. He, in turn, ceded its shares to the co-owners of Ilim Pulp. So Smushkin and the rest of the shareholders managed to defend the interests of their holding.

Charity

Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich collaborates with the World Wide Fund for Nature. In 2012, an agreement was concluded between him and Ilim Group, according to which the company voluntarily abandons timber harvesting in unique forests, which are almost gone on the planet. The boundaries of the territories have been agreed. Verkhnevashkinsky forest area located in the Arkhangelsk region will remain untouched. Now Ilim Group leases this territory. But before the end of the contract expiration date a moratorium was introduced on deforestation there.

Future plans

Of course, the main plans of the entrepreneur are related to the further development of the capacities of his brainchild - an industrial and industrial concern. The Ilim complex occupies the first position in the top of the largest timber companies, and it is important not to lower these positions.

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

Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich: family, hobbies

How much free time can such an energetic person have for his personal life? Smushkin Zakhar Davidovich is married, has a son. Family life is hidden from the media. In the press there are replicas of the businessman’s hobbies with tennis and chess.