German Gref (Ãåðìàí Îñêàðîâè÷ Ãðåô) was born on Feb. 8, 1964, at Panfilovo, Kazakh S.S.R. Gref's ethnic German parents were deported to Kazakhstan from the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine in 1941.

Education: Law, Omsk State University, 1990. Ph.D. in law, Leningrad State University, 1993. (The university was reverted to its pre-revolutionary name, St. Petersburg State University, in 1991.)

1982-1984: Served in the Interior Ministry's special forces

1990: Moved to St. Petersburg to teach law at his alma mater

1991-1992: First rank legal adviser to the Committee for Economic Development and Property, Administration of Petrodvoretz, St. Petersburg. His colleagues in the St. Petersburg city government in the 1990s included Anatoly Sobchak, Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, Alexei Kudrin and Dmitry Kozak.

1992-1994: Chairman of the Property Committee and deputy head of the administration of the Petrodvoretz region in the St. Petersburg Mayor’s Office

1994-1997: Worked on the Economic Development and Property Committee of the St. Petersburg Mayor’s Office, rising to chairman

1997-1998: Vice governor and chairman of the City Property Committee in the St. Petersburg Mayor’s Office

1998-2000: First deputy minister of the Ministry of State Property

1999: Appointed to the boards of Gazprom and the Federal Commission for the Russian Securities Market

2000-2007: Minister for Economic Development and Trade. Gref is considered an economic liberal, a strong supporter of private property and a limited government role in the economy. He supported Russia's entrance into the WTO.

November 2007-present: Chairman of the board and CEO of Sberbank

June 2009: Joined the board of LUKoil

Gref has been married twice and has two children.