Web-site: http://rusal.ru/en/

Education: Nuclear physics, Moscow State University, 1993. Economics, Plekhanov Academy of Economics, 1996.

1994: Director general of the Sayanogorsk aluminum smelter, a Siberian smelter. Deripaska used his earnings from commodity trading to buy a large stake in the company during the privatizations of the early 1990s.

Throughout the mid-1990s, several groups vied for control of Russia's aluminum industry. Contract killings and unsolved murders associated with this struggle have led it to be dubbed the “aluminum wars." Deripaska picked up his assets — including some of the country's biggest smelters — during this period, a legacy that has dogged his efforts to expand his business globally.

1997: Initiated the creation of the Siberian Aluminum Group. Three years after its inception, the company became one of the world's top 10 aluminum producers.

2000-2003: Director general of Russian Aluminum (RusAl), which was set up by shareholders in Siberian Aluminum and oil giant Sibneft (story)

2001: Siberian Aluminum Group was renamed Basic Element. In addition to RusAl, Basic Element owns automobile manufacturer GAZ and aircraft manufacturer Aviacor. Deripaska is Basic Element's CEO.

2005: Founds Volnoye Delo, a charitable fund

July 2006: While Deripaska was involved in a bid to buy the Daimler Chrysler Group, it was reported that the United States canceled his entry visa over concerns with his possible links to organized crime going back to the aluminum wars of the 1990s. He hired the law firm Alston & Bird to help resolve his visa problems, and was subsequently granted a visa. In 2010, it was reported that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had asked U.S. lobbying firm Endeavor Group to help Deripaska obtain a visa (story).

2007: RusAl, the SUAL Group and alumina assets of Glencore International were merged to create United Company RusAl, the world's largest aluminum producer.

2008: Bought a 25 percent stake in Norilsk Nickel from billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov

May 2008: Deripaska's former business partner Michael Cherney sued the metals magnate for at least $3 billion for failing to honor an agreement concerning stakes in aluminum companies (story)

October 2008: Former European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson was criticized for maintaining "unwise" private contacts with Russian billionaires after it emerged that he had vacationed in August 2008 on Deripaska's yacht. Mandelson oversaw two significant cuts in European aluminum duties during his four-year tenure as commissioner but denied any conflict of interest (story).

January 2009-present: CEO of United Company RusAl.

Deripaska is vice president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs; chairman of the executive board of the Russian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship Council, a Russian government agency. He is also a member of the boards of trustees of the National Science Support Foundation, the Bolshoi Theater and the schools of business administration of Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University.

In 2010, Forbes estimated his net worth at $10.7 billion, making him the world's 57th wealthiest person (story).

Deripaska is married to Polina Yumasheva, daughter of Valentin Yumashev, formerly a close aide to President Boris Yeltsin; the couple have two children. Yumashev married Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana, making Polina the step-granddaughter of Yeltsin, and Deripaska a member of the Yeltsin family through marriage.