Mikhail Dmitrievitch Prokhorov (Russian: Михаи́л Дми́триевич Про́хоров; IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈproxərəf]; born 3 May 1965) is a Russian billionaire, politician, and owner of the American basketball team the Brooklyn Nets. After graduating from the Moscow Finance Institute, he worked in the financial sector and subsequently went on to become one of Russia’s leading industrialists, owning major stakes in multinational corporations in the precious metals sector. While he was running Norilsk Nickel, the company became the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium. He is the former chairman of Polyus Gold, Russia’s largest gold producer, and the former President of Onexim Group. He resigned both positions to enter politics in June 2011.
In December 2011, Prokhorov capped a year of higher-profile political activity in Russia with the December declaration that he would run as an independent candidate in the 2012 Russian presidential election. He was third in the voting, amassing 7.94% of the total vote.[3] In June 2012 he declared the establishment of the new Russian political party called the “Party of Civic Platform”. As of 2017, Forbes estimates his wealth at $8.9 billion.
Early life
Prokhorov was born in Moscow to Tamara and Dmitri Prokhorov. He has one sibling, an elder sister, Irina. His maternal grandmother, Anna Belkina, was a Jewish microbiologist who remained in Moscow during World War II to make vaccines while her daughter Tamara was moved east to safety. His paternal grandparents were relatively wealthy peasant farmers (known as kulaks) who were persecuted as class enemies under the Bolsheviks and again under Stalin. His father, one of eight children, grew up poor, after his family “lost everything and was forced to flee from one part of Siberia and restart life in another”.
Dmitri Prokhorov was trained as a lawyer and handled international relations for the Soviet Committee of Physical Culture and Sport. Tamara Prokhorova was a materials engineer at the Institute for Chemical Machine-Building. As part of his job, Dmitri Prokhorov had the opportunity to travel abroad. His wife worked as an engineer for a research group at the institute specializing in plastics. They died within a year of each other, both from heart disease when they were in their late 50s. Prokhorov remained in their flat, which he shared with his divorced sister and her daughter. He has never married and his sister, who “runs his philanthropic organizations, an erudite literary magazine, and a publishing house…lives in a wing of his mansion west of Moscow”.
In 1989, Prokhorov graduated from the Moscow Finance Institute. From 1989–92, he worked in a management position at the International Bank for Economic Cooperation. Thereafter he shortly served as head of Management Board of the MFK bank (International Finance Company)[citation needed] and then the United Export-Import Bank (Uneximbank; akas: Onexim Bank; Oneksimbank), with Alexander Khloponin, a friend from college, and Vladimir Potanin, to whom he was introduced by Khloponin and who became his business partner.
Mikhail Prokhorov net worth: Mikhail Prokhorov is a Russian entrepreneur who has a net worth $11 billion. Mikhail Prokhorov is also the current owner of the Brooklyn Nets NBA team. Mikhail Prokhorov made his money the new-fashioned Russian way, “acquiring” the formerly state-owned Norilsk Nickel and turning the company into a massive global energy conglomerate. Since selling his stake in Norilsk in 2007, Prokhorov has bounced around the world in private jets investing in hot ladies, the Russian basketball team CSKA and the investment bank Renaissance Capital. He’s also honing his skills as an avid kickboxer and biathlon champion. Mikhail Prokhorov gained headlines after an infamous 2007 Christmas party in the French Alpine town of Courcheval. Prokhorov was detained by French police for four days after allegations that he imported more than 20 Russian prostitutes to party with his friends. He was released without charges but the scandal forced Mikhail to sell off his share of Norilsk. That transaction netted Mikhail a $7 billion profit plus a large stake in an aluminum conglomerate. This turned out to be an extremely lucky turn of events because with in a year the global commodities market collapsed and Norilsk saw it’s share price plummet.
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