Viktor Vekselberg (Âèêòîð Ôåëèêñîâè÷ Âåêñåëüáåðã) was born on April 14, 1957, in Drogobych, Ukraine S.S.R.

Education: Automation and computer engineering, Moscow Railway Transport Engineering Institute (MIIT), 1979. Computing Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Ph.D., mathematics.

1980s: Worked as an engineer

1990: Co-founded the Renova holding company

1996: Became president of aluminum holding company SUAL. In 2003, he was named chairman of the company's board.

1998: Elected deputy director of oil company TNK. From 2002 to 2003, he served as chairman of the company's management board. In 2003, he became managing director for production and technologies.

2004: Bought a collection of Faberge eggs from the Forbes publishing family with the intention of putting them on display in Russia (story)

2007-present: Chairman of the board of directors of United Company RusAl, which was formed by the merger of SUAL, Russian Aluminum and the alumina assets of Glencore

March 2010: Appointed head of the Russian section of the coordination council of the innovation center project in Skolkovo — Russia's "Silicon Valley" — by President Medvedev (story)

October 2010: Swiss investigators closed their investigation into whether Vekselberg and two other investors violated disclosure rules when they built up a stake in industrial group Sulzer after Vekselberg paid compensation. In September 2010, a Swiss court cleared Vekselberg of violating disclosure rules when he built up his stake in Oerlikon, another industrial company (story). The investigation had been opened the previous year.

Vekselberg is currently head of Renova Group as well as a major investor in TNK-BP (billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Len Blavatnik are partners in that venture) and United Company RusAl.

He is a member of the bureau of the management board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), chairman of the RSPP Committee on International Cooperation and a member of the Coordinating Council of the Entrepreneurial Unions of Russia.

As of March 2011, Forbes estimated Vekselberg's net worth at $13 billion, making him the 10th wealthiest person in Russia and the 57th wealthiest person in the world.

He is married and has two children.