Kirill Dmitriev


Kirill A. Dmitriev is the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a $10 billion sovereign wealth fund created by the Russian government to co-invest in the Russian economy alongside the sovereign wealth funds of other countries.

Early life

Kirill Dmitriev was born in 1975 in Kiev, Ukraine. When Dmitriev was 14, he was sent to live with friends of his parents in California, where the host family and Dmitriev convinced administrators at Foothill College to enroll the precocious teenager. In two years, he transferred to Stanford University, from which he holds a BA in economics with high honors. He continued his education at Harvard Business School, where he completed the MBA program, laurelled as a Baker scholar.

Career

Dmitriev worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in New York and a consultant at McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles, Moscow, and Prague, before returning to Russia in 2000. He was an associate at private equity fund Delta Private Equity Partners from 2002 to 2007, while also working for The U.S. Russia Investment Fund. He served as the President of Icon Private Equity from 2007 to 2010.
During his career, Dmitriev worked on the sale of DeltaBank to General Electric, DeltaCredit Bank to Société Générale, CTC Media shares to Fidelity Investments, National Cable Networks to Basic Element, to three investment funds, TV3 to Prof-Media, and NTC to Bank Rossiya.

Russian Direct Investment Fund

In 2011 he was appointed as CEO of a newly created Russian Direct Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund to make equity co-investments in Russia companies. His mission has been described as "to change the face of Russian capitalism" and make the Russian economy less dependent on the petroleum industry by "overcoming western funds’ reluctance to invest in a country many viewed as corrupt, prone to state meddling and plagued by a law-of-the-jungle legal system".
Under his leadership, RDIF has successfully invested with foreign partners in more than 70 projects totaling more than 1.4 trillion rubles and covering 95% of the regions of the Russian Federation. RDIF has established joint strategic partnerships with leading international co-investors from more than 15 countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, China, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Italy, France. Foreign partners have included BlackRock, One Equity Partners, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Bank, Baring Vostok, UFG, Titan International and others.

Other activities

The World Economic Forum selected Dmitriev to be a Young Global Leader, and he was elected as a Vice President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. In 2011 he was the only Russian national to be named one of 100 most influential private equity professionals of the decade by Private Equity International magazine.
Kirill Dmitriev was Chairman of the B20s Investments and Infrastructure Taskforce during the year of the Russian presidency in G20. In November 2012 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Investment Council under the Chairman of the State Duma.
He serves on the Board of Directors of Rostelecom, MDMG, Gazprombank, the Russian Railways, Transneft, Rosseti, and the supervisory board of ALROSA. He is also on the boards of trustees of the Mariinsky Theatre and Moscow State University. He was Chairman of the Russian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association from 2005 to 2006.
In January 2017, Dmitriev met with Erik Prince, the founder of the private military company Blackwater, in the Seychelles. The meeting was convened by the UAE and Prince was understood by the other participants to represent the Donald Trump presidential transition team and Dmitriev was understood to represent the Russian government.
In February 2019 Kirill Dmitriev was one of the first Russian executives and businessmen to personally speak in defence of the detained founder and head of the Baring Vostok Capital Partners Michael Calvey and other detained employees of the investment fund. Dmitriev appealed to Moscow City Court, Moscow's Basmanny district court, and the Russian Investigative Committee, requesting to put detained Michael Calvey and other Baring Vostok employees to house arrest. Later on a court in Moscow released Calvey from pretrial detention and put him to house arrest.

Publications

In November 2008, Dmitriev published an essay entitled, "Crisis: five rules for survival", in the leading Russian business daily Vedomosti, the sister paper of the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, in which he warned that the financial crisis of 2007–08 crisis would be prolonged.

Awards

By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Dmitriev has been awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky 12 June 2017 for his valuable contribution to international investment projects and the socio-economic development of Russia.
By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Dmitriev has been awarded the Order of Honour 16 April 2020 for his valuable contribution to international investment projects and the socio-economic development of Russia.
By the decree of the President of France, Mr. Dmitriev has been awarded the title Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honour 19 November 2018 for his great contribution to strengthening cooperation between Russia and France.
By the order of the King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Mr. Dmitriev has been awarded the King Abdulaziz Second-Class Order of Merit 5 October 2019 for his contribution to strengthening cooperation between the Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia.
By the decree of the President of Italy, Mr. Dmitriev was awarded the title of the Commander of the Order of the Star of Italy 14 May 2020 for his special achievements in the development of friendly relations and cooperation between Italy and Russia.