Alexander Zhukov (Александр Дмитриевич Жуков) was born on June 1, 1956, in Moscow.

Education: Economics and mathematics, Moscow State University, 1978. Harvard Business School, 1991.

1980-1991: Worked in the Currency and Economics Directorate of the Finance Ministry of the Soviet Union

1991-1993: Vice president of Avtotraktoroeksport

1992: Elected to the State Duma

1998-2004: Chairman of the State Duma Budget and Tax Committee

1999: Candidacy for first deputy prime minister rejected by President Boris Yeltsin. (He was nominated by acting Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin.)

2003-2009: President of the Russian Chess Federation

2004: First deputy prime minister under Mikhail Fradkov (re-appointed in 2008). He oversaw macroeconomic policy, investment, natural monopolies, statistics, insurance and sports.

2004: Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian Railways (RZD)

May 2010: Elected president of the Russian Olympic Committee after Russia's poor performance in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games led then-president Leonid Tyagachev to resign.