About Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Prior to his arrest, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was known throughout the world as Russia's most successful businessman. He was also a pioneering modern Russian philanthropist. He fought corruption, encouraged foreign investment, promoted civil society, and sought to integrate Russia into the global community. Khodorkovsky is a patriot whose continued imprisonment shines a spotlight on legal nihilism in Russia under Presidents Putin and Medvedev.
Personal & Business History
Mikhail Khodorkovsky was born on June 26, 1963, in Moscow. He is married and has four children. His parents, Boris and Marina, worked as chemical engineers, earning modest salaries. He later went on to become one of the most successful businessmen in Russia as head of Yukos. Click here to read more.
Philanthropy
Mikhail Khodorkovsky's investments in corporate and individual philanthropy were unparalleled in Russia at the time of his arrest. Click here to read more.
Progressive Thinking
Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev are widely regarded as the first Russian businessmen to introduce principles of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility into Russia's business culture. Click here to read more.
In His Words
Mikhail Khodorkovsky has long been outspoken on issues of national importance in Russia and since his imprisonment he has continued to be a high-profile commentator, writing numerous articles in leading national and international publications such as the International Herald Tribune, The Guardian, The New Times, and Vedomosti. Click here to read more.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky was born on June 26, 1963, in Moscow. His parents, Boris and Marina, worked as chemical engineers, earning modest salaries. Following in his parents' footsteps, Khodorkovsky studied chemical engineering and graduated in 1986 from Moscow's Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technologies. Khodorkovsky also studied at the Plekhanov Institute of Economy, Russia's top economic management school, as well as at the Institute of Law.
In 1987, at the age of 24, Khodorkovsky founded the Youth Center for Scientific and Technical Development to conduct market research for large manufacturers and introduce them to new technologies. In 1989, together with his business partners, he founded one of the first commercial banks in Russia, later known as Bank MENATEP.
In 1994, Bank MENATEP's board of directors decided to expand its business model to form a diversified industrial group called ROSPROM, which managed the transition of more than 100 large manufacturers from the Soviet economic model to free enterprise. In 1997, Group MENATEP Limited was established as a holding company, which later acquired a majority interest in the Yukos Oil Company.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky built Yukos into one of the most successful businesses in Russia by bringing in leading talent and the best innovation and modernization practices known in the oil industry. He introduced modern technology and management into what had been a nearly bankrupt Soviet-style energy producer.
At the time of his arrest in October 2003, Mikhail Khodorkovsky had transformed Yukos into one of the most efficient, profitable, transparent, and fastest growing companies in Russia. In 2003, Yukos pumped more than 2 million barrels of oil per day, amounting to 2% of the world's supply. Yukos was the largest taxpayer in Russia, after the state gas company Gazprom.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky is married and has four children.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky's investment in corporate and individual philanthropy was unparalleled in Russia at the time before his arrest. Khodorkovsky helped introduce the concept of corporate social responsibility to the Russian business community.
In 1994 Khodorkovsky founded the Podmoskovny Lyceum. Located on an 18th-century estate outside of Moscow, the Lyceum provides a rigorous education to 130 underprivileged children, including victims of the Beslan school massacre.
Students hail from around the country and include orphans, victims of terrorism and children of military servicemen. Highly qualified staff are dedicated to creating a caring atmosphere and providing the best opportunities for each of the children, with the primary goal of helping students qualify for a state grant to attend university in Russia. Since Khodorkovsky's arrest, to discourage attendance at the lyceum, Russian authorities have targeted families of students there with large tax assessments based on the value of the schooling received. This shows the extreme lengths to which the authorities will go to ensure the destruction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's legacy.
In 2001, Khodorkovsky took a personal interest in the organization and operations of his main philanthropic vehicle, the Open Russia Foundation. Before Open Russia was closed by the Russian Government in 2006 as part of the campaign against Khodorkovsky, it was one of Russia's largest foundations, donating over $15 million a year to a wide variety of civic and charitable groups and institutions. Its programs were diversified across education and science, public health, leadership and cultural development, and support for local communities around Yukos production facilities.
Khodorkovsky also funded Open Russia in London, which supported cultural and exchange programs designed to increase awareness and understanding between the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom.
Prior to Khodorkovsky's arrest, even highly-placed government officials noted the significance of his philanthropic efforts. In 2000, then-Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matvienko stated, "I call upon other companies in Russia to follow Yukos's example in the country's social sphere."
Even after his arrest, Khodorkovsky continues to promote the development of civil society in Russia, to support the establishment of the rule of law, and to strengthen the EU-Russia & US-Russia relationships.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev are widely regarded as the first Russian businessmen to introduce principles of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility into Russia's business culture.
Some of Yukos's progressive business practices included:
- Adopting a Corporate Governance Charter at Yukos;
- Introducing US Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP) accounting standards and disclosure practices (a first in Russia);
- Hiring industry-leading managers in order to take advantage of corporate management best practices and technologies;
- Appointing distinguished international oil industry executives and experts to the company's Board of Directors;
- Growing Yukos through mergers and acquisitions as well as organic internal growth;
- Introducing some of the most advanced technologies available in the petroleum industry to the company by hiring leading global petroleum service companies.
With these and other reforms taking effect, the listing of company shares as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the New York Stock Exchange, and world oil prices increasing, Yukos's market capitalization grew by 500% between 2001 and 2003. Before Khodorkovsky's arrest, Yukos was regarded as the most progressive large corporation in Russia in terms of benefits and salaries, hiring practices, and opportunities to rise within the company.
Many of the corporate governance and management policies that Khodorkovsky adopted and implemented at Yukos were not just industry-leading, but were the first of their kind in Russia. The Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote at the time that:
"Yukos is a company with management philosophy that is totally different from that of the old oil barons. It is the philosophy based on the studies of Western experience. And it practically does not trace its origins to the Soviet-type economy".
Khodorkovsky sought to engage partners including other international oil players. He also boldly criticized the opaque conduct of state-owned business, particularly in the energy sector.
In 2001, Khodorkovsky met with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and signed the UN's Global Compact, which obligated Yukos to observe international standards in the areas of human rights, labor, and the environment. Yukos was the first Russian company to sign the Global Compact, and Khodorkovsky hoped it would become an example; he called on Gazprom, Rosneft, Transneft, and other Russian companies to improve their transparency and adopt similar practices (as of 2011, they had not done so).
Mikhail Khodorkovsky has long been an outspoken and prominent voice in Russia and, since his imprisonment, he has continued to be a high-profile social commentator, penning numerous articles in leading national and international publications such as the International Herald Tribune, The Guardian, The New Times, and Vedomosti, in spite of punishment leveled against him by prison authorities for doing so. Meanwhile, his letters with Russian novelist Lyudmilla Ulitskaya received a literary award from Znamya Magazine.
Khodorkovsky has decried rampant corruption in Russia and championed a bold vision for harmonizing Russian business with the rest of the world.
During his first trial he denounced the proceedings as based on "conjecture and falsification" designed to prevent him from "obstruct[ing] the plundering of the company [Yukos]." Noting he could have left Russia before his arrest but stayed "because I love Russia and believe in its future as a strong and law-governed state," Khodorkovsky called on the appeals court to render a just decision by saying: "I have done my duty before my country: I have remained here and lost everything. Please do yours."
Khodorkovsky has also written extensively about social, political, and economic dynamics in Russia. Ever defiant and articulate from his jail cell, even when punished with solitary confinement after making statements and giving interviews in publications such as Russian Esquire and the Financial Times, Khodorkovsky continues to reject the charges brought against him as a "shameful farce." In reacting to the December 2010 verdict in his second trial, Khodorkovsky stated:
"I consider the verdict of the Khamovnichesky Court to be not based on the circumstances established in the course of the present trial, as well as circumstances established by court decisions that have entered into legal force. In particular, as concerns the mandatory feature of direct harm, the court's arguments about the theft by me of all the oil produced by the subsidiary enterprises of Yukos from 1998 through 2003 by way of embezzlement contradict the established fact that these same enterprises received a profit from the sale of that same oil."